[INCLUSION OF THE RISK FOR DIABETIC FOOT IN THE HOSPITAL DISCHARGE LETTER IN ORDER TO ENHANCE PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN THE COMMUNITY].

INTRODUCTION: Severe foot ulceration in a diabetic patient, called "diabetic foot", is one of the most debilitating complications of diabetes mellitus resulting in huge costs, both personal and public. The best way to avoid this complication is by identifying the risk factors for diabetic foot, and taking early preventive actions. At any given time, more than 40% of hospitalized patients are diabetics, whether in departments of internal medicine or others. Every diabetic patient hospitalized in any department (Internal, Surgery, Geriatric, Rehabilitation or Psychiatric) undergoes an evaluation to determine the risk level for diabetic foot by the nursing staff (as required by the Israel Ministry of Health). Approximately 50% of hospitalized diabetics are classified as having high risk for complications from diabetic foot. This evaluation constitutes a window of opportunity for intervention in order to improve the patient's condition. Currently, the status of this evaluation does not appear on the patient's discharge form, neither in the nursing recommendations nor in the physician's instructions. This being the case, the evaluation has no practical value. Without this vital information, the community care doctor is not aware of the risks, and therefore does not take action to prevent the development of severe complications. During a recent project in which we assessed our own departmental quality, we successfully showed that we were able to increase the amount of hospital discharge forms containing the evaluation of the risk for diabetic foot, by a dramatic 23%. We intend to continue this implementation process, and to examine the response within the community in order to assure that the recommendations continue to appear on the discharge forms.

A "resistance calculator": Simple stewardship intervention for refining empiric practices of antimicrobials in acute-care hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: In the era of widespread resistance, there are 2 time points at which most empiric prescription errors occur among hospitalized adults: (1) upon admission (UA) when treating patients at risk of multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) and (2) during hospitalization, when treating patients at risk of extensively drug-resistant organisms (XDROs). These errors adversely influence patient outcomes and the hospital's ecology. DESIGN AND SETTING: Retrospective cohort study, Shamir Medical Center, Israel, 2016. PATIENTS: Adult patients (aged >18 years) hospitalized with sepsis. METHODS: Logistic regressions were used to develop predictive models for (1) MDRO UA and (2) nosocomial XDRO. Their performances on the derivation data sets, and on 7 other validation data sets, were assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC AUC). RESULTS: In total, 4,114 patients were included: 2,472 patients with sepsis UA and 1,642 with nosocomial sepsis. The MDRO UA score included 10 parameters, and with a cutoff of ≥22 points, it had an ROC AUC of 0.85. The nosocomial XDRO score included 7 parameters, and with a cutoff of ≥36 points, it had an ROC AUC of 0.87. The range of ROC AUCs for the validation data sets was 0.7-0.88 for the MDRO UA score and was 0.66-0.75 for nosocomial XDRO score. We created a free web calculator (https://assafharofe.azurewebsites.net). CONCLUSIONS: A simple electronic calculator could aid with empiric prescription during an encounter with a septic patient. Future implementation studies are needed to evaluate its utility in improving patient outcomes and in reducing overall resistances.

Increased Incidence of Symptomatic Cholelithiasis After Bariatric Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass and Previous Bariatric Surgery: a Single Center Experience.

BACKGROUND: Bariatric surgery predisposes patients to cholelithiasis and therefore the need of a subsequent cholecystectomy; however, the incidence of cholecystectomy after bariatric surgery is debated. AIM AND METHODS: Medical records of 601patients hospitalized for bariatric surgery between January 2010 and July 2018 were reviewed. Our aim was to evaluate the incidence of cholecystectomy following different types of common bariatric procedures. All patients who developed cholelithiasis and a subsequent cholecystectomy were included. Cholelithiasis was diagnosed by clinical criteria and characteristic ultrasound findings. RESULTS: We retrospectively evaluated 580 patients with an average follow-up of 12 months (range 6-24 months). Twenty-one patients were excluded because of missing data. Mean age was 48 ± 19 years (78% females). Twenty-nine patients (5%) underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) before the bariatric surgery, and 58 patients (10%) performed concomitant LC with the bariatric procedure due to symptomatic gallstone disease (including stones, sludge, and polyps). There were 203 laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (SG) (35%), 175 laparoscopic gastric band (LAGB) (30%), 55 Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) (9.5%), and 147 (25%) mini gastric bypass (MGB) procedures during the study period. At the follow-up period, 36 patients (6.2%) developed symptomatic cholelithiasis, while the most common clinical presentation was biliary colic. There was a significant difference between the type of the bariatric procedure and the incidence of symptomatic cholelithiasis after the operation. The incidence of symptomatic gallstone formation in patients who underwent RYGB was 14.5%. This was significantly higher comparing to 4.4% following SG, 4.1% following LAGB, and 7.5% following MGB (p = 0.04). We did not find any predictive risk factors including smoking; BMI at surgery; change in BMI; comorbidities such as diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and COPD for gallstone formation; or a subsequent cholecystectomy. Interestingly we found that previous bariatric surgery was a risk factor for gallstone formation and cholecystectomy, 13/82 patients (15.8%) compared to 23/492 patients (4.6%) among those without previous bariatric operation (p < 0.001)]. CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that patients with previous bariatric surgery or patients planned for RYGB are at high risk to develop postoperative symptomatic gallbladder disease. Concomitant cholecystectomy during the bariatric procedure or alternatively UDCA treatment for at least for 6 months to avoid the high incidence of postoperative symptomatic gallstones should be considered in those asymptomatic patients.