The Australian and New Zealand journal of surgery
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Biography Historical Article
Inaugural William Manchester Lecture. The influence of microsurgery research on plastic and reconstructive surgery.
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Biography Historical Article
John Lockhart Gibson. During the Gallipoli Campaign 1915.
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The supply of homologous blood in Australia is limited, but the demand for blood and blood products is steadily increasing. Elective surgery is a major part of this demand. In many institutions the blood ordering practices for elective surgery have been haphazard. ⋯ As in several previous studies, an inefficient use of blood was demonstrated. Possible strategies to rationalize the use of blood in elective surgery have been proposed. These include the use of a 'group and screen' procedure instead of a full cross-match when transfusion is unlikely to be necessary, and ordering according to a 'maximum blood order schedule' when transfusion is usually required for a procedure.
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Comparative Study
Evaluation of TRISS as a means of selecting trauma deaths for clinical peer review.
This study was carried out to evaluate the predictive power of a mathematical model called TRISS in identifying avoidable trauma deaths when compared with peer review (PR). The subjects studied comprised the 24 deaths that occurred among 81 severely injured patients (Injury Severity Score greater than or equal to 16) admitted to a trauma unit over a 1 year period. Sixteen patients who had a greater than 50% probability of survival (Ps) calculated by TRISS died. ⋯ The data, when analysed, showed TRISS to have a 100% sensitivity, 42% specificity, 31% positive predictive value and a negative predictive value of 100% when compared with peer review. It is concluded that TRISS tends to over-estimate potentially avoidable death, especially in patients with severe head injury. However it is a good audit filter as it reliably excludes inevitable death.