Outbreak of Mucormycosis in Coronavirus Disease Patients, Pune, India.

We provide an overview of the epidemiology and clinical course of mucormycosis in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic era. We conducted a retrospective chart review of 178 patients with clinical or diagnostic, endoscopically or histopathologically confirmed rhino-sino-orbital or cerebral mucormycosis after COVID-19 treatment during the second wave of COVID-19 in Pune, India. Median time to symptom onset from COVID-19 detection was 28 days. Moderate or severe COVID-19 was seen in 73% of patients and diabetes in 74.2%. A total of 52.8% received steroids. Eschar over or inside the nose was seen in 75%, but baseline clinical and laboratory parameters were mostly unremarkable. Bone penetration was present in ≈90% of cases, 30% had soft-tissue swelling of the pterygopalatine fossa and 7% had cavernous sinus thrombosis, and 60% had multifocal mucormycosis. Of the 178 study cases, 151 (85%) underwent surgical debridement. Twenty-six (15%) died, and 16 (62%) of those had multifocal mucormycosis.

Posterior Nasal Nerve Resection-A Novel and Effective Way to Surgically Treat Refractory Allergic and Vasomotor Rhinitis.

This study focused on outcomes of endoscopic posterior nasal neurectomy and turbinate reduction with regard to the common symptoms of allergic and vasomotor rhinitis. This randomized experimental study conducted between December 2018 to November 2020 included 60 patients, aged 18-50 years with allergic or vasomotor rhinitis with/ without deviated nasal septum of grade 3 and 4, not responding to conservative management. Patients were divided into two groups. 30 patients were operated for Posterior nasal nerve resection and 30 patients underwent turbinate reduction. SNOT 22 (Sino-nasal outcome test) questionnaire was given to every patient and they were asked four major symptoms of nasal obstruction, rhinorrhoea, sneezing and post nasal discharge and were told to rate their symptom in 1 to 5 severity scale before surgery and in postoperative follow up. Mean ± SD(standard deviation) of percentage change in SNOT 22 score in Posterior Nasal Nerve resection was 88.09 ± 4.38 which was significantly higher than turbinate reduction (82.95 ± 5.33) (p value = 0.0001). Distribution of post-operative complications was comparable in turbinate reduction and Posterior Nasal Nerve resection (Both synechia and crusting:10 versus 6.67% respectively) (p value = 1). No patient had bleeding in both groups. Though skill demand is high, posterior nasal neurectomy is highly safe and effective, as there was no bleeding post-operatively in spite of handling the sphenopalatine artery. Symptom relief with this surgery was 88.09% which was significantly higher as compared to submucosal resection of inferior turbinate with microdebrider (82.95%).

The Effect of Medicaid Expansion on the Nature of New Enrollees' Emergency Department Use.

We examine changes in emergency department (ED) visit acuity and care intensity for uninsured patients who gained Medicaid insurance in 2014 under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We use 2013-2015 longitudinal patient visit-level data from 30 EDs across 7 states from an emergency medicine group. We examine changes in ED use by previously uninsured Medicaid patients and patients remaining uninsured who were repeat ED users (≥1 visit before and after expansion) using a propensity-score weighted approach with statistical machine learning to estimate the weights. Compared with those remaining uninsured in nonexpansion states, newly covered Medicaid patients in expansion states showed a 29% relative increase in hospital admissions and 32% increase in admissions for nonambulatory care sensitive conditions with no increases in care intensity. Obtaining Medicaid insurance increased the relative proportion of ED visits requiring hospital admission suggesting increased outpatient access for low-acuity conditions previously addressed with ED care.

An empirical study of opinion leader effects on mobile information technology adoption in healthcare.

Given the increasing number of applications but slow adoption of IT, including mobile IT, in healthcare, it is important to develop a better understanding of the contextual factors that motivate IT adoption by physicians. Although studies have shown that age or gender may affect physicians' IT adoption, those factors cannot be controlled when deploying a new IT. Therefore, the current research examines empirical evidence of a contextual factor, opinion leader effects, on IT adoption in healthcare that can be influenced by organizational policies. Using a unique panel dataset of physicians' usage of a mobile clinical IT from a community hospital, we observe a significant result that physicians under the influence of opinion leaders are three times more likely to adopt the IT than otherwise. This finding suggests that incentivizing a small proportion of opinion leaders to adopt a new IT has the potential to motivate wider adoption across the organization.