BACKGROUND Improving outcomes after serious injury is important to patients, patients' families, and healthcare providers. Identifying early risk factors for long-term disability after injury will help critical care providers recognize patients at risk. OBJECTIVES To identify early predictors of long-term disability after injury and to ascertain if age, level of disability before injury, post...

The author reviews the clinical and special social environmental data from the Soteria Project and its direct successors. Two random assignment studies of the Soteria model and its modification for long-term system clients reveal that roughly 85% to 90% of acute and long-term clients deemed in need of acute hospitalization can be returned to the community without use of conventional hospital tr...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency and clinical implications of a delayed echocardiographic response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). BACKGROUND Long-term prognosis for CRT patients is routinely based on the assessment of echocardiograms after 6 to 12 months of therapy. Some patients, however, may require a longer period of therapy before echocardiogr...

INTRODUCTION The use of hospital care increases significantly with age. Older people coming to the emergency department have three to seven times higher rates of hospitalization than younger people. Hospitalization can lead to loss of independence and also need for long-term care at discharge. METHODS A prospective observational non-randomized study of elderly patients admitted to the Departm...

Studies of the long-term outcome of pulmonary rehabilitation have measured quality of life (QOL) mainly as disease-specific functional impairment, but long-term effects on overall satisfaction with health or life have not yet been adequately evaluated. Furthermore, the influence of personality traits on the long-term outcome of pulmonary rehabilitation have not so far been examined. The followi...

INTRODUCTION The high incidence of patients beginning dialysis treatment with venous catheters, as well as the growing number of patients with permanent catheter access, has increased catheter- related blood infections and their consequences. Thus the search for substances with anticoagulant properties that also prevent catheter contamination is necessary. OBJECTIVE This study aimed at compar...

Background: The benefits of non-invasive ventilation (NIV) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been debated for many years due to the conflicting results observed in these patients. The aim of this metaanalysis was to assess the long-term effects of NIV in stable patients with COPD. Methods: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL databas...

BACKGROUND Hip fracture is a common health problem in the elderly that is associated with increased mortality. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in elderly patients undergoing surgery and is associated with the clinical outcome. We evaluated the incidence and risk factors of AKI in elderly patients undergoing hip fracture surgery and the impact of AKI on short- and long-term ...

We examined the effect of drug treatment in 1996 on repeated (> or =2) emergency department visits and hospitalization in 1997 in a cohort of New York State Medicaid-enrolled human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and HIV-negative drug users. In HIV-positive drug users, the adjusted odds of repeated emergency department visits were increased for those receiving no long-term treatment (odds...