Live Surgery: Essential Surgical Education or Putting Patients at Risk?

Sharing Insulin Pens: Are You Putting Patients at Risk?

E ase of administration, accuracy, and convenience are among the hallmark characteristics of insulin pens. These devices, which have gained popularity over the past 10 years, are designed to be used multiple times for a single person, using a new needle for each injection. Unfortunately, reports of themisuse of insulin pens also have been growing. Backflow of blood and other biologic material i...

Adult tonsillectomy--are long waiting lists putting patients at risk?

There is a paucity of data on morbidity associated with long waiting lists for adult tonsillectomy. The aim of this study was to assess the morbidity associated with long waiting lists for adult tonsillectomy in a developing world setting. Of 350 patients on the waiting list at Groote Schuur Hospital for 18 months or more, only 55 were contactable. This low yield (15.7%) from the telephonic sur...

Impact of MitraClip™ therapy on secondary mitral valve surgery in patients at high surgical risk.

OBJECTIVE Conventional or minimally invasive surgical mitral valve repair (MVR) is the gold-standard treatment for severe mitral regurgitation (MR) of any etiology. Given its good safety profile, trans-catheter MVR with the MitraClip™ device is used increasingly for high-risk or inoperable patients. We report our experience with failed MitraClip™ therapy and its impact on subsequent surgical st...

Risk of surgical site infection in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery.

This study aimed to identify risk factors associated with surgical site infections in orthopedic surgical patients at a public hospital in Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 2005 and 2007. A historical cohort of 3,543 patients submitted to orthopedic surgical procedures. A descriptive analysis was conducted and surgical site infection incidence rates were estimated. To verify the association between...

Putting Patients at the Center of Care.