The use of moderate therapeutic hypothermia for patients with severe head injuries: a preliminary report.

Animal research suggests that moderate therapeutic hypothermia may improve outcome after a severe head injury, but its efficacy has not been established in humans. The authors randomly assigned 40 consecutively treated patients with a severe closed head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale score 3 to 7) to either a hypothermia or a normothermia group. Using cooling blankets and cold saline gastric lavage, patients in the hypothermia group were cooled to 32 degrees to 33 degrees C (brain temperature) within a mean of 10 hours after injury, maintained at that temperature for 24 hours, and rewarmed to 37 degrees to 38 degrees C over 12 hours. Patients in the normothermia group were maintained at 37 degrees to 38 degrees C during this time. Deep-brain temperatures were monitored directly and used for all temperature determinations. Intracranial pressure (ICP), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen (CMRO2) were measured serially for all patients. Hypothermia significantly reduced ICP (40%) and CBF (26%) during the cooling period, and neither parameter showed a significant rebound increase after patients were rewarmed. Compared to the normothermia group, the mean CMRO2 in the hypothermia group was lower during cooling and higher 5 days after injury. Three months after injury, 12 of the 20 patients in the hypothermia group had moderate, mild, or no disabilities; eight of the 20 patients in the normothermia group had improved to the same degree. Both groups had a similar incidence of systemic complications, including cardiac arrhythmias, coagulopathies, and pulmonary complications. It is concluded that therapeutic moderate hypothermia is safe and has sustained favorable effects on acute derangements of cerebral physiology and metabolism caused by severe closed head injury. The trend toward better outcome with hypothermia may indicate that its beneficial physiological and metabolic effects limit secondary brain injury.

Predictive factors for successful early prosthetic ambulation among lower-limb amputees.

OBJECTIVE: To predict successful prosthetic ambulation for patients immediately transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility after amputation surgery. METHODS: Seventy-five individuals with lower-limb amputation were studied at a tertiary acute care and rehabilitation facility. Successful prosthetic ambulation, defined as the ability to ambulate with a prosthesis at least 45 m, was measured in addition to other key demographic and medical factors. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent were successful prosthetic ambulators at rehabilitation discharge. The absence of residual-limb contracture and a longer length of stay during rehabilitation showed a significant relationship to successful prosthetic ambulation with regression analysis. Younger age was modestly correlated to outcome. There were no significant differences when comparing success of the early rehabilitation program with surgical level or etiology of amputation. For successful prosthetic users, mean wear time at rehabilitation discharge was 5.7 hours with a mean distance walked of 67 m. Of those who failed this approach, 70% were related to a failure of wound healing. CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, 68% of patients who were selected for a trial of early prosthetic rehabilitation ambulated using a prosthesis at rehabilitation discharge. This approach appears to be more effective for younger patients without contractures who are medically stable to participate in the rehabilitation process.

Dichotomy between physicians' and patients' attitudes regarding EMR use during outpatient encounters.

Detrimental effects on physician-patient rapport are an often-voiced concern regarding the impacts of implementing an EMR in busy outpatient healthcare environments. Our objectives in this study were to: 1) identify significant concerns of physicians regarding implementation of an EMR in an outpatient clinic, both prior to implementation and after 6 months of use, and 2) assess patients' satisfaction with their outpatient encounters in this clinic, including general and EMR-specific factors. For physicians, physician-patient rapport was a concern prior to EMR implementation and increased with use of the system. In contrast, patients did not indicate a sense of loss of rapport with their physicians when an EMR was used during their outpatient visits. However, physicians and patients shared a concern about the privacy of medical information contained in an EMR.

Assessing physician attitudes regarding use of an outpatient EMR: a longitudinal, multi-practice study.

A pre- and post-implementation assessment of physician attitudes was undertaken as part of the evaluation of the pilot implementations of an outpatient EMR in 6 practices of a large academic health system. Our results show that these physicians are ready adopters of computer technology when it demonstrates value-added for the effort required to use it. These physicians utilize email, the Internet, remote access to computer systems, and personal productivity software because they serve a valuable purpose in their academic and clinical work and in their personal lives. Much more critical to the acceptance of an EMR by physicians is its ability to facilitate efficient clinical workflows without negative effects on the valued relationships physicians have with their patients--those that are based on rapport, quality of care, and privacy.

Attitudes of academic-based and community-based physicians regarding EMR use during outpatient encounters.

Physician satisfaction with EMR implementations has been reported in a number of recent studies. Most of these have reported on implementation of an EMR in a uniform practice setting rather than comparing satisfaction with implementation between settings. Our objectives in this study were to: 1) compare and contrast the attitudes of academic-based and community-based primary care physicians toward EMR use 6 months after implementation, and 2) investigate some of the factors influencing their attitudes toward the EMR implementation. Although physicians in both settings regularly use computers, the academic-based physicians use computers for a wider range of activities. Both groups endorse improvements in quality and communication as well as concern over rapport with the patient and privacy. There is considerable discrepancy between the two settings in ratings of the impact on workflow, with the community-based physicians being much more positive about the EMR. Factors that may account for this discrepancy may include overall expectations of computer systems as well as different rates of adaptation to use of the system.

Warfarin resistance and enteral feedings: 2 case reports and a supporting in vitro study.

This study investigated whether an interaction between common enteral feeding products and warfarin exists. Two clinical cases of apparent interaction spurred a supporting in vitro study. Both the clinical cases and the in vitro study showed that several enteral feeding products bind warfarin, reducing the bioavailability of the drug. The binding appears to occur between warfarin and the protein component of the feeding product. This clinically important interaction is likely when warfarin and enteral feeding products are used concurrently. Clinicians should be aware of this potential interaction and monitor the therapy closely, particularly when enteral feeding is discontinued.

Age effect on prognosis for functional recovery in acute, traumatic central cord syndrome.

The purpose of this study was to determine if age is significant in functional recovery in acute, traumatic central cord syndrome (CCS). Recovery of ambulation, ADL status, and bowel and bladder function were evaluated. A retrospective study tested the hypothesis that functional recovery in 51 consecutive CCS patients was better in younger patients than in older patients. Four patients, all more than 50 years, died. Ability to ambulate independently at discharge was compared in 30 patients younger than 50 years with 21 patients 50 years or older. Results showed that 29 of 30 (97%) of the younger patients were ambulatory compared to seven of 17 (41%) of the older patients (p less than .002). The younger patients were also able to achieve independence in self-care and bowel and bladder function in a significantly greater proportion. The prognosis for functional recovery in acute traumatic CCS should consider the patient's age. The prognosis is less optimistic in older patients, but it is considerably more favorable in younger patients than previously reported.

Treatment of traumatic brain injury with moderate hypothermia.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury initiates several metabolic processes that can exacerbate the injury. There is evidence that hypothermia may limit some of these deleterious metabolic responses. METHODS: In a randomized, controlled trial, we compared the effects of moderate hypothermia and normothermia in 82 patients with severe closed head injuries (a score of 3 to 7 on the Glasgow Coma Scale). The patients assigned to hypothermia were cooled to 33 degrees C a mean of 10 hours after injury, kept at 32 degrees to 33 degrees C for 24 hours, and then rewarmed. A specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation who was unaware of the treatment assignments evaluated the patients 3, 6, and 12 months later with the use of the Glasgow Outcome Scale. RESULTS: The demographic characteristics and causes and severity of injury were similar in the hypothermia and normothermia groups. At 12 months, 62 percent of the patients in the hypothermia group and 38 percent of those in the normothermia group had good outcomes (moderate, mild, or no disabilities). The adjusted risk ratio for a bad outcome in the hypothermia group was 0.5 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 1.2). Hypothermia did not improve the outcomes in the patients with coma scores of 3 or 4 on admission. Among the patients with scores of 5 to 7, hypothermia was associated with significantly improved outcomes at 3 and 6 months (adjusted risk ratio for a bad outcome, 0.2; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 0.9 at both intervals), although not at 12 months (risk ratio, 0.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.1 to 1.0). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment with moderate hypothermia for 24 hours in patients with severe traumatic brain injury and coma scores of 5 to 7 on admission hastened neurologic recovery and may have improved the outcome.