Medicina
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Comparative Study
[The assessment of clinical evaluation and treatment results of high-energy blunt polytrauma patients].
The aim of this study was to evaluate the mechanism of high-energy blunt trauma, age and gender of patients, severity of regional and multiple injury, ventilation time, length of stay in intensive care unit and in-hospital stay, in-hospital complications, and treatment outcome. ⋯ Working-age male pedestrians (17-64 years old) made up two-thirds of all polytrauma patients. Severe injuries of extremities, head, and chest were present in 69.1% of all cases. Lung complications were the most common.
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Comparative Study
The ability of Lithuanian ambulance services to provide first medical aid in trauma cases.
To evaluate the ability of country ambulance services to provide first medical aid in trauma cases. ⋯ Country ambulance service network configuration according to area under service, number of people served, and response frequency comply with the requirement set. The ambulance vehicles lack complete set up as well as some important supplies. Only rarely the staff is skilled enough to perform such advanced life support procedures as intubation, defibrillation, and pleural drainage.
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Evaluation of hemodynamics in patients with acute myocardial infarction is crucial. In clinical practice, the comparison of a new measurement technique with an established one is often needed to see whether they agree sufficiently for the new to replace the old. Such investigations are often analyzed inappropriately, notably by using correlation coefficients. Our objective is to present an alternative approach, suggested by D. G. Altman and J. M. Bland, based on graphical techniques and simple calculations, for evaluation of the agreement of two methods--intermittent thermodilution (recognized and accepted as a "gold standard" for hemodynamic monitoring) and impedance cardiography (newly introduced method). ⋯ Bland-Altman analysis is an alternative method for assessing the agreement between two methods of clinical measurement. According to our data, noninvasive technique--impedance cardiography--is a reliable method for hemodynamic monitoring in noncomplicated cases of acute myocardial infarction.
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Review Comparative Study
Access to information supporting availability of medicines for patients suffering from rare diseases looking for possible treatments: the EuOrphan Service.
Currently in Europe, approximately 30 million people suffer from rare diseases, and a major problem is that many patients do not have access to quality healthcare for their disorders. Moreover, there is also a lack of quality information and a networking system aimed at supporting interaction among patients, clinicians, researchers, pharmaceutical industries, and governmental bodies. The purpose of this article is to inform physicians, public health care professionals, and other health care providers about EuOrphan service, the aim of which is to ensure easier access to quality information on rare diseases and their treatment. ⋯ Moreover, the service aims at providing consultancies for pharmaceutical companies to ultimately support the European legislation in bringing new drugs of a high ethical standard to the market and to exert a positive impact on the large population of patients suffering from rare diseases in Europe. The services provided by EuOrphan can facilitate concrete networking among patients, patient associations, doctors, and companies and also support the organization of clinical trials. In this perspective, EuOrphan could become a very valuable tool for globalizing the information about the availability of treatment (authorized or under development) of orphan patients.
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The purpose of this article is to present two cases of penetrating gunshot injuries to the lumbar spine with migration of the bullets within the dural sac and to describe the method of removal of the bullet from the dural sac. ⋯ The bullet in the dural sac at the level of the cauda equina must be removed. The method proposed by us can facilitate this procedure.