Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Parathyroid carcinoma is a rare endocrine malignancy that lacks an established system for risk categorization. This study evaluated a prognostic scoring system for recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with parathyroid carcinoma. ⋯ A prognostic scoring system using vascular invasion, age, and serum calcium level at initial parathyroidectomy can be used to predict RFS. This categorization might be helpful for clinical decisions relative to the timing and use of adjuvant therapy. Comprehensive validation using multiple cohorts will be needed to confirm applicability.
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Outpatient laparoscopic appendectomy is being used increasingly as a treatment option for acute, uncomplicated appendicitis. This was a prospective validation study in a large, urban, public safety-net hospital. ⋯ Outpatient appendectomy is safe in a public hospital and results in shorter hospital length of stay and decreased healthcare costs. Strict criteria for discharge are important to identify patients who should be admitted for observation.
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Observational Study
Deceased Organ Donor Management: Does Hospital Volume Matter?
Identification of strategies to improve organ donor use remains imperative. Despite the association between hospital volume and outcomes for many common disease processes, there have been no studies that assess the impact of organ donor hospital volume on organ yield. ⋯ Deceased organ donor hospital volume impacts organ yield, with the highest-volume centers being 52% more likely to achieve ≥4 organs transplanted per donor. Efforts should be made to share practices from these higher-volume centers and consideration should be given to centralization of donor care.
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Observational Study
Association between State Medical Malpractice Environment and Postoperative Outcomes in the United States.
The US medical malpractice system assumes that the threat of liability should deter negligence, but it is unclear whether malpractice environment affects health care quality. We sought to explore the association between state malpractice environment and postoperative complication rates. ⋯ Higher risk malpractice environments were not consistently associated with a lower likelihood of surgical postoperative complications, bringing into question the ability of malpractice lawsuits to promote health care quality.
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Admission physiology predicts mortality after injury, but may be improved by resuscitation before transfer. This phenomenon, which has been termed lead-time bias, may lead to underprediction of mortality in transferred patients and inaccurate benchmarking in centers receiving large numbers of transfer patients. We sought to determine the impact of using vital signs on arrival at the referring center vs on arrival at the trauma center in mortality prediction models for transferred trauma patients. ⋯ Trauma center vital signs underestimate mortality in transfer patients and may lead to incorrect estimates of expected mortality. Where possible, benchmarking efforts should use referring hospital vital signs to risk-adjust IHT patients.