Improving outcomes following emergency laparotomy

Variations in mortality after emergency laparotomy: the first report of the UK Emergency Laparotomy Network.

BACKGROUND Emergency laparotomy is a common intra-abdominal procedure. Outcomes are generally recognized to be poor, but there is a paucity of hard UK data, and reports have mainly been confined to single-centre studies. METHODS Clinicians were invited to join an 'Emergency Laparotomy Network' and to collect prospective non-risk-adjusted outcome data from a large number of NHS Trusts providin...

Secondary prevention: improving outcomes following myocardial infarction.

In the first five years of the 1990s, the role of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in the treatment of patients with myocardial infarction was investigated in a series of large controlled trials involving more than 100 000 patients (table 1). The early use of ACE inhibitors after acute myocardial infarction (MI) has been investigated in four trials (CONSENSUS II, GISSI 3, ISIS 4, ...

Surgical Wound Infection Following Laparotomy

Background: Surgical wound (site) infection is the commonest complication following laparotomy for clean-contaminated and contaminated abdominal operations. Good surgical technique and perioperative prophylactic antibiotics in clean-contaminated and contaminated abdominal operations contribute to the low rate of surgical wound infection and its complications. The objectives of this study were t...

Well-promising outcomes with vacuum-assisted closure in an infected wound following laparotomy: A case report

INTRODUCATION Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) represents an alternative method to optimize conditions for wound healing. Delayed wound closure is a significant health problem, which is directly associated with pain and suffering from patient's aspect, as well with social and financial burden. PRESENTATION OF CASE We report a case of vacuum-assisted wound therapy with hypertonic solutio...

Improving long-term patient outcomes following intensive care.