Plos One
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To stipulate a new definition for long-stay patients (LSPs) in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). We defined LSPs as the 10% of patients with the longest PICU length-of-stay (LOS) for each age and diagnostic group. To assess whether the thresholds (days of PICU stay) for the definition of LSPs in PICU significantly differ among diagnostic and age categories. To determine whether independent associations exist between patients' characteristics at admission and LSPs diagnosis in pre-specified diagnostic and age groups. ⋯ Our results showed a significantly different definitions of LSPs for specific diagnoses and age categories. Readmission to PICU and higher acuity at admission are associated with longer PICU length-of-stay in the majority of diagnostic groups. A more personalized definition of LSPs in children based on actual patients' characteristics should probably be used in an effort to optimize care and reduce costs.
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There is a lack of reliable epidemiological data on long-term survival trends of first-ever stroke patients in Lithuanian population. ⋯ This population-based study of patients with first-ever stroke demonstrated that the long-term survival was better in women than men, and improved significantly in both men and women during the past decade. Long-term survival was better of those with first-ever ischemic stroke and of younger age- 25 to 54 years.
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Videolaryngoscopy (VL) as a new airway management technique has evolved in recent decades, and a large number of videolaryngoscopes are now available on the market. Most recent major guidelines already recommend the immediate availability and use of VL in difficult airway management scenarios. However, national data on the availability of VL, introduction into practice and patterns of use are rarely published. Therefore, the current study aimed to provide data on VL in Hungary. ⋯ Approximately two-thirds of Hungarian anesthesiologists have immediate access to videolaryngoscopes, which are used mainly for difficult airway management. The overall attitude towards VL is positive, and many videolaryngoscopes are known and have been used by Hungarian anesthesiologists. However, only a few devices on the market are used commonly. Based on the results, further improvement might be recommended regarding VL training and availability.
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To compare the clinical and radiological outcomes between patients with long posterior cervical fusion (PCF) in which fusion stopped at C7 versus patients in which fusion crossed the cervicothoracic junction (CTJ). ⋯ Our study demonstrates that multi-level PCF stopping at C7 does not negatively affect C7-T1 segment failure, fusion rate, neck pain, neurologic outcomes, and global sagittal alignment of the cervical spine. Hence, it is unnecessary to extend the long PCF levels caudally across the healthy CTJ for fear of development of adjacent segmental disease (ASD) at the C7-T1 segment.
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Comparative Study
Relevance of selective neural stimulation with a multicontact cuff electrode using multicriteria analysis.
Neural multicontact cuff electrodes have the potential to activate selectively different groups of muscles and offer more possibilities of electrical configurations compared to whole ring cuffs. Several previous studies explored multicontact electrodes with a limited set of configurations which were sorted using a selectivity index only. The objective of the present study is to classify a larger number of configurations, i.e. the way the current is spread over the 12 contacts of the cuff electrode, using additional criteria such as robustness (i.e. ability to maintain selectivity within a range of current amplitudes) and efficiency (i.e. electrical consumption of the considered multipolar configuration versus the electrical consumption of the reference whole-ring configuration). ⋯ Results indicated that the optimal configuration depends on the weights applied to selectivity, robustness and efficiency criteria. Tripolar transverse is the most robust configuration and the less efficient, whereas tripolar longitudinal ring is efficient but not robust. New configurations issued from a previous theoretical study we carried out such as steering current ring appears as good compromise between the 3 criteria.