The effects of surgical checklists on morbidity and mortality: a pre- and post-intervention study.

BACKGROUND: Surgical checklists (SCs) have been developed to enhance teamwork and facilitate handovers, thereby improving the safety of surgical patients in health care organisations. The aim of this study was to determine whether the implementation of a 39-item SC reduced mortality and surgical adverse events (AEs) in patients undergoing inpatient surgery. METHODS: A retrospective pre- and post-intervention study of two cohorts of surgical patients was conducted (n = 1602) in a tertiary teaching hospital. The patients' homogeneity was confirmed by studying 40 comorbidities, 13 analytical determinations and 14 patient- and intervention-related variables. A 39-item SC adapted from one by the World Health Organization was used. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of any AE, including death, within 30 days of the operation. Twenty-three types of AEs were analysed. RESULTS: Following implementation of the checklist, the rate of AEs per 100 patients decreased from 31.5% to 26.5% (P = 0.39), the rate of infectious AEs decreased from 13.9 to 9.6 (P = 0.037) and non-infectious AEs decreased from 17.5 to 16.8 (P = 0.82). For non-elective patients, total AEs decreased from 60.4 to 37.0 (P = 0.017). The proportion of patients with one or more AE decreased from 18.1% to 16.2% (P = 0.35), and the death rate at 30 days decreased from 1.5% to 0.9% (P = 0.35). CONCLUSION: The overall AE rate did not decrease significantly between the two periods. However, the rate of infectious AEs and overall AEs in patients with non-elective admissions had statistically significant reductions. Further research is needed to determine how and in which patients SC introduction can work successfully.

[Allergic contact dermatitis from lidocaine in ear drops]. / Eccema alérgico de contacto por lidocaína contenida en unas gotas óticas.

Lidocaine is one of the most widely used local anesthetics. It can be administered topically or parenterally. Allergic contact dermatitis from lidocaine is uncommon, but an increasing number of cases have been reported in recent years. We present the case of a 66-year-old man who presented with acute dermatitis on the pinna and left cheek after applying ear drops. Patch tests were positive for the product itself and for lidocaine in the ear drops, thereby confirming the diagnosis of contact dermatitis from lidocaine.

Synergy between medical informatics and bioinformatics: facilitating genomic medicine for future health care.

In this paper, we review the results of BIOINFOMED, a study funded by the European Commission (EC) with the purpose to analyse the different issues and challenges in the area where Medical Informatics and Bioinformatics meet. Traditionally, Medical Informatics has been focused on the intersection between computer science and clinical medicine, whereas Bioinformatics have been predominantly centered on the intersection between computer science and biological research. Although researchers from both areas have occasionally collaborated, their training, objectives and interests have been quite different. The results of the Human Genome and related projects have attracted the interest of many professionals, and introduced new challenges that will transform biomedical research and health care. A characteristic of the 'post genomic' era will be to correlate essential genotypic information with expressed phenotypic information. In this context, Biomedical Informatics (BMI) has emerged to describe the technology that brings both disciplines (BI and MI) together to support genomic medicine. In recognition of the dynamic nature of BMI, institutions such as the EC have launched several initiatives in support of a research agenda, including the BIOINFOMED study.

[Morbi-mortality of medical and surgical treatments in the intracranial bleeding like complication of therapy with drugs that modifies normal coagulation]. / Morbimortalidad del tratamiento médico conservador y del tratamiento neuroquirúrgico en los casos de hemorragia intracraneal como complicación del empleo de fármacos que modifican la hemostasia.

INTRODUCTION: Antiaggregant and anticoagulant therapy has possible sever secondary effects, being the most serious intracranial bleeding. OBJECTIVES: Compare morbi-mortality between surgical and medical treatments in anticoagulated and/or antiaggregated patients with any kind of intracranial bleeding. Also risk factors and main indications of those treatments are studied. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Descriptive and retrospective study including 105 patients admitted in our Critical Care Unit, with intracranial bleeding, under anticoagulant or antiaggregant treatment. We study the type of bleeding (subarachnoid, epidural, subdural and intraparenchimal bleeding) and the relation between morbi-mortality and treatment applicated using relative risk like analytic tool. RESULTS: Major bleeding risk appears after the six first months from the beginning of the treatment. Thirty-four patients died with a relative risk of 1.55 in the surgical patients from the medical treatment patients. Relative risk between anticoagulated patients and antiaggregated ones was 1.16. Serious consequences happened on eight of the 49 patients under surgical treatment, and on 13 of the 52 patients under medical treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Surgical treatment has more morbi-mortality. Oral anticoagulation has only a little more relative risk than treatment with antiaggregants. Both groups had serious consequences.

Estudio de la mortalidad en una zona básica de salud urbana / Study of mortality in an urban health district

Objetivo. Conocer el patrón de causas de mortalidad de la Zona Básica de Salud de Chantrea (Navarra) y las tendencias para las principales causas de muerte entre 1987 y 1995.Diseño. Estudio descriptivo. Emplazamiento. Centro urbano de atención primaria. Sujetos. Población de la Zona Básica de Salud de Chantrea. Intervenciones. Se cruzaron datos del Padrón de Habitantes de Chantrea de 1986 con el listado de mortalidad de Navarra para conocer los fallecimientos producidos entre 1986 y 1995. Se analizaron, para ambos sexos y para los períodos 1987-1990 y 1991-1995, la mortalidad global y la mortalidad para las principales causas. Resultados. El barrio de Chantrea en Pamplona presentó en el período 1991-1995 una tasa de mortalidad ajustada a la población europea de 711 por 100.000 habitantes entre los varones y de 403 por 100.000 habitantes entre las mujeres. Las principales causas de mortalidad fueron: enfermedades del aparato circulatorio, tumores, enfermedades respiratorias y causas externas. Las tasas de mortalidad global descendieron un 11,8 por ciento en los varones y un 8 por ciento en las mujeres entre el período 1987-1990 y el 1991-1995. Se observaron descensos estadísticamente significativos de la mortalidad por enfermedades del aparato circulatorio y del tumor maligno de esófago en varones. El sida aumentó significativamente entre los varones como causa de muerte. Conclusiones. Bajas tasas de mortalidad global en varones y mujeres de Chantrea y, especialmente, las tasas de mortalidad por enfermedades del aparato circulatorio, que se encuentran por debajo de las cifras registradas en la mayoría de los países europeos. Otras causas de muerte, como accidentes de tráfico, sida o tumores malignos relacionados con el tabaco, presentan tasas moderadamente altas (AU)

Treatment of oral vascular anomalies by transfixion technique.

BACKGROUND: Vascular anomalies (hemangiomas and vascular malformations) are frequently located in the oral cavity. They can be treated by cool steel surgery, cryotherapy, laser therapy, embolization, and sclerosis. The choice of treatment should depend on the type of vascular anomaly, its site, the general condition of the patient, and the doctor's experience. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to assess the usefulness, indications, and advantages of transfixion technique in the treatment of oral vascular lesions. METHODS: We present seven patients with various vascular anomalies in the oral cavity that were treated using transfixion technique. This procedure is performed with local infiltration anesthesia and it consists of interlacing a polyglycolic acid suture a number of times in an upward direction until the vascular anomaly becomes bloodless. RESULTS: In all seven patients we completely eliminated the vascular lesion without significant long-term complications. We detected a transitory retractil scar in only one patient and edema in the postoperative period in another one. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of vascular anomalies of the oral cavity by transfixion technique is an effective, simple method that does not cause major complications and is low in cost.

[The main etiopathogenic mechanisms of neurocutaneous diseases]. / Principales mecanismos etiopatogénicos de las enfermedades neurocutáneas.

Neurocutaneous syndromes constitute a large and complex group of diseases in which recent medical advances, particularly in the field of molecular biology and genetics, have afforded a deeper understanding of the way in which these diseases originate. In this article, we review the advances concerning pathogenic mechanisms. First, we discuss the malformations disorders of the central nervous system associated with skin disorders, which range from spinal and/or cranial dysraphism with skin lesions to fustrated forms of malformations of the neural tube, such us membranous aplasia cutis. Neurocutaneous vascular disorders can be due to malformational disease, such as in Sturge-Weber syndrome, as well as to autoimmune diseases. The analysis of mutations affecting the capacity for migration and differentiation of melanocyte precursors enables us to gain a better understanding of disorders of the cells of the neural crest, such as piebaldism and Waardenburg's syndrome. Mutations in tumor suppressor genes play an important part in the development of hamartomatous and neoplastic lesions in neurofibromatosis and tuberous sclerosis. Genetic mosaicism, both of the functional and the genomic kind, accounts for the great diversity of phenotypes and the distribution of neurocutaneous diseases. Lastly, neurocutaneous syndromes such as the paracrinopathies form an attractive hypothesis, which is as yet to be confirmed.

[Histological prediction of cerebral tumors using SPECT with 201T1]. / Predicción histológica de los tumores cerebrales mediante SPECT con 201T1.

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: SPECT with 201Tl provides information regarding the degree of malignancy of cerebral tumours, their possible relapses, the differentiation of necrotic tissue in the tumours following chemotherapy or radiotherapy and permits differentiation into zones of various grades of histological malignancy. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We carried out a prospective analysis of the usefulness of SPECT with 201Tl for the histological prognosis of cerebral tumours. For one year 68 patients diagnosed (on CT and/or MR) as having an expansive cerebral lesion were studied. The early uptake (ICP) and retention (R) indices were calculated, and these results correlated with the morbid anatomy (AP) findings and the results obtained with surgery and stereotactic biopsy. Four patients were excluded due to lack of AP results. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the ICP of grade I-II astrocytomas (1.34 +/- 0.52) and glioblastomas multiformes (2.56 +/- 0.57), between the ICP of meningiomas (4.53 +/- 1.68) and metastases (2.45 +/- 0.58) and between those of meningiomas and all glial tumours. With regard to IR, we saw significant differences between the figures for meningiomas (0.63 +/- 0.13) and meningiomas with malignant relapses (0.94 +/- 0.17) and between metastases (0.8 +/- 0.03) and all glial tumours. CONCLUSIONS: From our study, it may be concluded that rapid, high captation of 201Tl (high ICP) with a slow fall (high IR), is associated with a process showing malignancy on histological study (malignant relapse of meningioma, glioblastoma multiforme, metastasis), whilst high take-up (high ICP) with rapid elimination (low IR) corresponds to a benign hypervascularized tumour (meningioma).