Patterns of unexpected in-hospital deaths: a root cause analysis

Background  

Respiratory alarm monitoring and rapid response team alerts on hospital general floors are based on detection of simple numeric threshold breaches. Although some uncontrolled observation trials in select patient populations have been encouraging, randomized controlled trials suggest that this simplistic approach may not reduce the unexpected death rate in this complex environment. The purpose of this review is to examine the history and scientific basis for threshold alarms and to compare thresholds with the actual pathophysiologic patterns of evolving death which must be timely detected.     

Effectiveness of Biobrane for treatment of partial-thickness burns in children

Purpose

Wound care for partial-thickness burns should alleviate pain, decrease hospital length of stay, and be readily applied to a variety of wounds. The effectiveness of Biobrane (UDL Laboratories, Rockford, IL) is compared with that of Beta Glucan Collagen (BGC; Brennan Medical, St. Paul, MN) in a retrospective cohort study.

Methods

A retrospective chart review of all children treated at a tertiary care pediatric hospital between 2003 and 2009 identified patients with partial-thickness burns treated with Biobrane. These patients were compared with historical controls treated with BGC.

Results

A total of 235 children between the ages of 4 weeks and 18 years with an average of 6.0% body surface area partial-thickness burns were treated with Biobrane. In a multivariate statistical analysis, patients treated with Biobrane healed significantly faster than those treated with BGC (Biobrane vs BGC: median, 9 vs 13 days; P = .019; hazard ratio, 1.68). In addition, patients who required inpatient treatment trended toward having shorter length of hospital stay in the Biobrane group (2.6 vs 4.1 days, P = .079).

Conclusion

Partial-thickness burn care consists of early debridement and application of a burn wound dressing. Biobrane dressings result in faster healing compared with BGC and may decrease hospital length of stay for patients requiring inpatient admission.     

Patients’ Willingness to Accept Expanded Criteria Donor Liver Transplantation

Utilization of livers from expanded criteria donors (ECD) is one strategy to overcome the severe organ shortage. The decision to utilize an ECD liver is complex and fraught with uncertainty for both providers and patients. We assessed patients’ willingness to accept ECD liver transplantation (LTx) and acceptable 1‐year mortality risk. One hundred eight patients listed for LTx were asked to rate their willingness to accept ECD LTx and the associated 1‐year mortality risk they were willing to accept. Also, patients completed the SF‐36v2 and sociodemographic and health information was gathered from their medical records. Patients reported significantly higher willingness to accept standard criteria donor (SCD) versus ECD LTx (t = 13.8, p < 0.001), with more than one‐third of patients reporting low willingness to accept ECD LTx. Relative to our center's 10% SCD LTx 1‐year mortality rate, most patients (71%) were willing to accept moderately or substantially higher 1‐year mortality risk for ECD LTx. In multivariable analyses, higher lab MELD score and white race were significant independent predictors of both ECD willingness and ECD increased mortality risk acceptability. Findings highlight the importance of assessing patients’ willingness to pursue ECD LTx and the relative mortality risks they are willing to accept.     

Developing a Dementia Research Registry: a descriptive case study from North Thames DeNDRoN and the EVIDEM programme

Aim  

To describe the development of a dementia research registry, outlining the conceptual, practical and ethical challenges, and to report initial experiences of recruiting people with dementia to it from primary and secondary care.     

613例新涂阳肺结核病例的队列分析

目的探讨新登记涂阳肺结核病例的转归,评价肺结核传染源控制效果。方法对613例新发涂阳肺结核病例的资料进行队列分析。结果新登记涂阳肺结核,以青壮年多发,以待业、家务和务农为主,集中于农猎区和林区,营养状况偏低。治愈率呈逐年上升趋势,严格执行全程督导化疗。结论严格执行DOTS的技术规范是控制肺结核传染源的主要措施。