American journal of surgery
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Team size and composition provide essential data for the study of operating room (OR) efficiency. ⋯ The surgical team is a dynamic system with a large amount of member turnover. Efforts to improve OR efficiency should focus on decreasing surgical team size, limiting staff turnover, and enhancing communication between team members.
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Recent guidelines do not support local wound exploration (LWE) or diagnostic peritoneal lavage (DPL) in the evaluation of patients with anterior abdominal stab wounds (AASWs), favoring computed tomography scanning or serial examinations. In patients without immediate indications for laparotomy, we hypothesized that LWE/DPL would identify patients requiring surgery while limiting unnecessary hospital admissions. ⋯ Only 11% of patients with AASWs without overt indication for laparotomy require surgical care. LWE remains a valid method to exclude intra-abdominal injury and to eliminate hospitalization in more than one third of AASW patients.