Journal of the American College of Surgeons
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Older patients with frailty syndrome have a greater risk of poor postoperative outcomes. In this study, we used a RE-AIM (reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, and maintenance) framework to implement an assessment tool to identify frail patients and targeted interventions to improve their outcomes. ⋯ A frailty assessment was able to identify elderly patients for provision of targeted, evidence-based frailty care. Despite limited uptake of the assessment by providers and completion of care plan components by nursing staff, implementation of the assessment and care interventions was associated with substantial decreases in complications among elderly surgical patients.
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Surgical crises represent unrecognized opportunities for improving patient safety and adding value in healthcare. The first step in a crisis response is to contain and mitigate harm. While the principles of damage control are well established in surgery, methods of containing harm on broader clinical and organizational levels are not clearly defined. ⋯ Crisis containment can be achieved by controlling operators' startle response, applying prioritization tools, and deploying drills against specific failures. The application of this model may extend to healthcare areas outside surgery.
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Patients with contaminated/dirty-infected defects are at high risk for postoperative complications after abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR). We evaluated outcomes of AWR using acellular dermal matrix (ADM) for mesh reinforcement and identified predictors of hernia recurrence (HR), surgical site occurrences (SSOs), and surgical site infections (SSIs). ⋯ SSIs and SSOs increase as contamination levels rise, but the risk of HR does not. AWR with ADM provides safe and durable outcomes, even with increasing levels of contamination.
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To date, there are insufficient data on long-term outcomes of weight loss surgery in children and adolescents with obesity beyond 5 years of follow-up. This study aimed to analyze durability of weight loss and comorbidity resolution, growth velocity, and adverse events associated with laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) in children and adolescents with severe obesity. ⋯ Long-term follow-up after LSG in children and adolescents demonstrates durable weight loss, maintained comorbidity resolution, and unaltered growth.
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Biography Historical Article
Vivien Thomas: The Unnamed Father of Atrial Septostomy.