The Journal of surgical research
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The impact by integration of emergency general surgery (EGS) with trauma in an acute care surgery model on the timeliness and quality of care in patients of each type at a high volume level I trauma center is still indeterminate. We hypothesized that trauma and EGS can be successfully integrated in an academic institution. ⋯ Increased workload during combined trauma/EGS call in an acute care surgery model did not affect the TOR nor worsen patient outcome. Implementation of a trauma/EGS model is justified even in high-volume academic institutions, if appropriately staffed and resourced.
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Systemic inflammatory response following ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) to a specific organ may cause injuries in multiple remote organs. The emergence of ischemic postconditioning (IPO) provides a potential method for experimentally and clinically attenuating various types of organ postischemic injuries. We have shown that IPO can attenuate lung IRI by up-regulating the protein expression of heme oxygenase-1(HO-1). This study tested the hypothesis that IPO attenuates systemic inflammatory responses following lung IRI by activating HO-1. ⋯ Postconditioning attenuated pulmonary neutrophil accumulation and activation and lung IRI and reduced systemic inflammatory responses by activating HO-1.
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Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a major cause of long-term disability. However, therapeutic agents targeting SCI are sorely lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate whether curcumin has neuroprotective effects after SCI in rats. ⋯ Curcumin inhibited apoptosis and neuron loss, quenched astrocyte activation, and significantly improved neurologic deficit 7 d after spinal cord hemisection. By down-regulating GFAP expression, curcumin seems to attenuate astrocyte reactivation, which may be beneficial for neuronal survival. This is the first report demonstrating the successful treatment of SCI by curcumin.
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Plasma factor XIII (FXIII) is responsible for stabilization of fibrin clot at the final stage of blood coagulation. Since FXIII has also been shown to modulate inflammation, endothelial permeability, as well as diminish multiple organ dysfunction (MOD) after gut ischemia-reperfusion injury, we hypothesized that FXIII would reduce MOD caused by trauma-hemorrhagic shock (THS). ⋯ Administration of rFXIII diminishes THS-induced MOD in rats, presumably by preservation of the gut barrier function, limitation of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) activation, and modulation of the cytokine response.
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No tool currently exists to rapidly allow surgeons to objectively quantify surgical risk in geriatric patients. The goal of our prospective study was to determine if individual questions extracted from validated screens for common geriatric syndromes would have predictive value for surgical risk in geriatric patients with thoracic neoplasms. ⋯ Our data indicate that an abbreviated, rapid presurgical assessment can be developed for estimating operative risk, length of stay, and discharge destination in geriatric patients with thoracic malignancies using individual questions from previously validated screening tools.