Acta Chir Belg
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Identifying trauma patients that need emergent blood product transfusion is crucial. The Trauma Induced Coagulopathy Clinical Score (TICCS) is an easy-to-measure score developed to meet this medical need. We hypothesized that TICCS would assist in identifying patients that need a transfusion in a large cohort of severe trauma patients from the TraumaRegister DGU® (TR-DGU). ⋯ This retrospective study confirms that the TICCS is a useful and simple score for discriminating between trauma patients with and without the need for emergent blood product transfusion.
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Review Meta Analysis
Triclosan-coated sutures for the prevention of surgical-site infections: a meta-analysis.
The scope of this article is to perform a meta-analysis of the studies that compare the use of triclosan-coated sutures (TCS) to uncoated sutures in prevention of surgical-site infections (SSIs). ⋯ Further randomized studies are needed to confirm the role of TCS in specific surgical procedures and whether or not they are related with lower risk for mortality.
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Observational Study
Complications of skull reconstruction after decompressive craniectomy.
Decompressive craniectomy can be a life-saving procedure. Later reconstruction of the skull using the stored bone flap ("cranioplasty") is often associated with complications. These complications require new procedures and often result in the reconstruction of the skull using an expensive patient-specific cranial implant. ⋯ Cranioplasty using the stored bone flap after decompressive craniectomy is associated with a high percentage of complications. Selecting patients at risk could possibly indicate cases where an immediate custom-made implant technique would be required.
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Case Reports
Stump appendicitis 10 years after appendectomy, a rare, but serious complication of appendectomy, a case report.
We describe a case of stump appendicitis with the formation of abdominal abscesses in a 41-year-old patient 10 years prior appendectomy. The patient consulted with fever (38.1 °C) and abdominal pain, located at the right iliac fossa. Imaging studies showed signs of abscesses, located at the right iliac fossa, without clear origin of these abscesses. ⋯ Stump appendicitis is a rare complication seen after appendectomy and is generally not considered a possible etiology in patients presenting with fever and right iliac fossa abdominal pain with a history of appendectomy. This often delays the correct diagnosis and results in an associated increased incidence of complications. We describe a case of stump appendicitis occurring 10 years after initial appendectomy.
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Penetrating aortic ulcer is a rare pathology, often clinically silent, but potentially fatal when manifesting as an acute aortic syndrome. It is more often detected in recent years, due to ageing of the population and more widespread use of computed tomography. A literature review aims to define the distinct disease entity of penetrating aortic ulcer. ⋯ Penetrating aortic ulcer represents 2-7% of all acute aortic syndromes. Symptomatic penetrating aortic ulcer requires coverage by thoracic endovascular stent grafting according to the recent guidelines.