The Journal of surgical research
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In October 2008, the American College of Surgeons revealed the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) Pediatric in an effort to improve quality of surgical care in children. A 5% disagreement rate of data reported between institutions is accepted. The two goals of this study were to (1) determine if the random sampling performed with NSQIP data collection was representative of the population, and (2) verify that data captured in NSQIP was accurate. ⋯ NSQIP Pediatric captured a representative sample of patients undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy. Errors were found in the reporting of outcomes for SSI and postoperative abscess in children undergoing laparoscopic appendectomy. Given the low incidence of these outcomes, there is little effect on percentages of complications reported.
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The insertion of gastrostomy tube (GT) for children is typically accomplished using a minimally invasive approach. There is considerable variability in the technical details of this operation, depending on how much of the procedure is performed intracorporeal. The purpose of this study is to compare the outcomes and resource utilization of two differing techniques for laparoscopic GT insertion in the pediatric population. ⋯ Pediatric patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrostomy tube insertion via the Seldinger or MOT method have similar morbidity risks, although MOT was associated with less overall resource utilization in this study.
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Night-float work schedules were designed to address growing concerns of the affect of fatigue on resident psychomotor and cognitive skills after traditional 24-h call work schedules. Whether this transition has achieved these results is debatable. This study was designed to compare the psychomotor performance of general surgery residents on both work schedule types. We hypothesized that when measured with novel laparoscopic simulator tasks, residents on a 24-h call schedule would exhibit worse psychomotor performance compared with those on a night-float work schedule. ⋯ In this study of general surgery residents, a statistically significant difference in psychomotor performance between residents working 24-h call shift versus a 12-h night-float shift could not be found. Psychomotor performance does not appear to suffer after a work shift. Additionally, post-shift subjective evaluations of fatigue are comparable regardless of shift type.
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Among patients with breast cancer, obesity has been associated with an increased likelihood of having triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This association has been thought to be due to the antiapoptotic effects of obesity-related proteins. However, the effect of obesity on the outcomes in patients with TNBC remains unclear. We hypothesized that obesity would be associated with decreased overall survival and disease-free survival in these patients. ⋯ Despite an increased frequency of larger tumors, higher T stage, and higher tumor grade, obesity was not associated with decreased overall or disease-free survival in patients with TNBC.
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Variability exits in the ability to predict overall recovery after trauma and inpatient rehabilitation. The aim of this study was to identify factors predicting functional improvement in trauma patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation. ⋯ In our study, age as an independent factor was not predictive of functional outcome after injury. The extent of head injury continues to negatively affect the overall functional improvement based on FIM.