Injecting a ventricular tachycardia into the heart-Α unique case report.

INTRODUCTION: A 52-year-old woman presented with a complex ventricular arrhythmia in an intraoperative context, during kyphoplasty for an osteoporotic fracture of a lumbar vertebra. The subject showed no indications of a previous cardiovascular condition. METHODS AND RESULTS: Causes of arrhythmias associated with the procedure were excluded. Due to her positive family history for dilated cardiomyopathy, upcoming thoughts were made for unmasking a previous asymptomatic cardiomyopathy. Nevertheless, an intracardiac cement embolism was diagnosed and, finally, the patient underwent an open-heart surgery with successful removal of the cardiac cement. Νo new arrhythmia recorded during follow up. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of ventricular arrhythmogenic presentation of a cardiac cement embolus after a KP procedure.

Designing Socially Assistive Robots for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia Patients and Their Caregivers: Where We are and Where We are Headed.

Over the past few years there has been a large rise in the field of robotics. Robots are being in used in many industries, but there has not been a large surge of robots in the medical field, especially the robots for healthcare use. However, as the aging population keeps growing, current medical staff and healthcare providers are increasingly burdened by caring for the ever-growing number of senior patients, especially those with cognitive impairment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease-related dementia (ADRD) patients. As a result, we can expect to see a large increase in the field of medical robotics, especially in forms of socially assistive robots (SARs) for senior patients and healthcare providers. In fact, SARs can alleviate AD and ADRD patients and their caregivers' unmet medical needs. Herein, we propose a design outline for such a SAR, based on a review of the current literature. We believe the next generation of SARs will enhance health and well-being, reduce illness and disability, and improve quality of life for AD and ADRD patients and their caregivers.

Predictors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents.

OBJECTIVES: Identification and assessment of predictive factors of in-hospital mortality of trauma patients injured in vehicle accidents. METHODS: We reviewed the Trauma Registry data of Herakleion University Hospital, a level I trauma center in Crete, Greece. All 730 consecutive, adult motor-vehicle trauma patients admitted to our hospital from 1997 to 2000 were included in the study. Variables included in the analysis were: sex, age, mechanism of injury, injuries per anatomic region, initial vital signs, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), Injury Severity Score (ISS), and the final outcome. In order to better describe continuous variables, two categories were created: age > or = 60 and <60; ISS > or = 18 and <18. RESULTS: Mortality rate was 4.8% (n=35). Multivariate survival analysis showed that age greater than or equal to 60 years (p=0.0002), ISS greater than or equal to 18 (p=0.003), being a pedestrian (p=0.007), craniocerebral injuries (p=0.01), thoracic (p=0.01), and abdominal injuries (p=0.01) are independent predictors of the in-hospital mortality of the patients. CONCLUSION: Trauma patients after vehicle accidents aged > or = 60, pedestrians, those with an ISS > or = 18 and craniocerebral, thoracic or abdominal injuries are at higher risk of an in-hospital fatal outcome.