OBJECTIVE The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has recommended that elective deliveries not be performed before 39 weeks of gestation, to minimize prematurity-related neonatal complications. Because a worrisome number of elective deliveries were occurring before 39 weeks of gestation in our system, we developed and implemented a program to decrease the number of these early t...

BACKGROUND The American Board of Internal Medicine Certification Examination (ABIM-CE) is one of several methods used to assess medical knowledge, an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) core competency for graduating internal medicine residents. With recent changes in graduate medical education program directors and internal medicine residents are seeking evidence to gu...

BACKGROUND In 2004, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended that an elective caesarean section for an uncomplicated pregnancy should not be carried out before 39 completed weeks due to increased risk of respiratory morbidity in newborns. We describe the trends and variation across 63 English NHS trusts in the timing of elective caesarean section (CS) for low-risk singl...

BACKGROUND Recently, it has been demonstrated that rescuers could safely provide a low, static downward force in direct contact with patients during elective cardioversion. The purpose of our experimental study was to investigate whether shock delivery during uninterrupted chest compressions may have an impact on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality and can be safely performed in a reali...

OBJECTIVES The receptor activator of the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) ligand (RANKL), its membrane receptor RANK and its decoy receptor osteoprotegerin (OPG) are all members of the tumour necrosis factor family involved in bone metabolism and immune response. We evaluated the activation of the OPG/RANKL/RANK pathway in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with and without cardiopulmonary bypas...

PATIENT Male, 74 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) Symptoms: Palpable abdominal mass Medication: - Clinical Procedure: Abdominal aortic aneurysm repair Specialty: Surgery. OBJECTIVE Rare disease. BACKGROUND Coronary artery disease is common in elderly patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms. Here we report a case of the combination of surgical repair for abdominal aortic ane...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of preoperative patient and hospital factors on resource use, cost and length of stay (LOS) among patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCAB). DESIGN Observational retrospective study. SETTINGS Data from the Japanese Administrative Database. PARTICIPANTS Patients who underwent isolated, elective OPCAB between April 2011 and March ...

Variability in hospital occupancy negatively impacts the cost and quality of patient care delivery through increased emergency department (ED) congestion, emergency blockages and diversions, elective cancelations, backlogs in ancillary services, overstaffing, and understaffing. Controlling inpatient admissions can effectively reduce variability in hospital occupancy to mitigate these problems. ...

Early cholecystectomy for patients with acute cholecystitis is safe, cost effective, and leads to less time off work compared with delayed surgery. This study was designed to assess current practice in the management of acute cholecystitis in the UK. A postal questionnaire was sent to 440 consultant general surgeons to ascertain their current management of patients with acute cholecystitis. Rep...