The Journal of surgical research
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Multicenter Study
Optimizing Opioid-Prescribing Practices After Parathyroidectomy.
To help control opioid overprescription, we conducted a large institutional, 3-site initiative to provide discharge prescribing guidelines for different procedures. Our aim is to refine institutional guidelines for parathyroidectomy. ⋯ Over half of patients undergoing parathyroidectomy did not consume any opioid, and very few needed more than 2 d of opioid. Moreover, most patients did not dispose the unused opioids, which put these pills at risk of diversion and misuse. Surgical approach did not change consumption, illustrating that these guidelines are applicable to thyroidectomy given the similarity between techniques. We recommend prescribing nonopioid analgesics for patients undergoing parathyroidectomy.
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A necrotizing soft-tissue infection (NSTI) is a rare but severe infection with a high mortality rate of 12%-20%. Diagnosing is challenging and often delayed. Treatment consists of surgical debridement of all necrotic tissue and administration of antibiotics. Despite adequate treatment, survivors are often left with extensive wounds, resulting in mutilating scars and functional deficits. Both the disease and the subsequent scars can negatively influence the health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The present study was performed to contribute to the knowledge about HRQoL in patients after NSTI. ⋯ Level 3, prognostic and epidemiological.
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Observational Study
Home Disposal Kits for Leftover Opioid Medications After Surgery: Do They Work?
Postoperative overprescribing is common, and many patients will have excess medications. An effective method to encourage disposal is lacking. We hypothesized that a convenient home disposal kit will result in more appropriate disposal of excess opioids. ⋯ The provision of a convenient home disposal kit postoperatively increased patient-reported opioid disposal.
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To understand how surgeon expectation of case difficulty relates to workload for colon and rectal procedures and to identify possible surgeon-perceived drivers contributing to case difficulty. ⋯ Procedural difficulty significantly differed across procedure type. More than one-third of cases were more difficult than expected, during which surgeons attributed this to operative team characteristics as well as issues in patient anatomy and body habitus.
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Multicenter Study
Performance of Two Head Injury Decision Rules Evaluated on an External Cohort of 18,913 Children.
The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) decision rule demonstrates high sensitivity for identifying children at low risk for clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI). As with the PECARN rule, the Israeli Decision Algorithm for Identifying TBI in Children (IDITBIC) recommends proceeding directly to computed tomography (CT) in children with Glasgow Coma Score (GCS) <15. The aim was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of two clinical rules that assign children with GCS <15 at presentation directly to CT. ⋯ The two decision rules demonstrated high accuracy in identifying ciTBI. As a screening tool, the PECARN rule outperformed IDITBIC. The findings suggest that clinicians should strongly consider directing children with GCS <15 at presentation to CT scan.