Annals of surgery
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Enhancement of surgical informed consent by addition of repeat back: a multicenter, randomized controlled clinical trial.
In this randomized, controlled, unblinded trial, we sought to test Repeat Back's (RB) effect on comprehension following informed consent discussions. ⋯ RB implemented within an electronic informed consent system improved patient comprehension. The additional time required was acceptable to providers. RB should be considered as an enhancement to surgical informed consent.This clinical trial was registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov (Identifier NCT00288899).
-
The public health implications of regional variation in incidence and outcome of severe traumatic injury remain to be analyzed. The objective of this study was to determine whether the incidence and outcome associated with severe traumatic injury differs across geographic regions of North America. ⋯ In this study involving 9 geographic regions in North America, there were significant and important regional differences in severe traumatic injury, incidence, and outcome. These differences were sustained for patients with either isolated blunt or penetrating injury mechanisms.
-
Anemia and operative blood loss are common in the elderly, but evidence is lacking on whether intraoperative blood transfusions can reduce the risk of postoperative death. ⋯ Intraoperative blood transfusion is associated with a lower 30-day postoperative mortality among elderly patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery if there is substantial operative blood loss or low preoperative hematocrit levels (<24%). Transfusion is associated with increased mortality risks for those with preoperative hematocrit levels between 30% and 35.9% and <500 mL of blood loss.
-
Comparative Study
High Frequency of Aneuploidy Defines Ulcerative Colitis-Associated Carcinomas: A Prognostic Comparison to Sporadic Colorectal Carcinomas.
Aneuploidy is an independent risk factor for forthcoming carcinogenesis in ulcerative colitis (UC). An inferior prognosis of patients with ulcerative colitis-associated colorectal cancer (UCC) compared with those with sporadic colorectal cancer (SCC) has been reported, but remains controversial. This prompted us to investigate if aneuploidy can be observed in UCCs as frequently as in their sporadic counterpart and if aneuploidy per se might be a driving feature of poor prognosis in UCC. ⋯ UC-associated carcinomas presented aneuploidy at significantly higher frequency than sporadic colorectal carcinomas (P < 0.0006). UCCs and aneuploid SCCs share a similar prognosis inferior to that of diploid SCCs. Aneuploidy proved to be the strongest independent prognostic marker for R0-resected colorectal cancer patients overall.
-
Hospitals increasingly rely on surgical quality assessment programs that require considerable resources to capture outcomes after hospital discharge. However, it is unclear whether capturing postdischarge complications and deaths is important. Our objectives were (1) to determine the frequency of postdischarge complications and deaths and (2) to determine whether hospital rankings change with inclusion of postdischarge outcomes. ⋯ A substantial proportion of postoperative complications and deaths occur after hospital discharge. Inclusion of postdischarge events considerably affects hospital quality rankings and outlier status designations. Quality improvement programs and research that do not consider postdischarge outcomes may offer incomplete information to hospitals, payers, providers, and patients.