Assessing a Structured Mental Fitness Program for Academic Acute Care Surgeons: A Pilot Study.

INTRODUCTION: There is a well-established positive correlation between improved physician wellness and patient care outcomes. Mental fitness is a component of wellness that is understudied in academic medicine. We piloted a structured mental fitness Positive Intelligence (PQ) training program for academic surgeons, hypothesizing this would be associated with improvements in PQ scores, wellness, sleep, and trainee evaluations. METHODS: This is a single-institution, prospective, mixed-methods pilot study. All active Burn/Trauma/Acute & Critical Care Surgical faculty and fellows in our division were offered the PQ program and the option to participate in this research study. The 6-wk program consists of daily exercises on a smartphone application, weekly readings, and small-group meetings with a trained mindfulness coach. Study outcomes included changes in pretraining versus post-training PQ scores, sleep hygiene, wellness, and teaching scores. A Net Promoter Score was calculated to measure user overall experience (range -100 to 100; positive scores being supportive). For secondary analysis, participants were stratified into high versus low user groups by "muscle" scores, which were calculated by program use over time. A postintervention focus group was also held to evaluate perceptions of wellness and experience with the PQ program. RESULTS: Data were analyzed for 15 participants who provided consent. The participants were primarily White (73.3%), Assistant Professors (66.7%) with Surgical Critical Care fellowship training (86.7%), and a slight female predominance (53.3%). Comparison of scores pretraining versus post-training demonstrated statistically significant increases in PQ (59 versus 65, P = 0.004), but no significant differences for sleep (24.0 versus 29.0, P = 0.33) or well-being (89.0 versus 94.0, P = 0.10). Additionally, there was no significant difference in teaching evaluations for both residents (9.1 versus 9.3, P = 0.33) and medical students (8.3 versus 8.5, P = 0.77). High versus low user groups were defined by the median muscle score (166 [Interquartile range 95.5-298.5]). High users demonstrated a statistically higher proportion of ongoing usage (75% versus 14%, P < 0.05). The final Net Promoter Score score was 25, which demonstrates program support within this group. Focus group content analysis established eight major categories: current approaches to wellness, preknowledge, reasons for participation, expected gains, program strengths, suggestions for improvement, recommendations for approaches, and sustainability. CONCLUSIONS: Our pilot study highlighted certain benefits of a structured mental fitness program for academic acute care surgeons. Our mixed-methods data demonstrate significant improvement in PQ scores, ongoing usage in high user participants, as well as interpersonal benefits such as improved connectedness and creation of a shared language within participants. Future work should evaluate this program on a higher-powered scale, with a focus on intentionality in wellness efforts, increased exposure to mental fitness, and recruitment of trainees and other health-care providers, as well as identifying the potential implications for patient outcomes.

Comparison of Erector Spinae Plane Blocks Versus Multimodal Pain Management for Traumatic Rib Fractures: A Matched Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: Erector spinae plane blocks (ESPBs) are frequently utilized when treating patients with multiple rib fractures. While previous work has demonstrated the efficacy of ESPB as an adequate method of pain control, there has been no work comparing a continuous ESPB to "best practice" multimodal pain control. We hypothesize that a continuous ESPB catheter combined with a multimodal pain regimen may be associated with a decrease in opioid requirements when compared to a multimodal pain regimen alone. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational cohort study at a level 1 trauma center from September 2016 through September 2021. Inclusion criteria included patients 18 y or older with at least three unilateral rib fractures who were not mechanically ventilated during admission. The primary outcome was the total morphine equivalents utilized throughout the index admission. RESULTS: A total of 142 patients were included in this study, 71 in each cohort. Patients included had a mean age of 52.5 y, and 18% were female. Demographic data including injury severity score, total number of rib fractures, and length of stay were similar. While there was a trend toward a decrease in morphine equivalents in the patient cohort undergoing ESPB catheter placement, this was not found to be statistically significant (284.3 ± 244.8 versus 412.6 ± 622.2, P = 0.5). CONCLUSIONS: While ESPB catheters are frequently utilized for analgesia in the setting of multiple rib fractures, there was no decrease in total opioid usage when compared with patients who were managed with a multimodal pain regimen alone. Further assessment comparing ESPB catheters to best practice multimodal pain control regimens through a prospective, multicenter trial is required to further validate these findings.

Experience with various surgical options for the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: New alternatives exist using various energy sources and lesion lines for the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). The efficacy of these options compared to the cut-and-sew maze III procedure is unknown. METHODS: From August 1996 to August 2003, 79 patients have undergone a procedure for AF, with 70 patients currently more than 3 months postsurgery. The patients (58 continuous, 12 paroxysmal) underwent a surgical procedure for AF, lone AF (12) and with concomitant procedures (58). Techniques included cut and sew (23), bipolar radiofrequency (RF) (28) and unipolar-RF (10), and cryothermy (9). Lesions included maze III (46), pulmonary vein isolation (16), and pulmonary vein isolation plus mitral annular connecting line only (8). RESULTS: Follow-up was complete in 58 (83%) of 70 patients at a mean time of 595 +/- 750 days (range, 24-2530 days). The operative mortality was 0% in lone AF patients and 7.1% (5/70) in patients undergoing concomitant procedures. Need for perioperative pacemaker was 22.9%. Overall, normal sinus rhythm (NSR) was restored in 82.7% of patients, with success in 83.3% (10/12) lone procedures and 82.6% (38/46) concomitant procedures ( P = NS); the rate of continuous AF was 85.1% (40/47) and SR with paroxysmal fibrillation was 72.7% (8/11) ( P = NS). Traditional maze was successful in 80.6% (29/36) patients, pulmonary vein isolation was successful 93.3% (14/15), and left-sided maze in 71.4% (5/7) ( P = NS). Cut and sew procedures were successful in 88.2% (15/17), RF-bipolar in 84.0% (21/25), RFunipolar in 77.8% (7/9), and cryothermy in 71.4% (5/7) ( P = NS). Energy source, lesion set, AF duration, and lone/concomitant procedure were the factors subjected to logistic regression analysis. No factors were predictive of achieving postoperative NSR. CONCLUSIONS: Our early experience with newer surgical techniques employing different energy sources and fewer incision lines suggests that the success rate may approach the results obtained with traditional cut-and-sew Cox-maze III procedures.