Addressing Inequities in Urban Health: Do Decision-Makers Have the Data They Need? Report from the Urban Health Data Special Session at International Conference on Urban Health Dhaka 2015.

Rapid and uncontrolled urbanisation across low and middle-income countries is leading to ever expanding numbers of urban poor, defined here as slum dwellers and the homeless. It is estimated that 828 million people are currently living in slum conditions. If governments, donors and NGOs are to respond to these growing inequities they need data that adequately represents the needs of the urban poorest as well as others across the socio-economic spectrum.We report on the findings of a special session held at the International Conference on Urban Health, Dhaka 2015. We present an overview of the need for data on urban health for planning and allocating resources to address urban inequities. Such data needs to provide information on differences between urban and rural areas nationally, between and within urban communities. We discuss the limitations of data most commonly available to national and municipality level government, donor and NGO staff. In particular we assess, with reference to the WHO's Urban HEART tool, the challenges in the design of household surveys in understanding urban health inequities.We then present two novel approaches aimed at improving the information on the health of the urban poorest. The first uses gridded population sampling techniques within the design and implementation of household surveys and the second adapts Urban HEART into a participatory approach which enables slum residents to assess indicators whilst simultaneously planning the response. We argue that if progress is to be made towards inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities, as articulated in Sustainable Development Goal 11, then understanding urban health inequities is a vital pre-requisite to an effective response by governments, donors, NGOs and communities.

Carotid endarterectomy in the elderly: risk factors, intraoperative carotid hemodynamics and short-term complications: a UK tertiary center retrospective analysis.

This retrospective analysis aims to demonstrate the safety of carotid endarterectomy (CE) in patients >75 years with particular attention paid to intraoperative hemodynamics. Four hundred and ninety-six consecutive patients with >70% symptomatic and asymptomatic stenosis who underwent CE were prospectively assessed and divided into those <75 years (n = 408; mean 64 years) and those >75 years (n = 88; mean 78 years). Associated risk factors, hemodynamic parameters, surgical techniques and 30-day perioperative complications were compared. Carotid artery stump pressures of <25 mmHg (13 versus 29%) and middle cerebral artery velocities of <20 cm/sec (46 versus 29%) were more common in those >75 years (P = 0.0001 and P <0.005, respectively). However, there was no difference in the frequency of intraluminal shunt (34% in both groups) or synthetic patch usage (primary patching: 12.5%, older group versus 11%, younger group; secondary patching: 34% in both groups), and no difference in the combined 30-day stroke and death rates (3.4%, >75 years versus 1.1%, <75 years; P = 0.425). CE in this cohort of patients >75 years was not associated with increased morbidity or mortality. Altered intraoperative hemodynamics were not associated with increased use of shunting or patching. This analysis supports CE as a safe procedure in the elderly.

Improving the quality of operative notes for laparoscopic cholecystectomy: Assessing the impact of a standardized operation note proforma.

INTRODUCTION: Operative notes are the recognized standard for documenting the details of an operation yet key procedural details are frequently missing. With the aim of improving standards, based on the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) and Dutch Society of Surgery (DSS) Guidelines, we introduced an operation note proforma for use following laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a tertiary centre in the UK. METHODS: This study audited 130 consecutive laparoscopic cholecystectomy operation notes against accepted guidelines across three hospital sites within the same NHS Trust. Following analysis of these operation notes a standardized operation note proforma was designed and introduced across the Trust, which included all items from the DSS and RCS guidelines in the form of keyword prompts or simple yes/no responses. A further 128 operation notes were analysed. Guideline compliance was compared pre- and post-introduction of the proforma. Non-parametric data were analysed using Fisher's exact and Mann-Whitney U tests. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: On a global assessment of operation note completeness against all guideline items, introduction of an operation note proforma significantly improved documentation rates for both DSS guidelines (p < 0.001) and RCS guidelines (p < 0.001). DISCUSSION: We have demonstrated that the introduction of a procedure-specific proforma to assist with writing the post-operative note following laparoscopic cholecystectomy can result in significant improvements in documentation of generic and procedure-specific items that should be recorded for every operation. Procedure-specific proformas, based on established guidelines can help to produce more complete and medico-legally robust operation notes.

Polarity order of biphasic square pulse electric current stimulation of human cochlear nerve: observations with transtympanic electrodes.

Eighteen totally deaf human cochleae were stimulated with biphasic square pulses of current through transtympanic needle electrodes. The thresholds of the 2 polarity orders, + - and - +, were compared for various pulse durations. For a pulse duration of 500 microseconds the polarity order - + had the lower threshold. For pulse durations of 2 ms and longer, the polarity order + - had the lower threshold. A discussion is given of the significance of the results for finding out the site of cochlear nerve excitation by the stimuli.

Measurement of auditory brainstem responses evoked by electrical stimulation with a cochlear implant.

Auditory brainstem responses evoked by electrical stimulation with a Nucleus/Cochlear implant can be measured if care is taken to prevent stimulus artefacts. A simple procedure is described which relies upon a passive LCR filter to prevent the radiofrequency carrier from entering the input of the recording amplifier. The filter simply prevents saturation of the amplifier by the carrier.

The hazards of anaesthetic gas scavenging systems.

The function of scavenging equipment is to remove waste anaesthetic gases from the operating theatre and thus reduce the potentially harmful effects these agents may have on staff. However, these systems can pose a serious risk to patients which is not well recognised. We describe two cases where harm to patients could have occurred as a result of faulty or inappropriate equipment being used and inadequate checking of scavenging systems.