Articles: patients.
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Multicenter Study
A Study of Clinical Coding Accuracy in Surgery: Implications for the Use of Administrative Big Data for Outcomes Management.
Clinical coding is the translation of clinical activity into a coded language. Coded data drive hospital reimbursement and are used for audit and research, and benchmarking and outcomes management purposes. ⋯ The coded data are a key engine for knowledge-driven health care provision. They are used, increasingly at individual surgeon level, to benchmark performance. Surgical clinical coding is prone to subjectivity, variability, and error (SVE). Having a specialty-by-specialty understanding of the nature and clinical significance of informatics variability and adopting strategies to reduce it, are necessary to allow accurate assumptions and informed decisions to be made concerning the scope and clinical applicability of administrative data in surgical outcomes improvement.
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Although breast conservation is therapeutically equivalent to mastectomy for most patients with early-stage breast cancer, an increasing number of patients are pursuing mastectomy, which may be followed by breast reconstruction. We sought to evaluate long-term quality of life and cosmetic outcomes after different locoregional management approaches, as perceived by patients themselves. ⋯ Patient-reported cosmetic satisfaction was similar after breast conservation and after mastectomy with reconstruction. In patients undergoing postmastectomy radiation, the use of autologous reconstruction may mitigate the deleterious impact of radiation on cosmetic outcomes.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Outcomes associated with the use of renal replacement therapy in children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation after heart surgery: a multi-institutional analysis.
The primary objective of this investigation was to study the association between renal replacement therapy (RRT) and outcomes in children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). ⋯ We demonstrated worsening outcomes in children receiving ECMO with RRT compared to children receiving ECMO without RRT. Although the results could reflect confounding by severity of illness, they provide a rationale for prospective testing of use of RRT in critically ill children receiving ECMO with heart surgery.
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Manufacturers' weight-based recommendations for laryngeal mask airway (LMA) sizes are not scientifically founded and have never been validated clinically. ⋯ Manufacturers' weight-based recommendations for LMA size reflect clinical practice in children, but not in adults and adolescents. In these age groups, choice of LMA size is influenced by sex and weight, although with wider ranges than those recommended by manufacturers.
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Intensive care medicine · Jun 2015
Multicenter StudyFeasibility and utility of the use of real time random safety audits in adult ICU patients: a multicentre study.
The two aims of this study were first to analyse the feasibility and utility (to improve the care process) of implementing a new real time random safety tool and second to explore the efficacy of this tool in core hospitals (those participating in tool design) versus non-core hospitals. ⋯ Real time safety audits improved the care process and adherence to the clinical practice guidelines and proved to be most useful in situations of high care load and in patients with more severe disease. The effect was greater in core hospitals.