Risk factors for the development of hypocalcemia in pediatric patients after total thyroidectomy - A systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: Post-thyroidectomy hypocalcemia is a common complication that causes increased morbidity. This review aims to identify the factors that predict occurrence of hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy in children and adolescents. METHODS: Comprehensive searches of English language pediatric (≤18 years of age) articles were performed in Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. Studies published between January 1, 1970 to August 20, 2020 regarding risk factors and strategies to prevent hypocalcemia were included if the study: 1. included only pediatric patients who were ≤18 years of age, 2. included only patients who had total, subtotal or completion thyroidectomy, 3. defined hypocalcemia as serum total calcium of <2.0 mmol/L (8 mg/dL) or ionized calcium of <1.0 mmol/L. The quality of included papers was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Results of all included studies were summarised. Meta-analyses were performed if appropriate. RESULTS: Five studies with a total of 477 patients between 0 and 18 years, who had total/subtotal/completion thyroidectomy, were included. Overall rates of transient hypocalcemia were higher than permanent hypocalcemia (transient n = 104, 22%; permanent n = 48, 10%). Two studies found intraoperative parathyroid hormone (PTH) useful in predicting hypocalcemia. While two single institution cohort studies reported that neck dissection, male sex and a lower Parathyroid Gland Remaining In Situ score were associated with hypocalcemia, two other studies, including one population-based cohort study, reported that age at surgery, patient sex, hospital volume, type of thyroid disease, number of identified parathyroid glands, parathyroid auto-transplantation, operation time, thyroid specimen weight, and lymph node dissection were not risk factors for hypocalcemia. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative PTH may be useful in predicting hypocalcemia in children after total thyroidectomy. No consistent clinical risk factors or preventative methods were identified in the pediatric literature. High-quality pediatric research is urgently required to address this knowledge gap.

Sharps-handling practices among junior surgical residents: a video analysis.

BACKGROUND: Although "universal precautions" are standard for sharps handling, there has been poor compliance among surgeons. We used video analysis to assess sharps handling practices among junior surgical residents. METHODS: Postgraduate year (PGY)-2 general surgery and PGY-1 plastic surgery residents were videotaped performing pediatric inguinal hernia repairs. For each procedure, the resident was the principal operator, with the attending surgeon assisting. Retrospective assessment of safe and unsafe sharps handling was determined based on published guidelines. We assessed safety performance in personal sharps tasks, passage of sharps and verbal notification regarding sharps. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Data were collected from 18 residents' videos (4 plastic surgery, 14 general surgery). Residents safely performed sharps tasks, passed and verbally notified about sharps an average of 69.2%, 93.2% and 9.9% of the time, respectively. Suture needle manipulation was handled safely 56.2% of the time (mean 4.4 safe v. 4.3 unsafe actions). Surgical residents demonstrated a safe suture tying technique in 91.8% of cases, proper tissue retraction in 85.2% and safe handling of injection needles in 72.2% of cases. When assessing the safety performance of the surgical team, attending surgeons acting as surgical assistants safely passed sharps 80.0% of the time, while scrub nurses demonstrated safe passing at all times. Attending surgeons used verbal notification when passing sharps 22.7% of the time, while scrub nurses verbally notified the team 4.3% of the time. CONCLUSION: Junior surgical residents consistently passed sharps safely. Personal sharps tasks were less likely to be performed safely, and only a minority of residents verbally notified the team about sharps placement.

Customer advisory groups: another way to listen to the marketplace.

Customer advisory groups (CAGs) are formal groups of customers (referring physicians, patients, health insurance brokers, etc.) who meet regularly to share their ideas and to provide feedback to proposed or existing marketing strategies, programs, and activities. While CAGs are very prevalent in other industries they appear to be relatively underutilized in health care. This article provides an overview of how CAGs work, their advantages and disadvantages, tips on how to make them work better, and insights from interviews with 39 healthcare chief marketing officers on their use of CAGs.