Articles: mortality.
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Palliat Support Care · Mar 2009
ReviewMorbidity, mortality, and parental grief: a review of the literature on the relationship between the death of a child and the subsequent health of parents.
This review was undertaken to analyze the research to date and identify areas for future research regarding the associations between parental grief after the death of a child and the subsequent health of the parents, including both their mortality and morbidity risks. ⋯ Based on these findings, it is clear that more methodologically sound research is necessary to clarify the relationship between parental grief after the death of a child and the parents' subsequent morbidity and mortality risks.
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This systematic review of the Brazilian and worldwide literature aims to evaluate the incidence and causes of perioperative and anesthesia-related mortality. Studies were identified by searching the Medline and Scielo databases, followed by a manual search for relevant articles. Our review includes studies published between 1954 and 2007. ⋯ Our systematic review of the literature shows that perioperative mortality rates are higher in Brazil than in developed countries, while anesthesia-related mortality rates are similar in Brazil and in developed countries. Most cases of anesthesia-related mortality are associated with cardiocirculatory and airway events. These data may be useful in developing strategies to prevent anesthesia-related deaths.
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Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis · Jan 2009
ReviewExacerbation rate, health status and mortality in COPD--a review of potential interventions.
COPD is prevalent in Western society and its incidence is rising in the developing world. Acute exacerbations of COPD, about 50% of which are unreported, lead to deterioration in quality of life and contribute significantly to disease burden. Quality of life deteriorates with time; thus, most of the health burden occurs in more severe disease. ⋯ The choice of an inhaler device is a key component of COPD therapy and this requires more attention from physicians than perhaps we are aware of. Disease management programs, characterized as they are by patient centeredness, improve quality of life and decrease hospitalization rates. Most outcomes in COPD can be modified by interventions and these are well tolerated and have acceptable safety profiles.
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Curr. Opin. Cardiol. · Nov 2008
ReviewIncreased mortality, morbidity, and cost associated with red blood cell transfusion after cardiac surgery.
Literature since 2006 was reviewed to identify the harms and costs of red blood cell (RBC) transfusion. ⋯ The harms of RBC transfusion have potentially serious and long-term consequences for patients and are costly for health services. This evidence should shift clinicians' equipoise towards more restrictive transfusion practice. The immediate aim should be to avoid transfusing a small number of RBC units for general malaise attributed to anaemia, a practice that appears to occur in about 50% of transfused patients. Randomized trials comparing restrictive and liberal transfusion triggers are urgently needed to directly compare the benefits and harms from RBC transfusion.
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The standard terminal age category in disease reporting in the United States has been 85 years and older since the 1940s, but the dramatically increasing share of the US population reaching this age has rendered the single category inadequate for surveillance, research, and analysis. Important age-specific variations in mortality among the oldest old are masked by the continued use of this category. Greater specificity in age-specific data for the oldest old would aid in disease surveillance and etiologic research and broaden awareness and understanding of human longevity.