Oxygen delivery-guided perfusion for the prevention of acute kidney injury: A randomized controlled trial

ObjectivesThe reduction of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery using an oxygen delivery-guided perfusion strategy (oxygen delivery strategy) for cardiopulmonary bypass management compared with a fixed flow perfusion (conventional strategy) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a oxygen delivery strategy would reduce the incidence of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery.MethodsWe randomly enrolled 300 patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. Patients were randomly assigned to a oxygen delivery strategy (maintaining a oxygen delivery index value >300 mL/min/m² through pump flow adjustments during cardiopulmonary bypass) or a conventional strategy (a target pump flow was determined on the basis of the body surface area). The primary end point was the development of acute kidney injury. Secondary end points were the red blood cell transfusion rate and number of red blood cell units, intubation time, postoperative length of stay in the intensive care unit and the hospital, predischarge estimated glomerular filtration rate, and hospital mortality.ResultsAcute kidney injury occurred in 20 patients (14.6%) receiving the oxygen delivery strategy and in 42 patients (30.4%) receiving the conventional strategy (relative risk, 0.48; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.77; P = .002). The secondary end points were not significantly different between strategies. In a prespecified subgroup analysis of patients who had nadir hematocrit less than 23% or body surface area less than 1.40 m², the oxygen delivery strategy seemed to be superior to the conventional strategy and the existence of quantitative interactions was suggested.ConclusionsAn oxygen delivery strategy for cardiopulmonary bypass management was superior to a conventional strategy with respect to preventing the development of acute kidney injury.     

Niven and Scott (2003): Sixteen years of hindsight

This paper revisits a 2003 publication in Nursing Philosophy: The need for accurate perception and informed judgement in determining the appropriate use of the nursing resource: hearing the patient's voice. The author suggests that the basic ideas and focus of this 16‐year‐old paper are still topical and relevant in considerations of nursing care. However, it is also suggested that greater attention to the importance of the nurse–patient relationship in considerations of resource allocation, and potential rationing of nursing care, would have strengthened the original paper.     

Focal hole versus screw stimulation to prevent false negative results in detecting pedicle breaches during spinal instrumentation

ObjectiveWe describe a stimulus-evoked EMG approach to minimize false negative results in detecting pedicle breaches during lumbosacral spinal instrumentation.MethodsIn 36 patients receiving 176 lumbosacral pedicle screws, EMG threshold to nerve root activation was determined using a focal probe inserted into the pilot hole at a depth, customized to the individual patients, suitable to position the stimulating tip at the point closest to the tested nerve root. Threshold to screw stimulation was also determined.ResultsMean EMG thresholds in 161 correctly fashioned pedicle instrumentations were 7.5 mA ± 2.46 after focal hole stimulation and 21.8 mA ± 6.8 after screw stimulation. Direct comparison between both thresholds in individual pedicles showed that screw stimulation was always biased by an unpredictable leakage of the stimulating current ranging from 10 to 90%. False negative results were never observed with hole stimulation but this was not true with screw stimulation.ConclusionsFocal hole stimulation, unlike screw stimulation, approaches absolute EMG threshold as shown by the lower normal limit (2.6 mA; p < 0.05) that borders the upper limit of threshold to direct activation of the exposed root.SignificanceThe technique provides an early warning of a possible pedicle breakthrough before insertion of the more harmful, larger and threaded screw.     

Our Next Pandemic Ethics Challenge? Allocating “Normal” Health Care Services

The pandemic creates unprecedented challenges to society and to health care systems around the world. Like all crises, these provide a unique opportunity to rethink the fundamental limiting assumptions and institutional inertia of our established systems. These inertial assumptions have obscured deeply rooted problems in health care and deflected attempts to address them. As hospitals begin to welcome all patients back, they should resist the temptation to go back to business as usual. Instead, they should retain the more deliberative, explicit, and transparent ways of thinking that have informed the development of crisis standards of care. The key lesson to be learned from those exercises in rational deliberation is that justice must be the ethical foundation of all standards of care. Justice demands that hospitals take a safety-net approach to providing services that prioritizes the most vulnerable segments of society, continue to expand telemedicine in ways that improve access without exacerbating disparities, invest in community-based care, and fully staff hospitals and clinics on nights and weekends.     

基于超效率DEA的天津市基本公共卫生配置资源效率研究

评价天津市各辖区基本公共卫生服务的资源配置效率,寻求有效的资源配置措施和方法,为进一步优化卫生资源配置提供参考依据。方法利用数据包络分析,对天津市16辖区的基本公共卫生服务进行效率评价。结果天津市基本公共卫生服务的资源配置效率整体不高,仅有5辖区达到了规模最优,多数区非DEA有效,且投入过剩与产出不足并存。结论为了达到最优的基本公共卫生服务效率,政府及各级基本公共卫生服务机构必须有效地完善、落实相关政策,优化资源投入结构,统筹地区差异,加强资源供给管理,提高资源利用效率。     

基于动态优化算法的复杂生物网络的状态调控

近年研究表明,某些药物能改变基因调控网络(GRNs)中的调控反应参数,促使细胞从病变状态转移到正常状态。在此基础上,有学者构建了基于吸引子和分岔理论的状态调控框架。现有的控制策略中,控制信号规律都是自行拟定的,并且所使用的参数扰动法仅能求出单控制变量情况下状态转移所需的时间。因此,针对以非线性常微分方程组(ODEs)形式描述的复杂生物网络,本文提出了一种基于动态优化算法改变网络状态的最优调控方法,在掌握生物网络基本特性的基础上建立了动态优化问题,并以简单低维的三节点GRN和复杂高维的癌症GRN为例,利用MATLAB计算得到单控制变量及多控制变量条件下的最优控制策略。本文所提方法旨在实现精确且快速的状态调控,为试验研究和实际治疗提供参考依据。     

Mapping variability in allocation of Long-Term Care funds across payer agencies in OECD countries

IntroductionLong-term care (LTC) is organized in a fragmented manner. Payer agencies (PA) receive LTC funds from the agency collecting funds, and commission services. Yet, distributional equity (DE) across PAs, a precondition to geographical equity of access to LTC, has received limited attention. We conceptualize that LTC systems promote DE when they are designed to set eligibility criteria nationally (vs. locally); and to distribute funds among PAs based on needs-formula (vs. past-budgets or government decisions).ObjectivesThis cross-country study highlights to what extent different LTC systems are designed to promote DE across PAs, and the parameters used in allocation formulae.MethodsQualitative data were collected through a questionnaire filled by experts from 17 OECD countries.Results11 out of 25 LTC systems analyzed, fully meet DE as we defined. 5 systems which give high autonomy to PAs have designs with low levels of DE; while nine systems partially promote DE. Allocation formulae vary in their complexity as some systems use simple demographic parameters while others apply socio-economic status, disability, and LTC cost variations.Discussion and conclusionsA minority of LTC systems fully meet DE, which is only one of the criteria in allocation of LTC resources. Some systems prefer local priority-setting and governance over DE. Countries that value DE should harmonize the eligibility criteria at the national level and allocate funds according to needs across regions.