Minor,moderate and severe head injury

Summary The future role of the neurosurgeon in the management of head injury is reviewed in terms of the care of patients with minor, moderate and severe head injuries. In minor head injury it is predicted that there will be increasing pressure on the neurosurgeon to undertake the management and follow-up of all patients who have sustained head injury, and this will place a considerable additional load on each neurosurgical unit. This is based on a survey of 1919 head injuries admitted in one calendar year (1981), consisting of 93 severe injuries (GCS < 8), 210 moderate injuries (GCS 8–12), and 1616 minor injuries (GCS 13/14). In moderate injuries CT will assume a major role in detecting hematoma early and identifying contusions. There may yet be a role for steroids in these cases and there should be a greater use of neurorehabilitation, instead of the current overemphasis on the severely injured. In severe injury future efforts will be to prevent early secondary insults and to find better methods of controlling raised intracranial pressure.     

A method for partitioning cancer mortality trends by factors associated with diagnosis: An application to female breat cancer

U.S. cancer mortality data derived from information recorded on death certificates are frequently relied upon as an indicator of progress against cancer. A limitation of this measure is the lack of information pertaining to the onset of disease, such as year-of-diagnosis, age-at-diagnosis, stage of disease at diagnosis and histology of lesions. However, population-based cancer registries collect these types of data and allow the calculation of an incidence-file based mortality rate. This incidence-based mortality rate allows a partitioning of mortality by variables associated with the cancer onset. Breast cancer incidence-based mortality measures are created and compared to mortality rates based on death certificates over a comparable time period. Novel mortality measures, such as mortality rates by stage-at-diagnosis, age-at-diagnosis and year-of-diagnosis, are used to illustrate the value of this approach.     

Monitoring maternity mortality in Botswana

This paper describes the maternity monitoring system in Botswana, developed in 1998, and the main methods used: maternal death and morbidity reviews at service delivery level, analysis by the National Maternal Mortality Audit Committee of data from the reviews as reported on two forms, perinatal reviews and surveys using process indicators. We carried out a study of these findings to examine whether the system was working well. Surveys using process indicators in 2001 and 2006 were analysed. Other data examined were from 2004-2006 and early 2007. The Maternal Death Notification Form was found to be comprehensive but not all health facilities were submitting them and some gave incomplete information. In 2001, 70% of pregnant women attended antenatal care but access to emergency obstetric care was uneven. In 2006, 28 facilities with maternity services surveyed were providing 24-hour delivery care, but laboratory, theatre and blood supplies were more limited, and only 50% of doctors and 67% of midwives had life-saving skills. Antibiotics were widely available, but there were shortages of magnesium sulphate, diazepam, oxytocics and manual vacuum aspiration kits. Recommendations for improvements have been made, training for skilled attendants is ongoing and a medical school has just opened at the University of Botswana.     

Elevated body mass index and mortality risk in the elderly

The purpose of this report was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies examining the impact of an elevated body mass index (BMI) on mortality risk in elderly (> or =65 years) men and women. A variance-based method of meta-analysis was used to summarize the relationships from available studies. The summary relative risk of all-cause mortality from the 26 analyses that included a risk estimate for a BMI within the overweight range was 1.00 (95% confidence intervals, 0.97-1.03). The summary relative risk of all-cause mortality for the 28 analyses that included a risk estimate for a BMI within the obese range was 1.10 (1.06-1.13). These calculations indicate that a BMI in the overweight range is not associated with a significantly increased risk of mortality in the elderly, while a BMI in the moderately obese range is only associated with a modest increase in mortality risk.     

Trends of incidence and mortality rates of stroke from 1983 to 2000 in Hanzhong rural population

Objective: To explore the trends of incidence and mortality rates of stroke in Hanzhong rural population. Methods: Acting as the WHO MONICA project. Results: The incidence rate of stroke was 152. 9/100 000. There was decline trend in male(P <0. 05). The mortality rate of stroke was 115.9/100 000. There was no significant decline trend during 18-year period (P < 0. 05). The incidence and mortality rates of stroke of male were higher than those of female(P<0. 05). The incidence and mortality rates were all increased with age(P <0. 01 ). Conclusion: It must stick to the long- term prevention measures to decrease incidence rate, and improve the condition of medical treatment to reduce the mortality rate in rural population.     

Support to the Safe Motherhood Programme in Nepal: an integrated approach

Evidence gathered from 1997 to 2006 indicates progress in reducing maternal mortality in Nepal, but public health services are still constrained by resource and staff shortages, especially in rural areas. The five-year Support to the Safe Motherhood Programme builds on the experience of the Nepal Safer Motherhood Project (1997-2004). It is working with the Government of Nepal to build capacity to institute a minimum package of essential maternity services, linking evidence-based policy development with health system strengthening. It has supported long-term planning, working towards skilled attendance at every birth, safe blood supplies, staff training, building management capacity, improving monitoring systems and use of process indicators, promoting dialogue between women and providers on quality of care, and increasing equity and access at district level. An incentives scheme finances transport costs to a health facility for all pregnant women and incentives to health workers attending deliveries, with free services and subsidies to facilities in the poorest 25 districts. Despite bureaucracy, frequent transfer of key government staff and political instability, there has been progress in policy development, and public health sector expenditure has increased. For the future, a human resources strategy with career paths that encourage skilled staff to stay in the government service is key.     

Skilled birth attendant competence: an initial assessment in four countries, and implications for the Safe Motherhood movement.

OBJECTIVES: Percentage of deliveries assisted by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) has become a proxy indicator for reducing maternal mortality in developing countries, but there is little data on SBA competence. Our objective was to evaluate the competence of health professionals who typically attend hospital and clinic-based births in Benin, Ecuador, Jamaica, and Rwanda. Methods: We measured competence against World Health Organization's (WHO) Integrated Management of Pregnancy and Childbirth guidelines. To evaluate knowledge, we used a 49-question multiple-choice test covering seven clinical areas. To evaluate skill, we had participants perform five different procedures on anatomical models. The 166 participants came from facilities at all levels of care in their respective countries. Results: On average, providers answered 55.8% of the knowledge questions correctly and performed 48.2% of the skills steps correctly. Scores differed somewhat by country, provider type, and subtopic. Conclusion: A wide gap exists between current evidence-based standards and current levels of provider competence.     

Do insecticide-treated curtains reduce all-cause child mortality in Burkina Faso?

To evaluate whether insecticide-treated netting (ITN) reduces child mortality in different epidemiological settings, 4 large, randomized, controlled trials were conducted in Africa. Here we report the findings from the trial in Burkina Faso, in an area of hyperendemic and markedly seasonal malaria transmission. The trial involved 158 villages, with a total population of some 90,000, grouped into 16 geographical clusters. Ascertainment of mortality among children aged 6–59 months began in early 1993. In June/July 1994, 8 of the clusters, randomly selected, received permethrin-treated curtains. Follow-up of children and ascertainment of mortality continued until May 1996. A 15% reduction in all-cause mortality among children aged 6–59 months was observed over the 2-year period following the installation of the curtains (95% c.i. – 4% to 30%). In the first year, post-intervention mortality was substantially lower in the clusters receiving curtains compared with the control clusters (rate ratio = 0.74; 95% c.i. 0.57, 0.95) but in the second year, there was no difference between mortality in the two groups (rate ratio = 0.99). The overall two-year impact of the intervention is consistent with the impacts observed in other trials which have demonstrated reductions in child mortality of from 17% to 33%. However, the year-by-year analysis raises some concerns about the long-term effect of ITN. Further follow-up of this population is warranted.     

感染性休克患者的负液体平衡与预后的关系

目的探究感染性休克治疗的前3天患者的液体平衡状态与预后的关系。方法采用回顾性对照研究。查看1999年1月至2003年12月收入首都医科大学附属复兴医院ICU的感染性休克患者病例记录,入选病例必须严格符合感染性休克的诊断标准,且既往无肾功能不全病史。采集病例相关数据以及诊断后第1、2、3天的液体平衡值。比较不同组别患者的急性生理和慢性健康评分(APACHEⅡ)、继发器官衰竭评分(SOFA)、液体平衡和病死率等数据。对影响患者预后的独立危险因素进行Logistic回归分析,确定和描述感染性休克患者的预后与在前3天的液体复苏治疗中出现的负平衡((0mL)相关因素的关系。结果负液体平衡患者与未出现负液体平衡患者2组的病死率差异有统计学意义(52.4%vs87.5%,χ2=5.303,P=0.021)。通过对入组时患者年龄、APACHEⅡ评分、第1天和第3天SOFA评分和正负平衡等影响患者预后的独立危险因素Logistic回归分析,表明前3天的治疗中,若有1d出现负液体平衡即可成为影响患者预后的独立危险因素(P=0.035)。结论在感染性休克前3天的治疗中,若有1d出现液体平衡负值即可成为影响感染性休克患者预后的独立因素,对感染性休克的28d生存预后有较强的预测性。在前3天的治疗中出现液体平衡为负值((0mL)的感染性休克患者的生存率比液体平衡为正值的患者的28d生存率高。