Extensive injuries following a ‘trip at home’: a case report

A 52-year-old, Caucasian, British man suffered significant injury following simple fall. A man with no significant past medical history, presented to the accident and emergency with right side chest pain and shortness of breath. He reported a simple fall, two days before admission. Chest radiograph showed simple bilateral pneumothorax and pneumomediastinum. Subsequent computerised tomography confirmed the thoracic injury and identified complex pathophysiology as described. This case shows the extent of injury a person can sustain from a simple fall and the high index of suspicion required to discover the full extent of a patient's injuries. We review the literature to find other forms of presentation

Paediatric Boerhaave’s syndrome: a case report and review of the literature

We report a case of paediatric Boerhaave’s syndrome in 15-year-old girl associated with massive dilatation of the stomach into the pelvis and transient hepatitis of uncertain aetiology. This cluster of clinical finding has not previously been reported. The young girl initially presented with abdominal pain, vomiting and lower urinary tract symptoms. She was initially treated for urinary tract infection after urine dipstick showed leucocytes and nitrates. Later she was found to have the spectrum of findings as described. Patient was treated by restricting to strict no oral intake and gastric decompression. Enteral nutrition maintained via a feeding jejunostomy

A novel technique for the treatment of post operative retro-rectal haematoma: two case reports

Rectal bleeding following any form of rectal surgery is a well recognised complication 1, 2, 3 & 4. However retro-rectal bleeding and tracking which then presents as rectal bleeding has not been reported in the literature. We describe a novel way of dealing with this technically difficult post-operative complication

Effectiveness of a national quality improvement programme to improve survival after emergency abdominal surgery (EPOCH): a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial

Background: Emergency abdominal surgery is associated with poor patient outcomes. We studied the effectiveness of a national quality improvement (QI) programme to implement a care pathway to improve survival for these patients. Methods: We did a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial of patients aged 40 years or older undergoing emergency open major abdominal surgery. Eligible UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals (those that had an emergency general surgical service, a substantial volume of emergency abdominal surgery cases, and contributed data to the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit) were organised into 15 geographical clusters and commenced the QI programme in a random order, based on a computer-generated random sequence, over an 85-week period with one geographical cluster commencing the intervention every 5 weeks from the second to the 16th time period. Patients were masked to the study group, but it was not possible to mask hospital staff or investigators. The primary outcome measure was mortality within 90 days of surgery. Analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN80682973. Findings: Treatment took place between March 3, 2014, and Oct 19, 2015. 22 754 patients were assessed for elegibility. Of 15 873 eligible patients from 93 NHS hospitals, primary outcome data were analysed for 8482 patients in the usual care group and 7374 in the QI group. Eight patients in the usual care group and nine patients in the QI group were not included in the analysis because of missing primary outcome data. The primary outcome of 90-day mortality occurred in 1210 (16%) patients in the QI group compared with 1393 (16%) patients in the usual care group (HR 1·11, 0·96–1·28). Interpretation: No survival benefit was observed from this QI programme to implement a care pathway for patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. Future QI programmes should ensure that teams have both the time and resources needed to improve patient care. Funding: National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme

Effectiveness of a national quality improvement programme to improve survival after emergency abdominal surgery (EPOCH): a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial

BACKGROUND: Emergency abdominal surgery is associated with poor patient outcomes. We studied the effectiveness of a national quality improvement (QI) programme to implement a care pathway to improve survival for these patients. METHODS: We did a stepped-wedge cluster-randomised trial of patients aged 40 years or older undergoing emergency open major abdominal surgery. Eligible UK National Health Service (NHS) hospitals (those that had an emergency general surgical service, a substantial volume of emergency abdominal surgery cases, and contributed data to the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit) were organised into 15 geographical clusters and commenced the QI programme in a random order, based on a computer-generated random sequence, over an 85-week period with one geographical cluster commencing the intervention every 5 weeks from the second to the 16th time period. Patients were masked to the study group, but it was not possible to mask hospital staff or investigators. The primary outcome measure was mortality within 90 days of surgery. Analyses were done on an intention-to-treat basis. This study is registered with the ISRCTN registry, number ISRCTN80682973. FINDINGS: Treatment took place between March 3, 2014, and Oct 19, 2015. 22 754 patients were assessed for elegibility. Of 15 873 eligible patients from 93 NHS hospitals, primary outcome data were analysed for 8482 patients in the usual care group and 7374 in the QI group. Eight patients in the usual care group and nine patients in the QI group were not included in the analysis because of missing primary outcome data. The primary outcome of 90-day mortality occurred in 1210 (16%) patients in the QI group compared with 1393 (16%) patients in the usual care group (HR 1·11, 0·96-1·28). INTERPRETATION: No survival benefit was observed from this QI programme to implement a care pathway for patients undergoing emergency abdominal surgery. Future QI programmes should ensure that teams have both the time and resources needed to improve patient care. FUNDING: National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme

Case report and magnetic resonance images of sclerosing angiomatoid nodular transformation (SANT) of the spleen

A 40-year-old woman presented with a 2 year history of intermittent left upper quadrant pain. The clinical examination and blood tests were normal, but the pain persisted. An ultrasound scan of the abdomen revealed a hypoechoic mass in the spleen which was further investigated by computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The differential diagnosis included solitary lymphoma, splenic haematoma, sarcoma, solitary metastasis or partially thrombosed splenic artery aneurysm. The patient underwent elective splenectomy and histology showed the appearance of a rare tumour. We present MRI images of this very rare splenic tumour

Therapeutic plasma exchange for neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder: A multicenter retrospective study by the ASFA neurologic diseases subcommittee

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Importance: Neuromyelitis optica/neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder patients\u27 response to therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is currently incompletely characterized. Objective: Our study aims to understand the clinical status improvement of neuromyelitis optica/neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder patients treated with TPE. Design, Setting, and Participants: This is a multicenter retrospective study conducted between 1 January 2003 and 31 July 2017 at 13 US hospitals performing apheresis procedures. Subjects studied were diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica/neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder who received TPE during presentation with acute disease. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was clinical status improvement in patients treated with TPE. Secondary measures were procedural and patient characteristics associated with response to treatment. Results: We evaluated 114 patients from 13 institutions. There was a female predilection. The largest ethnic group affected was non-Hispanic Caucasian. The average age of diagnosis was 43.1 years. The average time to diagnosis was 3.1 years. On average, five procedures were performed during each treatment series. The most commonly performed plasma volume exchange was 1.0 to 1.25 using 5% albumin as replacement fluid. Most patients (52%) did not require an additional course of TPE and noted “mild” to “moderate” clinical status improvement. Maximal symptom improvement appeared by the fourth or fifth TPE treatment. Conclusion and Relevance: TPE improved the clinical status of patients. Adults responded more favorably than children. Procedural characteristics, including number of TPEs, plasma volume exchanged, and replacement fluid used, were similar between institutions. TPE was well-tolerated and had a low severe adverse event profile