Anti‐gravity treadmills are effective in reducing knee forces

Lower body positive pressure (LBPP) treadmills permit significant unweighting of patients and have the potential to enhance recovery following lower limb surgery. We determined the efficacy of an LBPP treadmill in reducing knee forces in vivo. Subjects, implanted with custom electronic tibial prostheses to measure forces in the knee, were tested on a treadmill housed within a LBPP chamber. Tibiofemoral forces were monitored at treadmill speeds from 1.5 mph (0.67 m/s) to 4.5 mph (2.01 m/s), treadmill incline from ?10° to +10°, and four treadmill chamber pressure settings adjusted to decrease net treadmill reaction force from 100% to 25% of the subject's body weight (BW). The peak axial tibiofemoral force ranged from 5.1 times BW at a treadmill speed of 4.5 mph (2.01 m/s) and a pressure setting of 100% BW to 0.8 times BW at 1.5 mph (0.67 m/s) and a pressure setting of 25% BW. Peak knee forces were significantly correlated with walking speed and treadmill reaction force (R² = 0.77, p = 0.04). The LBPP treadmill might be an effective tool in the rehabilitation of patients following lower‐extremity surgery. The strong correlation between tibiofemoral force and walking speed and treadmill reaction forces allows for more precisely achieving the target knee forces desired during early rehabilitation. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 31: 672–679, 2013     

Postoperative Outcomes After Robotic Versus Abdominal Myomectomy

Background and Objectives:

Differences in postoperative outcomes comparing robotic-assisted laparoscopic myomectomy (RALM) with abdominal myomectomy (AM) have rarely been reported. The objective of this study was to compare surgical, quality-of-life, and residual fibroid outcomes after RALM and AM.

Methods:

Consecutive patients who underwent RALM (n = 16) were compared with AM patients (n = 23) presenting with a uterine size of <20 weeks. Study patients participated in a telephone interview at 6 weeks and underwent a no-cost ultrasonographic examination at 12 weeks after surgery to obtain quality-of-life and residual fibroid outcomes. Medical records were reviewed to obtain surgical outcomes.

Results:

Longer operative times (261.1 minutes vs 124.8 minutes, P < .001) and a 3-fold unfavorable difference in operative efficiency (73.7 g vs 253.0 g of specimen removed per hour, P < .05) were observed with RALM compared with AM. Patients undergoing RALM had shorter lengths of hospital stay (1.5 days vs 2.7 days, P < .001). Reduction of patient symptoms and overall satisfaction were equal. RALM patients were more likely to be back to work within 1 month (85.7% vs 45.0%, P < .05). Residual fibroid volume in the RALM group was 5 times greater than that in the AM group (17.3 cm³ vs 3.4 cm³, P < .05).

Conclusion:

RALM and AM were equally efficacious in improving patient symptoms. Although operative times were significantly longer with RALM, patients had a quicker recovery, demonstrated by shortened lengths of stay and less time before returning to work. However, greater residual fibroid burden was observed with RALM when measured 12 weeks after surgery.     

A comparative analysis of neurosurgical online education materials to assess patient comprehension

Americans have increasingly utilized the internet as a first-line resource for a variety of information, including healthcare-oriented materials. Therefore, these online resources should be written at a level the average American can understand. Patient education resources specifically written for and available to the public were downloaded from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons website and assessed for their level of readability using the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Grading, Coleman-Liau Index, and Gunning-Fog Index. A total of 71 subsections from different neurosurgical specialties were reviewed, including Cerebrovascular, Spine and Peripheral Nerves, Neurotrauma and Critical Care, Pain, Pediatric, Stereotactic and Functional, and Tumor material. All neurosurgical subspecialty education material provided on the American Association of Neurological Surgeons website was uniformly written at a level that was too high, as assessed by all modalities. In order to reach a larger patient population, patient education materials on the American Association of Neurological Surgeons website should be revised with the goal of simplifying readability.     

Elipse™, a Procedureless Gastric Balloon for Weight Loss: a Proof-of-Concept Pilot Study

Background

Endoscopic gastric balloons have been used effectively as weight loss devices for decades, but the requirement for endoscopy and sedation poses several limitations. The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the safety and performance of a prototype version of Elipse?, a procedureless gastric balloon.

Methods

Eight patients (mean BMI?=?31.0 kg/m²) participated in this study. Each patient swallowed one Elipse? balloon intended to remain in the stomach for 6 weeks, self-empty, and then pass. Each balloon was filled with 450 mL of filling fluid. Patients returned every 2 weeks for abdominal ultrasound. No specific diet or exercise plan was prescribed.

Results

All eight patients successfully swallowed the device. The most common adverse events were nausea and vomiting. There were no serious adverse events, and all balloons were excreted safely. Despite not being prescribed a diet or exercise plan, all eight patients lost weight. In 6/8 patients, the balloon remained full through 6 weeks, self-emptied, and passed. In one patient, the balloon appeared partially collapsed on ultrasound after 11 days and was endoscopically punctured. One asymptomatic patient elected to have the balloon endoscopically punctured after 19 days. Both balloons passed in the stool after 4 days. In both cases, endoscopic examination of the upper GI tract showed no abnormalities.

Conclusions

This pilot study demonstrates the safety and performance of Elipse?, a procedureless gastric balloon for weight loss. Future studies will test a commercial design filled to 550 mL intended to last in the stomach for at least 12 weeks.

     

Can postoperative renal dysfunction be predicted by measuring intraoperative glomerular filtration rate in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting without cardiopulmonary bypass? A pilot study

Objective

Currently, there is no effective paradigm to identify patients who are at risk for renal dysfunction following cardiac surgery. The specific mechanisms of renal injury during surgery are incompletely understood. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether postoperative renal dysfunction can be predicted from intraoperative glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

Design

This is a prospective study.

Setting

The study was conducted in a tertiary care multi-specialty hospital.

Participants and interventions

GFR was measured in 24 patients (mean age 56.6 ± 11.09 years, 20 male) undergoing elective off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting during preoperative period, intraoperative period, 24 h after surgery (ICU GFR), and on the fifth postoperative day (final GFR ).

Measurements and main results

Patients were divided into two groups depending upon changes in intraoperative GFR. Group 1 (n = 10): who had a rise in intraoperative GFR in comparison with preoperative baseline measurement. All these 10 (41.7 %) patients with a rise in intraoperative GFR had an uneventful hospital course and achieved an improvement in final GFR. Group 2 (n = 14): 14 (58.3 %) patients had a fall in intraoperative GFR (mean 36.4 %) in comparison with preoperative baseline value. Of these 14 patients, 1 patient required dialysis support and 3 patients required ionotropic support. Among these 14 patients in group two, 7 had deterioration in final GFR (mean 28.7 %), when compared to preoperative baseline value.

Conclusion

Postoperative renal dysfunction can be predicted from intraoperative GFR. Patients who have a rise in intraoperative GFR do not develop postoperative renal dysfunction, and only patients with intraoperative fall in GFR are at risk of postoperative renal dysfunction.

     

Synthesis and biological evaluation of pyrrole-2-carboxamide derivatives: oroidin analogues

The reaction of pyrrole or dibromopyrrole-2-trichloroacetone with various amines results in the series of novel pyrrole-2-carboxamide bearing aromatic heterocycle or aryl or alkyl groups. Synthesized molecules were evaluated for their in vitro antibacterial activities. Most of the compounds exhibited potent activity against both Gram-positive and negative pathogens.     

Reference values of ECG parameters derived from 906 echocardiographically confirmed healthy Indian children: A population-based study from Gujarat

Introduction

There are few published studies on reference ranges of ECG parameters in children; some ethnic differences have been described.

Validating administratively derived frailty scores for use in Veterans Health Administration emergency departments

Objectives

Frailty is a clinical syndrome characterized by decreased physiologic reserve that diminishes the ability to respond to stressors such as acute illness. Veterans Health Administration (VA) emergency departments (ED) are the primary venue of care for Veterans with acute illness and represent key sites for frailty recognition. As questionnaire-based frailty instruments can be cumbersome to implement in the ED, we examined two administratively derived frailty scores for use among VA ED patients.

Methods

This national retrospective cohort study included all VA ED visits (2017–2020). We evaluated two administratively derived scores: the Care Assessment Needs (CAN) score and the VA Frailty Index (VA-FI). We categorized all ED visits across four frailty groups and examined associations with outcomes of 30-day and 90-day hospitalization and 30-day, 90-day, and 1-year mortality. We used logistic regression to assess the model performance of the CAN score and the VA-FI.

Results

The cohort included 9,213,571 ED visits. With the CAN score, 28.7% of the cohort were classified as severely frail; by VA-FI, 13.2% were severely frail. All outcome rates increased with progressive frailty (p-values for all comparisons < 0.001). For example, for 1-year mortality based on the CAN score frailty was determined as: robust, 1.4%; prefrail, 3.4%; moderately frail, 7.0%; and severely frail, 20.2%. Similarly, for 90-day hospitalization based on VA-FI, frailty was determined as prefrail, 8.3%; mildly frail, 15.3%; moderately frail, 29.5%; and severely frail, 55.4%. The c-statistics for CAN score models were higher than for VA-FI models across all outcomes (e.g., 1-year mortality, 0.721 vs. 0.659).

Conclusions

Frailty was common among VA ED patients. Increased frailty, whether measured by CAN score or VA-FI, was strongly associated with hospitalization and mortality and both can be used in the ED to identify Veterans at high risk for adverse outcomes. Having an effective automatic score in VA EDs to identify frail Veterans may allow for better targeting of scarce resources.