So close and yet so far: health care in our nearest neighbour

Emergency medicine is reaching out from traditional westernized birth places to the uncharted territories of the developing world. With ever-increasing links with our near neighbours in Asia, a steady stream of ACEM fellows and trainees are giving their time and resources in aid of their health sector development. Papua New Guinea, being our nearest neighbour, deserves our attention not only for the stark contrast to our own health system experience, but also because of the rising specialty of emergency medicine in that country. I was lucky enough to be part of a concerted programme to train medical students and emergency medicine trainees in the fundamentals of our specialty.     

Understanding economic outcomes in critical care

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The high costs of critical illness make economic outcomes important adjuncts to clinical outcomes in intensive care unit research. Costs are markedly different than other clinical outcomes, both in their measurement and their interpretation. RECENT FINDINGS: Although not necessarily patient-centered, economic outcomes are important to society. Costs are also useful summary measures of less-meaningful surrogates such as organ failures and lengths of stay. Limitations of economic outcomes, however, are numerous. Accurate measurement of costs in the ICU requires a thorough consideration of both direct and indirect costs, an understanding of the fixed and variable components of critical care expenditures, and knowledge that reducing resource use saves only the marginal, versus average, cost of ICU resources. Costs must also be interpreted alongside measures of effectiveness using proper modeling techniques. Interpretation can vary based on choice of effectiveness measure, perspective of the analysis, and societal and cultural norms. SUMMARY: When correctly measured and interpreted alongside measures of effectiveness, costs are a useful and important outcome in critical care research.     

大黄对危重症患者胃肠粘膜血流灌注的影响

目的　研究大黄对胃肠粘膜血流灌注的影响。方法　选用激光多普勒血流监测仪和胃肠粘膜内pH(pHi)值作为评估失血性休克动物模型和脓毒症患者胃肠粘膜血流灌注的指标。结果　动物实验显示 :失血性休克大鼠尽管予以充分复苏 ,但胃肠粘膜的血流量仅是对照组的一半 ,给予大黄治疗 (5 0mg/kg)后 ,胃肠粘膜的血流量接近正常对照组 (P <0 0 1VS休克组 )。此外正常大鼠喂服大黄后胃肠粘膜的血流量显著提高 (P <0 0 1VS正常对照组 )。临床研究显示 :脓毒症患者胃和直肠粘膜内pHi明显低于对照组 (P <0 0 0 1)。多器官功能障碍综合征 (MODS)患者 ,其pHi显著低于非MODS患者 (P <0 0 0 1VS治疗前 )。另外 ,大黄对应激性胃粘膜病变有效率达 73%。结论　大黄能提高失血性休克大鼠和危重症患者胃肠粘膜内血流灌注。     

Extracorporeal photopheresis: Clinical use so far

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP or photopheresis) is an advanced therapeutic apheresis procedure in which blood is separated into its various components and the isolated buffy coat is treated with 8-methoxypsoralen (a photoactivating drug), exposed to ultraviolet light and returned to the patient. All other remaining blood components are also returned to the patient. The purpose of this procedure is immunomodulation. The treated leukocytes, specifically T-cells, are returned to the patient's circulation and will induce cytotoxicity and reduce proliferation of new T-cells. In the United States, ECP was initially approved for the treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma by the US Food and Drug Administration in the late 1980s. Since that time, it has been used as an "off-label" therapy to treat several other autoimmune diseases in the United States and even more extensively in Europe and Asia. The following review is limited to the current clinical use of ECP in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, Crohn's disease, systemic sclerosis, graft versus host disease, and emerging data on nephrogenic systemic fibrosis.     

A bereavement after-care service for intensive care relatives and staff: the story so far

The Intensive Care Society (1998) developed Guidelines for Bereavement Care in Intensive Care Units. In response to the guidelines, a group of nurses from the intensive care units at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester have developed a bereavement after-care service for relatives and staff. So far, the service has evaluated well from the feedback received from both relatives and staff, but evaluation is ongoing and the service is being continually developed.     

COVID-19 and liver diseases,what we know so far

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia outbreak started in December 2019. On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) constitutes a pandemic, and as of May 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has infected over 167.3 million patients, including 3.4 million deaths, reported to WHO. In this review, we will focus on the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and the liver. We will discuss how chronic liver diseases affect the COVID-19 disease course and outcomes. We will also discuss the SARS-CoV-2 effects on the liver, mechanisms of acute liver injury, and potential management plans.     

Drug-eluting stents and balloons in peripheral arterial disease: evidence so far

Restenosis by myointimal hyperplasia after peripheral arterial angioplasty or stenting is a major problem limiting its long-term efficiency and patency, and may lead to recurrent symptoms. Drug-eluting devices which inhibit the proliferation of neo-intimal growth of vascular smooth muscle cells may prevent restenosis. The aim of this article is to examine the evidence in published literature on the use of drug-eluting devices in the treatment of peripheral arterial diseases. A systematic literature review was undertaken of all published literature on this subject using Medline and cross-referenced. All published relevant articles on the use of drug-eluting stents and balloons in peripheral arterial disease were used. Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and electronic databases were also searched for on-going studies. Published results from randomised studies such as the SIROCCO I and II Trials and the THUNDER study, together with single cohort studies, are now available. There are on-going studies comparing drug-eluting and non-drug-eluting devices. Evidence from the published literature suggests that drug-eluting stents and balloons are safe and effective in preventing restenosis after peripheral angioplasty. However, drug-eluting devices are more expensive and many are limited to single-use only. It is anticipated that results from all the on-going studies may allow a meta-analysis to show whether these preliminary data can translate into a clinically applicable cost-effective strategy in combating restenosis after peripheral angioplasty or stenting.     

Thrombosis and bleeding: when opposites are not so far apart

Thrombotic events in patients with inherited bleeding disorders occur only rarely. However, in some cases, the co-existence of acquired or inherited prothrombotic risk factors may overcome the hypocoagulative state, modulating the clinical phenotype to a decrease in bleeding symptoms or even to an increase in the likelihood of developing thrombotic complications. This review summarizes the cases of thrombosis reported in the literature and analyzes the most important risk factors for thrombosis in patients with a congenital bleeding tendency. Data were identified by searches of the published literature, including PubMed, references from reviews and abstracts from the most important meetings on this topic. There is increasing evidence that thrombotic complications in patients with hereditary bleeding disorders have a multifactorial pathogenesis, depending on acquired (coagulation factor replacement therapy, central venous catheters, surgery, viral infections) and/or inherited (thrombophilic gene mutations) prothrombotic risk factors.