From the Belle Époque to the city of vice: the fight against syphilis in Belém, Pará, 1921-1924

This article analyzes the fight against syphilis in Belém, capital of the Brazilian state of Pará, between 1921 and 1924. When Instituto de Profilaxia e Doenças Venéreas (Institute for Prophylaxis and Venereal Diseases) was founded, headed by Dr. Heraclídes de Souza Araújo, many restrictions were imposed on prostitution in a bid to make prostitutes partners in the city’s sanitation reform. The documents produced by the institute and published in newspapers of the day reveal the various clashes that occurred between doctors, the civil police force, and prostitutes, highlighting the prostitutes’ attitudes to state intervention in their activities.O artigo analisa o combate à sífilis em Belém do Pará entre 1921 e 1924. A partir da fundação do Instituto de Profilaxia e Doenças Venéreas, administrado pelo médico Heraclídes de Souza Araújo, muitas restrições foram feitas à prática do meretrício, visando transformar as prostitutas em aliadas da política de higienização da cidade. A documentação produzida pelo Instituto de Profilaxia, bem como jornais da época, revela os vários embates que ocorreram entre médicos, polícia civil e meretrizes, destacando as atitudes destas contra a intervenção do Estado em seu ofício

The surgical safety checklist and patient outcomes after surgery: a prospective observational cohort study, systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2017 British Journal of Anaesthesia Background: The surgical safety checklist is widely used to improve the quality of perioperative care. However, clinicians continue to debate the clinical effectiveness of this tool. Methods: Prospective analysis of data from the International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), an international observational study of elective in-patient surgery, accompanied by a systematic review and meta-analysis of published literature. The exposure was surgical safety checklist use. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. In the ISOS cohort, a multivariable multi-level generalized linear model was used to test associations. To further contextualise these findings, we included the results from the ISOS cohort in a meta-analysis. Results are reported as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals. Results: We included 44 814 patients from 497 hospitals in 27 countries in the ISOS analysis. There were 40 245 (89.8%) patients exposed to the checklist, whilst 7508 (16.8%) sustained ≥1 postoperative complications and 207 (0.5%) died before hospital discharge. Checklist exposure was associated with reduced mortality [odds ratio (OR) 0.49 (0.32–0.77); P\u3c0.01], but no difference in complication rates [OR 1.02 (0.88–1.19); P=0.75]. In a systematic review, we screened 3732 records and identified 11 eligible studies of 453 292 patients including the ISOS cohort. Checklist exposure was associated with both reduced postoperative mortality [OR 0.75 (0.62–0.92); P\u3c0.01; I2=87%] and reduced complication rates [OR 0.73 (0.61–0.88); P\u3c0.01; I2=89%). Conclusions: Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine