Addressing priorities for surgical research in Africa : implementation of a multicentre cloud‐based peri‐operative registry in Ethiopia

Acknowledgements The Network for Perioperative and Critical care (N4PCc) authorship includes co‐ordinators and collaborators for the Ethiopian registry. AB is Chair and First Trustee of the Network for Improving Critical Care Systems and Training (UK Charity) and a volunteer with NICS‐MORU. RH is First Trustee of the Network for Improving Critical Care Systems and Training (UK Charity) and a Director (honorary) at NICS‐MORU. NICS‐MORU is a not‐for‐profit organisation based in Sri Lanka, which supported this pilot project and from which the registry originated. The pilot project has been supported by NICS‐MORU, which also partially supported FK’s fellowship period in Sri Lanka, key to the knowledge exchange and establishment of a community of practice. The project’s implementation and scale up is championed by DBU and FMOH.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Mortality and quality of life in the five years after severe sepsis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Effect of individual patient risk, centre, surgeon and anaesthetist on length of stay in hospital after cardiac surgery: Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Critical Care (ACTACC) consecutive cases series study of 10 UK specialist centres.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the relative contributions of patient risk profile, local and individual clinical practice on length of hospital stay after cardiac surgery. DESIGN: Ten-year audit of prospectively collected consecutive cardiac surgical cases. Case-mix adjusted outcomes were analysed in models that included random effects for centre, surgeon and anaesthetist. SETTING: UK centres providing adult cardiac surgery. PARTICIPANTS: 10 of 36 UK specialist centres agreed to provide outcomes for all major cardiac operations over 10 years. After exclusions (duplicates, cases operated by more than one consultant, deaths and procedures for which the EuroSCORE risk score for cardiac surgery is not appropriate), there were 107 038 cardiac surgical procedures between April 2002 and March 2012, conducted by 127 consultant surgeons and 190 consultant anaesthetists. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Length of stay (LOS) up to 3 months postoperatively. RESULTS: The principal component of variation in outcomes was patient risk (represented by the EuroSCORE and remaining patient heterogeneity), accounting for 95.43% of the variation for postoperative LOS. The impact of the surgeon and centre was moderate (intra-class correlation coefficients ICC=2.79% and 1.59%, respectively), whereas the impact of the anaesthetist was negligible (ICC=0.19%). Similarly, 96.05% of the variation for prolonged LOS (>11 days) was attributable to the patient, with surgeon and centre less but still influential components (ICC=2.12% and 1.66%, respectively, 0.17% only for anaesthetists). Adjustment for year of operation resulted in minor reductions in variation attributable to surgeons (ICC=2.52% for LOS and 2.23% for prolonged LOS). CONCLUSIONS: Patient risk profile is the primary determinant of variation in LOS, and as a result, current initiatives to reduce hospital stay by modifying consultant performance are unlikely to have a substantial impact. Therefore, substantially reducing hospital stay requires shifting away from a one-size-fits-all approach to cardiac surgery, and seeking alternative treatment options personalised to high-risk patients

Improving outcomes after pediatric cardiac arrest – the ICU-Resuscitation Project: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background Quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is associated with survival, but recommended guidelines are often not met, and less than half the children with an in-hospital arrest will survive to discharge. A single-center before-and-after study demonstrated that outcomes may be improved with a novel training program in which all pediatric intensive care unit staff are encouraged to participate in frequent CPR refresher training and regular, structured resuscitation debriefings focused on patient-centric physiology. Methods/design This ongoing trial will assess whether a program of structured debriefings and point-of-care bedside practice that emphasizes physiologic resuscitation targets improves the rate of survival to hospital discharge with favorable neurologic outcome in children receiving CPR in the intensive care unit. This study is designed as a hybrid stepped-wedge trial in which two of ten participating hospitals are randomly assigned to enroll in the intervention group and two are assigned to enroll in the control group for the duration of the trial. The remaining six hospitals enroll initially in the control group but will transition to enrolling in the intervention group at randomly assigned staggered times during the enrollment period. Discussion To our knowledge, this is the first implementation of a hybrid stepped-wedge design. It was chosen over a traditional stepped-wedge design because the resulting improvement in statistical power reduces the required enrollment by 9 months (14%). However, this design comes with additional challenges, including logistics of implementing an intervention prior to the start of enrollment. Nevertheless, if results from the single-center pilot are confirmed in this trial, it will have a profound effect on CPR training and quality improvement initiatives. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02837497. Registered on July 19, 2016. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-2590-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Brain Biomarkers and Pre-Injury Cognition are Associated with Long-Term Cognitive Outcome in Children with Traumatic Brain Injury

BACKGROUND: Children with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are frequently at risk of long-term impairments of attention and executive functioning but these problems are difficult to predict. Although deficits have been reported to vary with injury severity, age at injury and sex, prognostication of outcome remains imperfect at a patient-specific level. The objective of this proof of principle study was to evaluate a variety of patient variables, along with six brain-specific and inflammatory serum protein biomarkers, as predictors of long-term cognitive outcome following paediatric TBI. METHOD: Outcome was assessed in 23 patients via parent-rated questionnaires related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and executive functioning, using the Conners 3rd Edition Rating Scales (Conners-3) and Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) at a mean time since injury of 3.1 years. Partial least squares (PLS) analyses were performed to identify factors measured at the time of injury that were most closely associated with outcome on (1) the Conners-3 and (2) the Behavioural Regulation Index (BRI) and (3) Metacognition Index (MI) of the BRIEF. RESULTS: Higher levels of neuron specific enolase (NSE) and lower levels of soluble neuron cell adhesion molecule (sNCAM) were associated with higher scores on the inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity and executive functioning scales of the Conners-3, as well as working memory and initiate scales of the MI from the BRIEF. Higher levels of NSE only were associated with higher scores on the inhibit scale of the BRI. CONCLUSIONS: NSE and sNCAM show promise as reliable, early predictors of long-term attention-related and executive functioning problems following paediatric TBI

A case in which water intoxication due to excessive water ingestion did not inhibit the secretion of arginine vasopressin

We experienced a case of water intoxication due to excessive water ingestion that was complicated by the syndrome of inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone (SIADH). A 60-year-old Japanese woman with nervous depression drank too much lemon tea within several hours, vomited ten times, and developed disturbed consciousness and dysarthria. Her plasma arginine vasopressin (AVP) concentration was not inhibited,although her plasma osmolality was low. Nausea and/or stress may stimulate AVP secretion regardless of the hypo-osmolality. We believe that dilatation of her stomach due to excessive liquid ingestion and cerebral edema due to hypo-osmolality brought on her nausea. Stress induced by a psychiatric problem and/or admission to a hospital may also stimulate AVP secretion by the central nervous system. Treatingnausea and stress may help reduce AVP secretion and resolve hyponatremia

The practice of glycaemic control in intensive care units: A multicentre survey of nursing and medical professionals.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine the views of nurses and physicians working in intensive care units (ICU) about the aims of glycaemic control and use of their protocols. BACKGROUND: Evidence about the optimal aims and methods for glycaemic control in ICU is controversial, and current local protocols guiding practice differ between ICUs, both nationally and internationally. The views of professionals on glycaemic control can influence their practice. DESIGN: Cross-sectional, multicentre, survey-based study. METHODS: An online short survey was sent to all physicians and nurses of seven ICUs, including questions on effective glycaemic control, treatment of hypoglycaemia and deviations from protocols' instructions. STROBE reporting guidelines were followed. RESULTS: Over half of the 40 respondents opined that a patient spending <75% admission time within the target glycaemic levels constituted poor glycaemic control. Professionals with more than 5 years of experience were more likely to rate a patient spending 50%-74% admission time within target glycaemic levels as poor than less experienced colleagues. Physicians were more likely to rate a patient spending <50% admission time within target as poor than nurses. There was general agreement on how professionals would rate most deviations from their protocols. Nurses were more likely to rate insulin infusions restarted late and incorrect dosage of rescue glucose as major deviations than physicians. Most professionals agreed on when they would treat hypoglycaemia. CONCLUSIONS: When surveyed on various aspects of glycaemic control, ICU nurses and physicians often agreed, although there were certain areas of disagreement, in which their profession and level of experience seemed to play a role. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Differing views on glycaemic control amongst professionals may affect their practice and, thus, could lead to health inequalities. Clinical leads and the multidisciplinary ICU team should assess and, if necessary, address these differing opinions.Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Charity and the NUH Department of Research and Innovation University of Nottingham School of Health Sciences director of research small grant