Clinical Reasoning: A 25-Year-Old Woman With Eye Swelling and Headache.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is uncommon. Risk factors include inherited and acquired factors. Rapid diagnosis and treatment is essential and can help prevent complications, which can include seizures and visual disturbance. A 25-year-old woman with a background history of CVST and intermittent warfarin use presented to the hospital in 2021 with a 3-month history of progressive eye swelling and headache. Her headache was located in the right frontal region and worsened with movement. Her workup was consistent with recurrent CVST and dural arteriovenous fistula. IR-guided embolization of the fistulas and stenting of her sinuses was performed. She was treated with dual antiplatelet therapy and therapeutic tinzaparin. Her symptoms improved markedly over several days, with improvement in headache and visual acuity. This case illustrates the potential for severe complications including visual disturbance in untreated CVST, as well as the importance of a thorough history and examination in aiding the recognition of the condition.

Understanding hand hygiene behaviour in the intensive care unit to inform interventions: an interview study.

BACKGROUND: Improving hand hygiene (HH) compliance is one of the most important, but elusive, goals of infection control. The purpose of this study was to use the capability (C), opportunity (O), motivation (M), and behaviour (B; COM-B) model and the theoretical domains framework (TDF) to gain an understanding of the barriers and enablers of HH behaviours in an intensive care unit (ICU) in order to identify specific interventions to improve HH compliance. METHODS: A semi-structured interview schedule was developed based upon the COM-B model. This schedule was used to interview a total of 26 ICU staff: 12 ICU nurses, 11 anaesthetic specialist registrars, and three anaesthetic senior house officers. RESULTS: Participants were confident in their capabilities to carry out appropriate HH behaviours. The vast majority of participants reported having the necessary knowledge and skills, and believed they were capable of carrying out appropriate HH behaviours. Social influence was regarded as being important in encouraging HH compliance by the interviewees- particularly by nurses. The participants were motivated to carry out HH behaviours, and it was recognised that HH was an important part of their job and is important in preventing infection. It is recommended that staff are provided with targeted HH training, in which individuals receive direct and individualised feedback on actual performance and are provided guidance on how to address deficiencies in HH compliance at the bedside at the time at which the HH behaviour is performed. Modelling of appropriate HH behaviours by senior leaders is also suggested, particularly by senior doctors. Finally, appropriate levels of staffing are a factor that must be considered if HH compliance is to be improved. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated that short interviews with ICU staff, founded on appropriate behavioural change frameworks, can provide an understanding of HH behaviour. This understanding can then be applied to design interventions appropriately tailored to the needs of a specific unit, which will have an increased likelihood of improving HH compliance.

Hand Hygiene Compliance in the ICU: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVES: To synthesize the literature describing compliance with World Health Organization hand hygiene guidelines in ICUs, to evaluate the quality of extant research, and to examine differences in compliance levels across geographical regions, ICU types, and healthcare worker groups, observation methods, and moments (indications) of hand hygiene. DATA SOURCES: Electronic searches were conducted in August 2018 using Medline, CINAHL, PsycInfo, Embase, and Web of Science. Reference lists of included studies and related review articles were also screened. STUDY SELECTION: English-language, peer-reviewed studies measuring hand hygiene compliance by healthcare workers in an ICU setting using direct observation guided by the World Health Organization's "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene," published since 2009, were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Information was extracted on study location, research design, type of ICU, healthcare workers, measurement procedures, and compliance levels. DATA SYNTHESIS: Sixty-one studies were included. Most were conducted in high-income countries (60.7%) and in adult ICUs (85.2%). Mean hand hygiene compliance was 59.6%. Compliance levels appeared to differ by geographic region (high-income countries 64.5%, low-income countries 9.1%), type of ICU (neonatal 67.0%, pediatric 41.2%, adult 58.2%), and type of healthcare worker (nursing staff 43.4%, physicians 32.6%, other staff 53.8%). CONCLUSIONS: Mean hand hygiene compliance appears notably lower than international targets. The data collated may offer useful indicators for those evaluating, and seeking to improve, hand hygiene compliance in ICUs internationally.