The American surgeon
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The American surgeon · Sep 2011
Biography Historical ArticleGangrene therapy and antisepsis before lister: the civil war contributions of Middleton Goldsmith of Louisville.
It is commonly accepted that Louis Pasteur is the father of microbiology and Joseph Lister is the father of antisepsis. Middleton Goldsmith, a surgeon in the Union Army during the American Civil War, meticulously studied hospital gangrene and developed a revolutionary treatment regimen. The cumulative Civil War hospital gangrene mortality was 45 per cent. Goldsmith's method, which he applied to over 330 cases, yielded a mortality under 3 per cent. His innovative work predated Pasteur and Lister, making his success truly remarkable and worthy of historical and surgical note.
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The American surgeon · Sep 2011
Review Meta AnalysisSutures versus staples for the management of surgical wounds: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Surgical sutures are conventionally used in skin closure of surgical wounds. Alternative wound closure techniques include staples and adhesive strips. We aimed to evaluate sutures versus staples as methods of surgical wound closure by performing a meta-analysis. ⋯ Our findings suggest that staples are associated with fewer wound infections compared with sutures in the evaluated types of surgery. However, in a rather limited number of studies, the use of staples was associated with more pain. Further studies incorporating more objective methods for assessment cosmetic and patient satisfaction are required to clarify this issue.
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The American surgeon · Sep 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyThe surgical safety checklist: lessons learned during implementation.
Procedural checklists may be useful for increasing the reliability of safety-critical processes because of their potential capacity to improve teamwork, situation awareness, and error catching. To test the hypothesized utility and adaptability of checklists to surgical teams, we performed a randomized controlled trial of procedural checklists to determine their capacity to increase the frequency of safety-critical behaviors during 47 laparoscopic cholecystectomies. Ten attending surgeons at an academic tertiary care center were randomized into two equal groups - half of these surgeons received basic team training and used a preprocedural checklist whereas the other half performed standard laparoscopic cholecystectomies. ⋯ Participants in the intervention (checklist) group consistently rated their cases as involving less satisfactory subjective levels of comfort, team efficiency, and communication compared with those performed by surgeons in the control group. Surgical procedural safety checklists have the capacity to increase the frequency of positive team behaviors in the operating room during laparoscopic surgery. Adapting to the use of a procedural checklist may be initially uncomfortable for participants.
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The American surgeon · Sep 2011
Comparative StudyThe diagnostic accuracy of 64-slice computed tomography in detecting clinically significant arterial bleeding after pelvic fractures.
The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the 64-slice multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in detecting active pelvic arterial bleeding associated with blunt pelvic fractures. We hypothesized that this modality yields high accuracy. We conducted a retrospective review of all MDCT detected pelvic fractures over an 18-month period admitted to LAC+ USC Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center. ⋯ The calculated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and overall accuracy of the 64-slice MDCT to identify clinically relevant arterial bleeding were 82, 95, 60, 98, and 94 per cent, respectively. The modern 64-slice MDCT provides relatively high diagnostic accuracy in detecting a clinically relevant arterial hemorrhage after blunt pelvic fracture. Nevertheless, in patients with clinical signs of ongoing hemorrhage, timely angiography or operative intervention is warranted, even in the absence of MDCT contrast extravasation.
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The American surgeon · Sep 2011
Comparative StudyStandard computed tomography of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis is sensitive and cost-effective for the detection of fractures of the shoulder girdle.
Computed tomography of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis (CTCAP) has become the mainstay of diagnosis in stable blunt trauma patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether standard CTCAP has adequate sensitivity to identify fractures of the scapula, clavicle, and humeral head to replace routine radiographs of the shoulder. A retrospective chart review was carried out from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2007, at Morristown Memorial Hospital. ⋯ CTCAP is a sensitive tool for identifying fractures in the shoulder girdle. Therefore, CTCAP can replace the routine radiographs of the shoulder resulting in less total radiation exposure of the trauma patients. This also would lead to lower healthcare cost and better diagnostic workflow.