Articles: mortality.
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Palliat Support Care · Dec 2010
Transforming the mortality review conference to assess palliative care in the acute care setting: a feasibility study.
This project sought to evaluate the impact of a hospital-based Palliative Care Consultation (PCC) service utilizing a common practice: the resident mortality review conference. ⋯ The mortality review process was found to be valuable in assessing care delivery for patients near the end of life. The tool yielded results that were consistent with findings of other studies looking at pain and symptom management, advance care planning, and the rate of palliative care consults across major diagnostic categories, supporting the face validity of the mortality review process.
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Prehosp Disaster Med · Nov 2010
Changes in mortality rates and humanitarian conditions in Darfur, Sudan 2003-2007.
The Darfur region of Sudan has been an intense focus of humanitarian concern since rebellions began there early in 2003. In 2004, the US Secretary of State declared that conflict in Darfur represented genocide. Since 2003, many sample surveys and various mortality estimates for Darfur have been made. ⋯ If mortality had continued at the high rate documented in 2004, by January 2009, there would have been 330,000 additional deaths. With the humanitarian assistance provided through the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, these people are alive today. A focus on excess deaths among noncombatants may draw attention away from other needs, such as establishing better security, improving service delivery to the displaced, and advocating for internally displaced persons to be reached today and to re-establish their lives and livelihoods tomorrow.
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Eur J Trauma Emerg S · Oct 2010
Operative stabilization of flail chest injuries: review of literature and fixation options.
Flail chest injuries cause significant morbidity, especially in multiply injured patients. Standard treatment is typically focused on the underlying lung injury and involves pain control and positive pressure ventilation. Several studies suggest improved short- and long-term outcomes following operative stabilization of the flail segments. Despite these studies, flail chest fixation remains a largely underutilized procedure. ⋯ Operative treatment can provide substantial benefits to patients with flail chest injuries and respiratory compromise requiring mechanical ventilation. The use of anatomically contoured rib plates and intramedullary splints greatly simplifies the procedure of flail chest fixation.
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Intensive care medicine · Oct 2010
Multicenter StudyReasons for refusal of admission to intensive care and impact on mortality.
To identify factors influencing triage decisions and investigate whether admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) could reduce mortality compared with treatment on the ward. ⋯ We suggest that intensivists take great care to avoid ICU admission of patients judged not severe enough for ICU or with low performance status, and they tend to admit surgical patients more readily than medical patients. Interestingly, they do not judge age per se as a reason for refusal of ICU admission. Admission to ICU was associated with a reduction of both 28- and 90-day mortality, particularly in patients with greater severity of illness at time of triage.