Management of acute appendicitis during the COVID-19 pandemic : a retrospective cohort study

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic profoundly impacted delivery of health care. South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWSLHD) experienced some of the highest cases, admissions and deaths during the Delta and Omicron waves in New South Wales. This study aims to determine the impact of the pandemic on emergency surgery services for adults presenting with acute appendicitis. Methods: A retrospective review of patient records was performed of adults presenting with acute appendicitis between 1st March 2021 and 31st March 2022, which was compared to a pre-COVID control period of the same dates in 2019–2020. Patients managed operatively or conservatively were included. Results: 1556 patients were included in the operative arm; 723 and 833 respectively in the study and control groups, which were comparable at baseline. 1.66% were COVID positive. During the pandemic, patients were significantly more likely to be investigated with computered tomography (CT) scan (p ≤ 0.001), present with complicated appendicitis (p = 0.03), and require caecectomy (p = 0.005). They had higher American Society of Anaesthesiology (ASA) scores (p = 0.001) and significantly lower negative appendectomy rates (p = 0.001). Fifty-two patients were included in the conservative arm; 29 and 23 respectively in the pandemic and control groups. Patients were comparable at baseline. There were two COVID positive patients. During the pandemic, there was a significant reduction in complications (p = 0.033), readmissions (0.044) and interval appendicectomy (p = 0.0044). Conclusion: We identified higher rates of complicated appendicitis, caecectomies and greater reliance on CT imaging preoperatively during the pandemic in SWSLHD

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF SYMMETRIC KEY CIPHERS IN LINEAR AND GRID BASED SENSOR NETWORKS

The linear and grid based Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are formed by applications where objects being monitored are either placed in linear or grid based form. E.g. monitoring oil, water or gas pipelines; perimeter surveillance; monitoring traffic level of city streets, goods warehouse monitoring. The security of data is a critical issue for all such applications and as the devices used for the monitoring purpose have several resource constraints (bandwidth, storage capacity, battery life); it is significant to have a lightweight security solution. Therefore, we consider symmetric key based solutions proposed in the literature as asymmetric based solutions require more computation, energy and storage of keys. We analyse the symmetric ciphers with respect to the performance parameters: RAM, ROM consumption and number of CPU cycles. We perform this simulation analysis in Contiki Cooja by considering an example scenario on two different motes namely: Sky and Z1. The aim of this analysis is to come up with the best suited symmetric key based cipher for the linear and grid based WSN

Modified Longmire procedure: a novel approach to bile duct injury repair

A 56-year-old female was transferred to our Upper GI Unit following an elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). During the initial surgery, the surgeon was unable to obtain the critical view of safety due to chronic inflammation and performed a fundus first dissection. Following this dissection, bile was seen in the gallbladder bed with some bleeding, controlled with ligaclips. A subtotal cholecystectomy was performed and the patient was transferred to our facility for further management

Modified Longmire procedure : a novel approach to bile duct injury repair

A 56-year-old female was transferred to our Upper GI Unit following an elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). During the initial surgery, the surgeon was unable to obtain the critical view of safety due to chronic inflammation and performed a fundus first dissection. Following this dissection, bile was seen in the gallbladder bed with some bleeding, controlled with ligaclips. A subtotal cholecystectomy was performed and the patient was transferred to our facility for further management

Abstracts of AICTE Sponsored International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in Health

This book presents the selected abstracts of the International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in Health, hosted from the 28th to 29th of April 2022 in virtual mode by the LR Institute of Pharmacy, Solan (H.P.)-173223 in Collaboration with AICTE, New Delhi. This conference focuses on the implications of long-term symptoms on public health, ways to mitigate these complications, improve understanding of the disease process in COVID-19 patients, use of computational methods and artificial intelligence in predicting complications, and the role of various drug delivery systems in combating the complications. Conference Title:  International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in HealthConference Sponsor: AICTE, New Delhi.Conference Date: 28-29 April 2022Conference Location: OnlineConference Organizer: LR Institute of Pharmacy, Solan (H.P.)-173223

Abstracts of AICTE Sponsored International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in Health

This book presents the selected abstracts of the International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in Health, hosted from the 28th to 29th of April 2022 in virtual mode by the LR Institute of Pharmacy, Solan (H.P.)-173223 in Collaboration with AICTE, New Delhi. This conference focuses on the implications of long-term symptoms on public health, ways to mitigate these complications, improve understanding of the disease process in COVID-19 patients, use of computational methods and artificial intelligence in predicting complications, and the role of various drug delivery systems in combating the complications. Conference Title:  International Conference on Post-COVID Symptoms and Complications in HealthConference Sponsor: AICTE, New Delhi.Conference Date: 28-29 April 2022Conference Location: OnlineConference Organizer: LR Institute of Pharmacy, Solan (H.P.)-173223