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Introduction: The capacity for prompt "rescue" from death in patients with complications has become an important marker of the quality of care since mortality and morbidity have been identified as incongruous indicators. This study aims to describe the incidence of "surgical rescue" failure and the outcomes of emergency general surgery (EGS) patients at a large academic medical center. Materials and methods: In our high-volume surgical hospital, an electronic EGS registry was developed to automatically capture in-hospital information and outcomes from the Electronic Medical Record (EMR). Surgical complications were included in an online application and automatically captured in the electronic EGS registry, and prospectively screened from June to July 2017 for acute EGS surgical patients from operative procedures. Results: A total of 501 patients (average age: 53.9 ± 20.9, 56.5% female) underwent 882 EGS procedures. Thirteen patients (2.6%) of the 501 patients required "surgical rescue", mainly for uncontrolled sepsis (43%) and anastomotic leakage (30%). The surgical rescue failure rate (inability to prevent death after a surgical complication) was 15.4%. Patients requiring critical care (OR = 3.3, IC 95%: 1.04, 10.5), hospital admission (p = 0.038), and hospital LOS (days) (p = 0.004) were significantly higher for the surgical rescue patients than for those without complications. Conclusion: Surgical failure to rescue rate was similar among high-volume EGS services, as has recently been described in the United States. The latest development and implementation of an electronic automatic captured EGS registry database in our academic medical center will serve to build best practices for "surgical rescue" and drive quality improvement programs.
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BACKGROUND: Pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) fellowships exist to provide learners with expertise in ultrasound (US) education, administration, and research oversight. Currently, there are no standardized goals or objectives for these programs, resulting in considerable variability in PEM POCUS fellowship training. METHODS: A modified Delphi survey of PEM and general emergency medicine (EM) POCUS experts in Canada and the United States was conducted to obtain consensus regarding the most important curricular components of a PEM POCUS fellowship training program. Participants were solicited from the P2 Network mailing list and from PEM and EM POCUS fellowship directors listed on the Society of Clinical Ultrasound Fellowships and the Canadian Society of POCUS-EM Fellowships websites. Curricular components considered as part of the survey included US skills, educational skills, administrative skills, and research requirements. Consensus was considered to have been reached when ≥80% of respondents agreed to either include or exclude the component in fellowship training. RESULTS: Round 1 of the survey was sent to 311 participants. A total of 118 (37.9%) completed eligibility for the survey, and 92 (78.0%) met eligibility criteria. Of those, 80 (67.8% of eligible participants) completed the first round of the survey. Round 2 of the survey was sent to those who completed part 1, and 64 (80.0%) completed that round. During Round 1, consensus was achieved for 15 of 75 US applications, seven of seven educational skills, nine of 11 administrative skills, and four of six research requirements. In Round 2 of the survey, consensus was reached on two additional US skills, but no additional administrative skills or research requirements. CONCLUSIONS: With a consensus-building process, the core content for PEM POCUS fellowship training was defined. This can help POCUS educators formulate standardized curricula to create consistent training in POCUS fellowship graduates.
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We investigated the evidence of a familial contribution to urinary methylation patterns in families ingesting arsenic in drinking water. Arsenic methylation can be assessed by measuring urinary levels of inorganic arsenic (InAs) and its methylated metabolites, monomethylarsonate (MMA), and dimethylarsinate (DMA). Methylation activity is reflected in the ratios: InAs/methylated arsenic (InAs/metAs) and MMA/DMA. Eleven families from Chile were selected because of their long-term exposure to very high levels of arsenic in drinking water (735-762 microg/L). Each family consisted of a father, a mother, and two children. We measured urinary arsenic and its methylated metabolites for each participant (n = 44). The intraclass correlation coefficients showed that 13-52% of the variations in the methylation patterns were from being a member of a specific family. Family correlations were calculated for father-mother, parent-child, and sibling-sibling pairs. Methylation patterns correlated strongly between siblings [r = 0.78 for InAs/metAs, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.34-0.94; r = 0.82 for MMA/DMA, 95%CI, 0.43-0.95] compared to lower correlations in father-mother pairs (r = 0.18, r = -0.01, respectively), after adjustment for total urinary arsenic, age, and sex. Family correlations were not notably altered when adjustments were made for specific blood micronutrients (methionine, homocysteine, folate, vitamin B6, selenium, and vitamin B12 potentially related to methylation. We also report on a family pedigree with high prevalence of arsenic-induced effects. Participants from this family had low InAs/metAs values, which is consistent with increased toxicity of trivalent methylated arsenic species. Despite our small sample size, we observed that methylation patterns aggregate in families and are correlated in siblings, providing evidence of a genetic basis for the variation in arsenic methylation. Larger studies with more extensive pedigrees will need to be conducted to confirm these findings.
