Bmc Med
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Additional Saturday rehabilitation improves functional independence and quality of life and reduces length of stay: a randomized controlled trial.
Many inpatients receive little or no rehabilitation on weekends. Our aim was to determine what effect providing additional Saturday rehabilitation during inpatient rehabilitation had on functional independence, quality of life and length of stay compared to 5 days per week of rehabilitation. ⋯ Providing an additional day of rehabilitation improved functional independence and health-related quality of life at discharge and may have reduced length of stay for patients receiving inpatient rehabilitation.
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Diagnosing serious infections in children is challenging, because of the low incidence of such infections and their non-specific presentation early in the course of illness. Prediction rules are promoted as a means to improve recognition of serious infections. A recent systematic review identified seven clinical prediction rules, of which only one had been prospectively validated, calling into question their appropriateness for clinical practice. We aimed to examine the diagnostic accuracy of these rules in multiple ambulatory care populations in Europe. ⋯ None of the clinical prediction rules examined in this study provided perfect diagnostic accuracy. In LP or IP settings, prediction rules and evidence-based guidelines had high sensitivity, providing promising rule-out value for serious infections in these datasets, although all had a percentage of residual uncertainty. Additional clinical assessment or testing such as point-of-care laboratory tests may be needed to increase clinical certainty. None of the prediction rules identified seemed to be valuable for HP settings such as emergency departments.
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Poor pain and function outcomes are undesirable after an elective surgery such as total hip or knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). Recent studies have indicated that the presence of contralateral joint influences outcomes of THA/TKA, however the impact of ipsilateral knee/hip involvement on THA/TKA outcomes has not been explored. The objective of this study was to assess the association of ipsilateral knee/hip joint involvement on short-term and medium-term pain and function outcomes after THA/TKA. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study showing that the presence of ipsilateral joint involvement after THA or TKA is strongly associated with poor pain and function outcomes. A potential way to improve outcomes is to address ipsilateral lower extremity joint involvement.
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Despite over 40 years of research, there is no specific lung-directed therapy for the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Although much has evolved in our understanding of its pathogenesis and factors affecting patient outcome, supportive care with mechanical ventilation remains the cornerstone of treatment. ⋯ Considerable effort has been made to enhance our mechanistic understanding of VILI and to develop new ventilatory strategies and therapeutic interventions to prevent and ameliorate VILI with the goal of improving outcomes in patients with ARDS. In this review, we will review the pathophysiology of VILI, discuss a number of novel physiological approaches for minimizing VILI, therapies to counteract biotrauma, and highlight a number of experimental studies to support these concepts.
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The role of the venous system in the pathogenesis of inflammatory neurological/neurodegenerative diseases remains largely unknown and underinvestigated. Aside from cerebral venous infarcts, thromboembolic events, and cerebrovascular bleeding, several inflammatory central nervous system (CNS) diseases, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and optic neuritis, appear to be associated with venous vascular dysfunction, and the neuropathologic hallmark of these diseases is a perivenous, rather than arterial, lesion. Such findings raise fundamental questions about the nature of these diseases, such as the reasons why their pathognomonic lesions do not develop around the arteries and what exactly are the roles of cerebral venous inflammation in their pathogenesis. ⋯ Such a hypothesis, if proven correct, opens new therapeutic windows in MS and other neuroinflammatory diseases. Here, we present a comprehensive review of the pathophysiology of MS, ADEM, pseudotumor cerebri, and optic neuritis, with an emphasis on the roles of venous vascular system programming and dysfunction in their pathogenesis. We consider the fundamental differences between arterial and venous endothelium, their dissimilar responses to inflammation, and the potential theoretical contributions of venous insufficiency in the pathogenesis of neurovascular diseases.