International journal of general medicine
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The first few hours after intensive care unit (ICU) admission, where a patient's condition is stabilized and treatment plans are formulated, are crucial to patient outcome. Although admission of patients who are unstable to ICU occurs 24 hours a day, not all units maintain the same level of staffing during off hours. We evaluated whether ICU admission during off hours affects mortality in a Moroccan ICU with the same level of staffing. ⋯ We can conclude that off hours care is not necessarily inadequate. For ICU managers, it is important to know how to maintain adequate quality of care around the clock.
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Little is known about the factors that influence survival following in-hospital resuscitation, but previous investigations have suggested that in-hospital resuscitations outside of regular working hours are associated with worse survival rates. ⋯ Survival rates following in-hospital resuscitation were poor at any time, but appear to depend less on time-dependent effects of the quality of resuscitation and more on time-dependent effects of recognition of cardiac arrests.
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Although many new patients are seen at small hospitals, there are few reports of new health problems from such hospitals in Japan. Therefore, we investigated the reasons for encounter (RFE) and diagnoses of new outpatients in a small hospital to provide educational resources for teaching general practice methods. ⋯ We identified the common RFEs and diagnoses at a small hospital in Japan and revealed the inconsistencies between the RFEs observed and common symptoms listed in the guidelines. Our findings can be useful in improving the general practice medical education curricula.
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There is limited information regarding the clinical characteristics and outcome of out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in Middle Eastern patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcomes in patients admitted following OHCA at a single center in the Middle East over a 20-year period. ⋯ OHCA was associated with higher incidences of diabetes, prior myocardial infarction, and chronic kidney disease as compared with the remaining admissions. Approximately half of the patients had no preceding symptoms. In-hospital mortality was high (59.8%), but similar to the internationally published data.
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Anticonvulsants are increasingly being used in the symptomatic management of several neuropathic pain disorders. The present observational study was designed to evaluate the efficacy, tolerability, and quality of life (QoL) of carbamazepine use for 12 weeks in patients with painful diabetic neuropathy, in Pakistan. ⋯ In this real-life experience study, carbamazepine, when prescribed for 12 weeks to adult diabetic patients suffering from neuropathic pain, showed pain-relief effect, with reduced mean pain severity and mean pain interference scores and with improved QoL and good tolerability profile.