Plos One
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Functional ability and quality of life in critical illness survivors with intensive care unit acquired weakness: A secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial.
Intensive care unit acquired weakness (ICUAW) may contribute to functional disability in ICU survivors, yet performance-based data for general ICU patients are lacking. This study explored functional outcomes of (1) and risk factors for (2) weakness at ICU discharge. ⋯ In this general, critically ill cohort, weakness at ICU discharge was associated with short-term functional disability and prolonged hospital length of stay, but not with quality of life, which was equivalent to the values for patients without ICUAW within six months. Immobilisation may be a modifiable risk factor to prevent ICUAW. Prospective trials are needed to validate these results.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Intranasal fentanyl spray versus intravenous opioids for the treatment of severe pain in patients with cancer in the emergency department setting: A randomized controlled trial.
Intranasal fentanyl (INF) quickly and noninvasively relieves severe pain, whereas intravenous hydromorphone (IVH) reliably treats severe cancer pain but requires vascular access. The trial evaluated the efficacy of INF relative to IVH for treating cancer patients with severe pain in an emergency department (ED) setting. ⋯ Two of three analyses supported non-inferiority of INF versus IVH, while one analysis was inconclusive. Compared to IVH, INF had the advantage of shorter time to administration.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Do genetic ancestry tests increase racial essentialism? Findings from a randomized controlled trial.
Genetic ancestry testing is a billion-dollar industry, with more than 26 million tests sold by 2018, which raises concerns over how it might influence test-takers' understandings of race. While social scientists argue that genetic ancestry tests may promote an essentialist view of race as fixed and determining innate abilities, others suggest it could reduce essentialist views by reinforcing a view of race as socially constructed. Essentialist views are a concern because of their association with racism, particularly in its most extreme forms. ⋯ Within the treatment arm, essentialist beliefs significantly declined after testing among individuals with high genetic knowledge, but increased among those with the least genetic knowledge. Additional secondary analysis show that essentialist beliefs do not change based on the specific ancestries reported in test-takers' results. These results indicate that individuals' interpretations of genetic ancestry testing results, and the links between genes and race, may depend on their understanding of genetics.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Postoperative analgesia using dezocine alleviates depressive symptoms after colorectal cancer surgery: A randomized, controlled, double-blind trial.
Postoperative depression is one of the most common mental disorders in patients undergoing cancer surgery and it often delays postoperative recovery. We investigated whether dezocine, an analgesic with inhibitory effect on the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake, could relieve postoperative depressive symptoms in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery. ⋯ Intravenous analgesia using dezocine can relieve postoperative depression symptoms and improve sleep quality in patients undergoing colorectal cancer surgery.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Optimal paramedic numbers in resuscitation of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: A randomized controlled study in a simulation setting.
The effect of paramedic crew size in the resuscitation of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains inconclusive. We hypothesised that teams with a larger crew size have better resuscitation performance including chest compression fraction (CCF), advanced life support (ALS), and teamwork performance than those with a smaller crew size. ⋯ Larger paramedic crew size (≧4 paramedics) did not significantly increase the overall CCF in OHCA resuscitation but showed higher CCF in manual CPR period before the setup of the CPR machine. A crew size of ≧4 paramedics can also shorten the time of ALS interventions, while teams with 5 paramedics will have the best teamwork performance. Paramedic teams with a smaller crew size should focus more on the quality of manual CPR, teamwork, and training how to troubleshoot a M-CPR machine.