Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Posthospitalization care is important for recovery after trauma. Disadvantaged populations, like racial or ethnic minorities and the uninsured, make up substantial percentages of trauma patients, but their use of posthospitalization facilities is unknown. ⋯ Disadvantaged populations have more limited use of posthospitalization care such as rehabilitation after trauma, suggesting a potential improvement in trauma care for the underprivileged.
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Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common hospital-acquired infections in the United States. We hypothesized that the risk of UTI after colorectal surgery exceeds the risk after other gastrointestinal operations. ⋯ Colorectal resections incur substantial risk of postoperative UTI, exceeding rates predicted by the NSQIP model. Because of their patients' unanticipated high incidence of UTI, surgeons with a specialty interest in colorectal surgery risk being flagged as "high outliers," particularly if they perform many rectal resections. A simple set of risk factors discriminates 10-fold differences in the rate of UTI after colorectal resection.
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Accreditation of Centers of Excellence in bariatric surgery requires a hospital volume of more than 125 procedures/year. There is no evidence-based rationale for this specific threshold. Our objective was to evaluate the contemporary perioperative safety of bariatric surgery and to characterize the relationship between volume and outcomes. ⋯ Using a nationwide dataset and bariatric procedure-specific data, we have demonstrated that bariatric surgery mortality and complication rates are very low. A definite volume-outcomes relationship exists when hospital-level data are analyzed, but there is no inflection point to justify selecting a specific volume threshold to determine Centers of Excellence. Low-volume centers with extremely low complication rates can be identified and, conversely, there are high-volume centers with elevated rates of complication.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of healing parameters in porcine full-thickness wounds transplanted with skin micrografts, split-thickness skin grafts, and cultured keratinocytes.
Transplantation of skin micrografts (MGs), split-thickness skin grafts (STSGs), or cultured autologous keratinocytes (CKs) enhances the healing of large full-thickness wounds. This study compares these methods in a porcine wound model, investigating the utility of micrograft transplantation in skin restoration. ⋯ Qualitative and quantitative measurements collected from full-thickness porcine wounds show that transplantation of MGs improve wound healing parameters and is comparable to treatment with STSGs.
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Multicenter Study
A multisite assessment of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma field triage decision scheme for identifying seriously injured children and adults.
The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACSCOT) has developed and updated field trauma triage protocols for decades, yet the ability to identify major trauma patients remains unclear. We estimate the diagnostic value of the Field Triage Decision Scheme for identifying major trauma patients (Injury Severity Score [ISS] ≥ 16) in a large and diverse multisite cohort. ⋯ The sensitivity of the Field Triage Decision Scheme for identifying major trauma patients is lower and specificity higher than previously described, particularly among elders.