Blood culture contamination greatly affects clinical decisions. Hence, it is of interest to assess the influence of factors such as the volume of blood drawn and the site of blood draw on the rates of blood culture contamination. In a retrospective study, blood cultures from infants and children up to 18 years of age who had at least one positive blood culture during the year 2006 were analyzed...

A structured questionnaire was verbally administered individually to a random sample of the general population, 18 years of age and older, of rural and urban Chandigarh and of two villages in Jullundur district, Punjab. Out of a total of 1031 respondents, 23.7 percent were current users, 16.0 percent admitted of alcohol use in the past but were not current users, and 60.3 percent had never had ...

Given that such a large and growing share of young adults ages 19 to 26 lacks health insurance coverage, increasing policy attention has been focused on addressing coverage gaps among young adults. Fully 10.3 million young adults—or one in three (32 percent)—lack health insurance coverage. While young adults constitute 18 percent of the adult population, they make up 28 percent of the uninsured...

PURPOSE Despite the evolution in the management of traumatic colorectal injuries in both civilian and military settings during the previous few decades, they continue to be a source of significant morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to analyze management and clinical outcomes from a cohort of patients suffering colorectal injuries. METHODS This was a retrospective analysis ...