critical care & emergency

Scrotal pain is a common acute presentation for medical care. Testicular torsion and epididymo-orchitis are two diagnoses for which early detection is critical and their sonographic imaging features have been thoroughly described in the radiologic literature. Other important conditions for which radiologists must be aware have received less attention. This article will highlight key traumatic and non-traumatic causes of acute scrotal pain other than testicular torsion and epididymo-orchitis that may present in the emergency department setting...

BACKGROUND: During the past several decades, anesthesia has become increasingly safe. Truly major adverse events are rare, and anesthesia quality researchers have instituted programs to evaluate "near miss" or less critical adverse events to evaluate the safety of anesthesia delivery. In this study, we aimed to evaluate calls for emergency help in our institution as a surrogate for pending critical events. We hypothesized that calls would be more common in patients with high American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status, history of prematurity, and children with recent respiratory illness compared to those without these characteristics...

Background/Aim: Emergency surgeries have increased in Saudi Arabia. This study examines these surgeries and associated complications. Patients and Methods: This was a prospective multicenter cohort study of patients undergoing emergency intraperitoneal surgery from the eight health sectors of Saudi Arabia. Patients' data were collected over 14 days. Results: In total, 283 patients were included (163 men [54.06%]). The majority of cases were open surgery (204 vs...

Critically ill geriatric patients are vitally endangered due to the aging processes of organs, the frequently existing multimorbidity with subsequent polypharmacy and the typical geriatric syndrome of functional impairments. Aging processes in organs lower the clinical threshold for organ dysfunction and organ failure. Physiological organ aging processes with practical consequences for intensive care medicine are atypical manifestion of sepsis in immunosenescence, altered pharmacokinetics, reduced tolerance to hypovolemia due to proportionally reduced water compartment of the body in old age, the frequently only apparently normal function of the kidneys and the continuous reduction in pulmonary function in old age...

OBJECTIVE: The physical and social environments that surround children should support good health. However, challenges with food security and access prevent many children from consuming a healthy diet, which is critical to proper growth and development. The present study sought to gain a better understanding of primary care initiatives to address these issues in a low-income setting. DESIGN: Following the relocation of a paediatric clinic to a farmers' market building and the implementation of a fruit and vegetable prescription programme, researchers conducted thirty-two semi-structured interviews with caregivers...

Glutathione was discovered in 1888, over 125 years ago. Since then, our understanding of various functions and metabolism of this important molecule has grown over these years. But it is only now, in the last decade, that a somewhat complete picture of its metabolism has emerged. Glutathione metabolism has till now been largely depicted and understood by the γ-glutamyl cycle that was proposed in 1970. However, new findings and knowledge particularly on the transport and degradation of glutathione have revealed that many aspects of the γ-glutamyl cycle are incorrect...

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are contaminants of emerging concern and have been detected worldwide in water bodies in trace concentrations. Most of these emerging contaminants are not regulated in water quality standards except a few in the developed countries. In the case of developing countries, research in this direction is at a nascent stage. For the effective management of Pharmaceutical contaminants (PC) in developing countries, the relevance of PCs as an emerging contaminant has to be analyzed followed by regular monitoring of the environment...

BACKGROUND: Five billion people lack access to safe, affordable, and timely surgical and anesthesia care. Significant challenges remain in the provision of surgical care in low-resource settings. Uganda is no exception. METHODS: From September to November 2016, we conducted a mixed-methods countrywide surgical capacity assessment at 17 randomly selected public hospitals in Uganda. Researchers conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders to understand factors related to the provision of surgical care...

BACKGROUND: The presence of a trauma surgeon during patient resuscitations is required at most American College of Surgeons-verified trauma centers despite little evidence showing improved patient outcomes in the less-than-critically injured (Tier 2) trauma patients. This study was designed to identify the impact of extending required surgeon response times on outcomes in tier 2 trauma patients. METHODS: An American College of Surgeons-verified level 2 trauma center extended the maximum allowed surgeon response time for tier 2 activations from 60 min to 120 min on November 1, 2011...

The clinical field of wound healing is challenged by numerous hurdles. Not only are wound healing disorders complex and multifactorial, but the corresponding patient population is diverse, often elderly and burdened by multiple comorbidities such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. The care of such patients requires a dedicated, multi-disciplinary team of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and scientists. In spite of the critical clinical need, it has been over 15 years since a treatment received approval for efficacy by the FDA in the United States...

BACKGROUND: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a major cause of pain and physical disability, and general practitioners (GPs) are usually the first point of contact for patients. Physiotherapy has been shown as effective in the management of lower-limb OA. The aim was to explore the beliefs of GPs on the physiotherapy management of lower-limb OA in primary care. METHODS: This is a qualitative study evaluating GP views about physiotherapy in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK. Participating GPs were recruited by systematic sampling, and invitation was given to GPs in 10 practices in the four localities in Sheffield...

. Education, motivations and working conditions of a cohort of nurses attending to an open-competition. INTRODUCTION: In the last decade, the progressive reduction of staff turnover decreased together with the number of open competitions, now attended by thousands of candidates, portraying an image of massive unemployment in the nursing profession. AIM: To describe the socio-demographic profile, the studies, previous work experiences and motivations of a cohort of nurses participats a maxi-competition in Lombardy region...

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is widely accepted as life-saving treatment for decompression illness. Yet its use in acute carbon monoxide poisoning has remained controversial because of inconsistent findings in clinical trials. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has an adjunctive role in managing gas gangrene, necrotising soft-tissue infection, and crush injury, as supported by case series. Several cases have been reported in the literature detailing the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in patients with severe anaemia in whom blood transfusion is not possible...

Introduction Myeloid differentiation primary response protein 88 (MyD88) is a critical adaptor protein involved in Toll-like and IL-1 receptor family signaling controlling innate immune responses and inflammation. Genetic deletion of MyD88 function results in profound suppression of inflammation and reduced resistance of the host to pathogens indicating non-redundant roles of MyD88. The TIR domain is critical for MyD88 dimerization and signaling for TLR and IL-1R family receptor. Areas covered Emerging evidence suggests that chemical disruption of the TIR domain attenuates cell activation and inhibits in vivo MyD88-dependent inflammation...

Aim: Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia causes significant morbidity and mortality and requires specific management to prevent complications. Most studies evaluating quality of care have been carried out in Europe and North America, and accurate epidemiological data are lacking in Asia. We aimed to describe the epidemiology and evaluate the quality of care for S. aureus bacteremia in Japan. Methods: From February 2011 to January 2014, we undertook a multicenter retrospective observational study in 10 departments of emergency and critical care in Japan...

It has been reported that hydrogen gas exerts a therapeutic effect in a wide range of disease conditions, from acute illness such as ischemia-reperfusion injury, shock, and damage healing to chronic illness such as metabolic syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and neurodegenerative diseases. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of hydrogen gas have been proposed, but the molecular target of hydrogen gas has not been identified. We established the Center for Molecular Hydrogen Medicine to promote non-clinical and clinical research on the medical use of hydrogen gas through industry-university collaboration and to obtain regulatory approval of hydrogen gas and hydrogen medical devices (http://www...

Introduction: Acute cholangitis (AC) is a clinical condition that requires prompt medical management with IV fluids, antibiotics, and biliary drainage (BD). The optimal timing for BD remains unclear. Aim: To investigate the effect of biliary drainage timing on clinical outcomes in AC. Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients with AC admitted to the ICU using the Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care III (MIMIC-III) database...

Recent estimates indicate that over 40,000 children die annually in the United States and a majority have life-limiting conditions. Children at end of life require extensive healthcare resources, including multiple hospital readmissions and emergency room visits. Yet, many children still suffer from symptoms at end of life-including fatigue, pain, dyspnea, and anxiety-with less than 10% of these children utilizing hospice care services. A critical barrier to pediatric hospice use was the original federal regulations associated with the hospice care that required a diagnosis of 6 months to live and the discontinuation of all curative treatments...

OBJECTIVES: Although lung ultrasound (US) has been shown to have high diagnostic accuracy in patients presenting with acute dyspnea, its precision in critically ill patients is unknown. We investigated common areas of agreement and disagreement by studying 6 experts as they interpreted lung US studies in a cohort of intensive care unit (ICU) patients. METHODS: A previous study by our group asked experts to rate the quality of 150 lung US studies performed by 10 novices in a population of mechanically ventilated patients...

In the last 5 decades, the developments of osseointegrated titanium implants (since 1965) have led to the success of contemporary dentistry. Endosseous implant-supported restorations delivered in accordance with the traditional Branemark protocol have proven to be highly predictable. Today, implants are becoming increasingly common in dental care and provide more therapeutic options, but treatment planning and the sequencing of therapy are critical in implant-assisted and implant-supported cases. Implant prostheses give patients and dentists more options in treatment planning, but also present challenging decisions regarding implant surgery...