Thoracic surgery clinics
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Pulmonary complications are the major source of morbidity and mortality after esophageal resection, and numerous studies have identified various associated with these complications. This article discusses preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors affecting pulmonary complications and strategies to reduce these complications after esophagectomy.
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In conclusion, chylothorax after esophagectomy is a devastating complication with high mortality rates if not corrected. A heightened awareness of this complication with early diagnosis and aggressive reoperation leads to excellent outcome. Reoperation is not indicated only when medical therapy significantly slows the daily loss of chyle and there are no metabolic consequences. ⋯ Reoperation should be based on the approach initially used for the esophagectomy, the location of the leak, and the side that has the chylothorax. The conduit should be handled carefully at the time of reoperation, the leak identified, the duct or the leaking nodal basin clipped and glued, and a pleurodesis performed. Following these principles minimizes the morbidity of a serious postoperative complication.
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Thoracic surgery clinics · Nov 2005
ReviewWithdrawing life-sustaining treatment: ethical considerations.
In the community of caregivers, there is a general consensus that some heroic measures are not obligatory in certain circumstances that are defined by professional norms. For example, cardiopulmonary resuscitation in terminal cancer patients is not endorsed because of its violation of the dignity of the irremediably ill, and its unproductive cost to society. Moving back from this extreme, the availability and effectiveness of life-prolonging treatments, such as ventilators, dialysis, and implantable mechanical hearts, moves into a domain where the boundary limit of the obligation to preserve life is less clearly defined. ⋯ Neglecting this part of the duty to provide appropriate care brings moral anguish to all participants in the peculiar circumstances that have come to surround death in the ICUs of developed countries. It is helpful to accept the inevitable reality that death is, in Shakespeare's words, a "necessary end" to all mortal life, and to recognize that defying death with technology can sometimes become an unnatural and degrading activity, however well motivated. The withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment, when conducted expertly, is a shared human experience that can be gratifying, although difficult for all concerned.
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Informed consent plays a major role in forming a therapeutic alliance with the patient. The informed consent process has evolved from simple consent, in which the surgeon needed only to obtain the patient's permission for a procedure, into informed consent, in which the surgeon provides the patient with information about clinically salient features of a procedure, the patient understands this information adequately, and the patient voluntarily authorizes the surgeon to perform the procedure. Special circumstances of informed consent include conflicting professional opinions, consent with multiple physicians, patients who are undecided or refuse surgery, patients with diminished decision-making capacity, surrogate decision making, pediatric assent, and consent for the involvement of trainees.
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Higher standards of evidence for surgical procedures are likely to be demanded in the future by health insurance providers. Consequently, more formal and rigorous surgical research, including RCTs, will become more prevalent. Facing the ethical challenges of surgical research requires understanding of the ethically significant differences between surgical practice and research and the ways in which the ethical standards appropriate for the design and conduct of clinical research differ from the ethics of clinical care.