Short-term and long-term outcomes of cardiac arrhythmias in patients with cardiogenic shock.

INTRODUCTION: Cardiogenic shock is severe circulatory failure that results in significant in-hospital mortality, related morbidity, and economic burden. Patients with cardiogenic shock are at high risk for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, particularly within the subset of patients with an overlap of cardiogenic shock and cardiac arrest. AREAS COVERED: This review article will explore the prevalence, definition, management, and outcomes of common arrhythmias in patients with cardiogenic shock. This review will describe the pathophysiology of arrhythmia in cardiogenic shock and the impact of inotropic agents on increased arrhythmogenicity. In addition to medical management, focused assessment of mechanical circulatory support, radiofrequency ablation, deep sedation, and stellate ganglion block will be provided. EXPERT OPINION: We will navigate the limited data and describe the prognostic impacts of arrhythmia. Finally, we will conclude the review with a discussion of prevention strategies, research limitations, and future research directions.

STAT: Mobile app helps clinicians manage inpatient emergencies.

In response to the unprecedented surge of patients with COVID-19, Massachusetts General Hospital created both repurposed and de-novo COVID-19 inpatient general medicine and intensive care units. The clinicians staffing these new services included those who typically worked in these care settings (e.g., medicine residents, hospitalists, intensivists), as well as others who typically practice in other care environments (e.g., re-deployed outpatient internists, medical subspecialists, and other physician specialties). These surge clinicians did not have extensive experience managing low frequency, high acuity emergencies, such as those that might result from COVID-19. Physician-innovators, in collaboration with key hospital stakeholders, developed a comprehensive strategy to design, develop, and distribute a digital health solution to address this problem. MGH STAT is an intuitive mobile application that empowers clinicians to respond to medical emergencies by providing immediate access to up-to-date clinical guidelines, consultants, and code-running tools at the point-of-care. 100% of surveyed physicians found STAT to be easy to use and would recommend it to others. Approximately 1100 clinicians have downloaded the app, and it continues to enjoy consistent use over a year after the initial COVID-19 surge. These results suggest that STAT has helped clinicians manage life threatening emergencies during and after the pandemic, although formal studies are necessary to evaluate its direct impact on patient care.

Perioperative Physiotherapy in Total Knee Arthroplasty.

Total knee arthroplasty has a high success rate. In the interest of enhancing patient outcomes, numerous perioperative interventions have been studied, including preoperative education, preoperative rehabilitation, postoperative inpatient rehabilitation, continuous passive motion, postoperative outpatient rehabilitation, unsupervised in-home exercises, telerehabilitation, and various combinations of these. This comprehensive review analyzes the existing body of evidence on these perioperative interventions and examines some burgeoning opportunities in rehabilitation after total knee arthroplasty in the interest of improving patient outcomes and ensuring sustainable health care utilization for the future of total knee arthroplasty. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(5):e765-e773.].