Chronic post-operative opioid use after open cardiac surgery: A Danish population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of chronic opioid use after cardiac surgery is sparse. We therefore aimed to describe the proportion of new chronic post-operative opioid use after open cardiac surgery. METHODS: We used prospectively registered data from a national prescription registry and a clinical registry of 29 815 first-time cardiac surgeries from three Danish university hospitals. Data collection spanned from 2003 to 2016. The main outcome was chronic post-operative opioid use, defined as at least one opioid dispensing in the fourth post-operative quarter. Data were assessed for patient-level predictors of chronic post-operative opioid use, including pre-operative opioid use, opioid use at discharge, comorbidities, and procedural related variables. RESULTS: The overall proportion of post-operative opioid use was 10.6% (95% CI: 10.2-10.9). The proportion of new chronic post-operative opioid use was 5.7% (95% CI: 5.5-6.0) among pre-operative opioid naïve patients. The corresponding proportions among patients, who pre-operatively used low or high dose opioid (1-500 mg or > 500 mg cumulative morphine equivalent opioid), were 68.3% (95% CI: 66.1-70.4) and 76.3% (95% CI: 74.0-78.5) respectively. Risk factors associated with new chronic post-operative opioid use included: female gender, underweight and obesity, pre-operative comorbidities, acute surgery, ICU-time > 1 day, and post-operative complications. Strongest predictor of chronic post-operative opioid use was post-discharge use of opioid within one month after surgery (odds ratio 3.3, 95% CI: 2.8-4.0). CONCLUSION: New chronic post-operative opioid use after open cardiac surgery is common. Focus on post-discharge opioid use may help clinicians to reduce rates of new chronic opioid users.

Acute Kidney Injury and Long-term Risk of Cardiovascular Events After Cardiac Surgery: A Population-Based Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) on the long-term risk of myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, and all-cause mortality after elective cardiac surgery. The authors investigated whether time of onset of AKI altered the association between AKI and the adverse events. DESIGN: Population-based cohort study in 2006-2011. SETTING: Two university hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Adult elective cardiac surgical patients. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: AKI was defined as an increase in baseline creatinine according to the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes criteria. AKI was defined within 30 days of surgery, and also analyzed as early- or late-onset AKI. The authors followed patients from postoperative day 30 until hospitalization with myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, or death. Adjustment for confounding factors was done using propensity scores and standardized-mortality-ratio weights. A total of 1,457 (30.7%) of 4,742 patients developed AKI within 30 days of surgery and 470 (9.9%) patients experienced a composite cardiovascular endpoint. Comparing patients with and without postoperative AKI, weighted hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of 5-year risk of the composite cardiovascular endpoint was 1.41 (95% CI: 1.11-1.80). For each endpoint separately the weighted HR was similarly increased. Ninety-one days to 5-year weighted HR of all-cause mortality was 1.37 (95% CI: 1.05-1.80). The effect of AKI was similar for early- and late-onset AKI. CONCLUSIONS: Early- and late-onset AKI within 30 days of elective cardiac surgery was associated with a similarly increased 5-year risk of myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, and increased all-cause mortality.

[Home visits by a pharmacist after discharge from hospital]. / Hjemmebesøk av farmasøyt etter utskrivning.

BACKGROUND: Elderly patients using many medicines are at particular risk of making medication errors after discharge from hospital. This pilot study aims at investigating the feasibility and acceptance of improved written discharge information and home visits (by a pharmacist) to elderly patients who have newly been discharged from a medical department in a hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Patients (70 years and older) who needed at least 5 medicines and were about to be discharged from a medical department in a hospital, were offered home visits by a pharmacist 1, 5 and 26 weeks after discharge. A copy of the medication list was sent to their general practitioner (GP) the day the patient went home. During the home visit, the pharmacist provided information and training and recorded discrepancies between the hospital's medication list and the patients' actual medication use. 57 were invited to participate and 51 accepted the offer. During the 6-month project period, 5 patients died, one moved to a nursing home and one patient dropped out. Patients' and physicians' views on these measures were recorded. RESULTS: 53 discrepancies were disclosed for 29 of 51 patients during the first home visit. 26 discrepancies were disclosed during both the second and third visit; for 15/49 patients during the second and for 14/44 during the third visit. All involved GPs agreed that the medication list should be sent to the patient's GP the day the patient was discharged. Both hospital doctors and GPs regarded home visits by pharmacists to be useful for selected patients. INTERPRETATION: In conclusion, home visits by a pharmacist is feasible, well accepted by doctors and patients and may represent a useful method for reducing medication errors in newly discharged elderly patients. The improved routines for informing the GPs about patients' medication use at discharge were appreciated. A controlled intervention study is needed to substantiate the effects of the measures undertaken in this pilot study.

Multifocal electroretinogram delays predict sites of subsequent diabetic retinopathy.

PURPOSE: To examine the potential of abnormal mfERGs to predict the development of diabetic retinopathy at corresponding retinal locations 1 year later. METHODS: One eye of 11 diabetic patients with nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and 11 diabetic patients without retinopathy were retested 12 months after initial testing. At each time, mfERGs were recorded from 103 retinal locations, and fundus photographs were taken within 1 month of each recording. Local mfERG implicit times were measured and their z-scores were calculated based on results obtained from 20 age-matched control subjects. mfERG abnormalities were defined as z-scores of 2 or more for implicit time and z-scores of -2 or less for amplitude (P < or = 0.023). mfERG z-scores were mapped onto fundus photographs, and the relationship between baseline abnormal z-scores and new retinopathy at follow-up was examined. RESULTS: New retinopathy developed in 7 of the eyes with NPDR after 1 year. In these eyes, 70% of the mfERGs in areas of new retinopathy had abnormal implicit times at baseline. In contrast, only 24% of the responses in regions that remained retinopathy free were abnormal at baseline. Relative risk of development of new retinopathy over 1 year in the areas with abnormal baseline mfERG implicit times was approximately 21 times greater than that in the areas with normal baseline mfERGs (odds ratio = 31.4; P < 0.001). Eyes without initial retinopathy did not develop new retinopathy within the study period, although 4 of these 11 eyes had abnormal implicit times at baseline. mfERG implicit times tended to be more delayed at follow-up than at baseline in NPDR eyes, but not in eyes without retinopathy and control eyes. mfERG amplitudes had no predictive power. CONCLUSIONS: Localized functional abnormalities of the retina reflected by mfERG delays often precede the onset of new structural signs of diabetic retinopathy. Those functional abnormalities predict the local sites of new retinopathy observed 1 year later.

Local multifocal oscillatory potential abnormalities in diabetes and early diabetic retinopathy.

PURPOSE: To study retinal dysfunction in diabetes and early nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) using a new method to analyze local multifocal electroretinogram oscillatory potentials (mfOPs). METHODS: One eye of each of 26 normal subjects, 16 diabetic subjects without retinopathy (NoR), and 16 diabetic subjects with early NPDR was examined. Slow-flash multifocal electroretinograms (sf-mfERGs) were recorded from the central 45 degrees, and stereo fundus photographs of the diabetic eyes were taken. The first-order (K1), induced first-order (K1i), and second-order (K2) response components were extracted from each retinal location, and K1i and K2 were added to create Ks2. Responses from 35 contiguous areas were digitally filtered 90 to 225 Hz to isolate the mfOPs. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the mfOPs was calculated, and abnormality was defined as SNR below the fifth percentile of the normal subjects. RESULTS: Combining the K1i and K2 components to form Ks2 before isolation of the mfOPs by digital filtering increased the SNR. Mean Ks2 and K1 mfOP SNRs were abnormal in 25% and 19% of the NoR eyes, respectively, and both were abnormal in 62% of the NPDR eyes. The retinal distributions of the local Ks2 and K1 mfOP abnormalities overlapped, but they differed. Furthermore, local Ks2 mfOP abnormalities were preferentially associated with retinal sites containing NPDR but K1 mfOP abnormalities were not. CONCLUSIONS: The cells that contribute to the generation of local mfOPs are affected by diabetes and, to a greater degree, by early NPDR. The results suggest that fast adaptive mechanisms influencing the mfOPs are most abnormal at retinal sites containing NPDR.

Formulation and evaluation of a predictive model to identify the sites of future diabetic retinopathy.

PURPOSE: To formulate and test a model to predict the development of local patches of nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR), based on multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) implicit times and candidate diabetic risk factors. METHODS: mfERGs and fundus photographs were obtained from 28 eyes of 28 diabetic patients during an initial and 12-month follow-up examination. mfERG implicit times were derived at 103 locations using a template-stretching method, and a z-score was calculated in comparison with 20 age-matched normal subjects. Thirty-five nonoverlapping retinal zones were constructed by grouping two to three adjacent stimulated locations, and each zone was assigned the maximum z-score within it. Zones containing initial retinopathy were excluded from further analysis. The probability that new retinopathy would develop in the remaining zones by the follow-up examination was modeled based on the mfERG implicit time z-score for the zone and other candidate diabetic risk factors determined during the initial visit. Data collected from four previously untested diabetic subjects and the other eye of eight previous subjects during their second year follow-up were used to test the predictive model. RESULTS: After 1 year, new retinopathy developed in 11 of the 12 NPDR eyes and 1 of the 16 eyes without initial retinopathy. After accounting for the correlation among zones within each eye, a predictive model was formulated with the variables mfERG implicit time, duration of diabetes, presence of retinopathy (NPDR or no retinopathy), and blood glucose level at initial visit. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of this multivariate model is 0.90 (P <0.001). The predictive model has an expected sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 84%, which was verified by the test data. CONCLUSIONS: The development of diabetic retinopathy over a 1-year period can be well predicted by a multivariate model. The inclusion of local mfERG implicit times allowed the model to identify the specific sites of future retinopathy.

Design of a randomized controlled trial of comprehensive rehabilitation in patients with myocardial infarction, stabilized acute coronary syndrome, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass grafting: Akershus Comprehensive Cardiac Rehabilitation Trial (the CORE Study).

OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess the long-term effectiveness of a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation programme on quality of life and survival in patients with a large spectrum of cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction, acute coronary syndrome, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and coronary artery bypass grafting). 2. To establish the degree of correlation between expected improvement of health-related quality of life and improvement in physical function attributable to rehabilitation in the intervention group, in comparison with similar changes in the conventional care group. DESIGN: Randomized, controlled, parallel-group design (intervention/conventional care). SETTING: Akershus County, southeast of Oslo City, Norway. PARTICIPANTS: 500 patients, men and women, aged 40-85 years, who have sustained at least one of the above-mentioned cardiovascular diseases. INTERVENTIONS: 8 weeks of supervised, structured physical training of three periods of 20 min per week, targeting a heart rate of 60-70% of the individual's maximum; home-based physical exercise training with the same basic schedule as in the supervised period; quantification of patients' compliance with the exercise programme by the use of wristwatches, information stored in the watch memory being retrieved once a month during the 3-year follow-up period; and life-style modification with an emphasis on the cessation of smoking and on healthy nutrition and weight control.