BMC research notes
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To study late-life depression and its unfavourable course and co morbidities in The Netherlands. ⋯ The NESDO sample offers the opportunity to study the neurobiological, psychosocial and physical determinants of depression and its long-term course in older persons. Since largely similar measures were used as in the Netherlands Study of Depression and Anxiety (NESDA; age range 18-65 years), data can be pooled thus creating a large longitudinal database of clinically depressed persons with adequate power and a large set of neurobiological, psychosocial and physical variables from both younger and older depressed persons.
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Difficult airway especially failed intubation has been associated with a high incidence of mortality and morbidity. Most of mortalities occur when an anaesthesiologist encounters an unanticipated difficult airway. ⋯ Evaluation of the submental space is suggested as an alternative predictor of difficult airway and routine examination of the submental space is of value in airway assessment.
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Dengue fever is one of the most common tropical diseases worldwide. Early detection of the disease, followed by intravenous fluid therapy in patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) or with warning signs of dengue has a major impact on the prognosis. The purpose of this study is to describe the care provided in a hydration tent, including early detection, treatment, and serial follow-up of patients with dengue fever. ⋯ As the epidemics were already widespread and there were no technical conditions for routine serology, all cases of suspected dengue fever were treated as such. Implementing hydration tents decrease the number of dengue fever hospitalizations.
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For performance assessment during simulation, mostly observers rate the trainees' performance using checklists. Simulator outcome may provide immediate and objective feedback to the participants but requires additional work for the accurate scenario design. High-fidelity simulators are based on physiologic models and store all changes of the simulator conditions during the scenarios and may therefore be used for the assessment of performance. In the present work, the design of a simulator script for the assessment of resuscitation skills using an Emergency Care Simulator (ECS, METI, Sarasota, Florida) is described. ⋯ The tool can be used to assess adherence to European and American cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines (both 2005 and 2010) and to compare simulator outcome if different guidelines are trained and applied according to specific curricula. It represents an example of how simulator outcome can be used for performance assessment and may help to design more complex test-scenarios including the field of critical incidents in anesthesia.