Who Lives and Who Dies

Who dies from hernia?

Over 700 deaths in England and Wales each year are ascribed to an underlying cause of abdominal hernia, considerably more than for cholelithiasis, pancreatitis or inflammatory bowel disease. Abdominal hernias are considered amenable to surgical intervention, therefore hernia mortality is regarded as largely avoidable. None the less substantial variations in mortality exist at district level wit...

Dying among older adults in Switzerland: who dies in hospital, who dies in a nursing home?

BACKGROUND Institutional deaths (hospitals and nursing homes) are an important issue because they are often at odds with patient preference and associated with high healthcare costs. The aim of this study was to examine deaths in institutions and the role of individual, regional, and healthcare supply characteristics in explaining variation across Swiss Hospital Service Areas (HSAs). METHODS ...

Subarachnoid hemorrhage: who dies, and why?

INTRODUCTION Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a devastating form of stroke. Causes and mechanisms of in-hospital death after SAH in the modern era of neurocritical care remain incompletely understood. METHODS We studied 1200 consecutive SAH patients prospectively enrolled in the Columbia University SAH Outcomes Project between July 1996 and January 2009. Analysis was performed to identify pre...

Antegrade or Retrograde Accessory Pathway Conduction: Who Dies First?

A 36 year-old man with Wolff Parkinson White syndrome due to a left-sided accessory pathway (AP) was referred for catheter ablation. Whether abolition of antegrade and retrograde AP conduction during ablation therapy occurs simultaneously, is unclear. At the ablation procedure, radiofrequency delivery resulted in loss of preexcitation followed by a short run of orthodromic tachycardia with ecce...

Saving lives: who picks up the tab?