Pulmonary embolism and mortality following total ankle replacement: a data linkage study using the NJR data set

OBJECTIVE: To determine the mortality rate following total ankle replacement (TAR) and incidence of 90 day pulmonary embolism (PE) along with the associated risk factors.  DESIGN: Data-linkage study of the UK National Joint Registry (NJR) data and Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) database. Linkage was performed in a deterministic fashion. HES episodes 90 days after the index procedure were analysed for PE. Mortality data were obtained pertaining to all the index procedures from the NJR for analysis.  PARTICIPANTS: All primary and revision ankle replacement patients captured on the NJR between February 2008 and February 2013.  RESULTS: The 90-day mortality following TAR was 0.13% (95% CI 0.03 to 0.52) and 1-year mortality was 0.72% (95% CI 0.40 to 1.30); no deaths were as a result of PE. The incidence of PE within 90 days following primary TAR was 0.51% (95% CI 0.23 to 1.13). There was only one PE following revision surgery. Patients with an Royal College of Surgeons Charlson score greater than zero were at 13 times greater risk of PE (p=0.003).  CONCLUSIONS: There is low incidence of PE following TAR, but multiple comorbidities are a leading risk factor for its occurrence

How do patients with end-stage ankle arthritis decide between two surgical treatments?:A qualitative study

To examine how patients decide between ankle fusion and ankle replacement in end-stage ankle arthritis

Bernsteinian Perspective on Further Marginalization of International Students in Open and Online Learning Environment: Pedagogizing Student Centric Approaches

This paper attempted to explore the relevance of Bernstein’s (2001) critical views on the marginalization of international students in the context of emerging online learning models. It also focused on the disengaged learning patterns of marginalized international students via Bernstein’s (1990) theoretical lens of elaborated code and restrictive code, where Bernstein (2001) instructed teachers to play their vital roles in complex learning processes, which were heavy on teachers and students alike, to facilitate the healthy and successful learning trajectory. This paper used metadata via Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; Van Dijk, 2003) to construct themes from students’ assignments, Flipgrid videos, and reading audios submitted for grading for their technical communication and English communication courses. The paper also discussed these three questions, such as 1) How can linguistically-challenged students feel left-out? 2) What language patterns do these international students use in the context of the sociology of education? Finally, 3) How can teachers play an instrumentally critical role in an online learning environment? The resultant social initiations of linguistically complacent international students have been treated as a problem for educators to upend the educational inequalities in the knowledge economy. The findings revealed that 21st-century knowledge production, distribution, and its adequate reproduction are in the hands of well-rounded knowledge consumers, and if the knowledge consumers are not well cognizant of their instrumental roles in the knowledge economy, social inequalities will quadruple exponentially. In addition, international students’ poor language skills in online learning appeared to be a huge barrier in their roles as “woke consumers.” Finally, Bernstein’s (2001) totally pedagogizing society (TPS) might appear paradoxically preposterous at this stage; its judicious applicability is more than needed currently, in the aftermath of E-Campus Ontario’s (2020) policy of up-credentialing, by asking post-secondary instructors/teachers to introduce micro-credentialing, especially in technical English, knitted around courses

Use of Central Nervous System (CNS) Medicines in Aged Care Homes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Both old age and institutionalization in aged care homes come with a significant risk of developing several long-term mental and neurological disorders, but there has been no definitive meta-analysis of data from studies to determine the pooled estimate of central nervous system (CNS) medicines use in aged care homes. We conducted this systematic review to summarize the use of CNS drugs among aged care homes residents. Methods: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus, and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) databases were searched (between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2018) to identify population-based studies that reported the use of CNS medicines in aged care homes. Pooled proportions (with 95% confidence interval), according to study location were calculated. Results: A total of 89 studies reported the use of CNS medicines use in aged care. The pooled estimate of CNS drugs use varied according to country (from 20.3% in Ireland to 49.0% in Belgium) and region (from 31.7% in North America to 42.5% in Scandinavia). The overall pooled estimate of psychotropic medicines use was highest in Europe (72.2%, 95% CI, 67.1–77.1%) and lowest in ANZ region (56.9%, 95% CI, 52.2–61.4%). The pooled estimate of benzodiazepines use varied widely from 18.9% in North America to 44.8% in Europe. The pooled estimate of antidepressants use from 47 studies was 38.3% (95% CI 35.1% to 41.6%) with highest proportion in North America (44.9%, 95% CI, 35.3–54.5%). Conclusion: The overall use of CNS drugs varied among countries, with studies from Australia-New Zealand reported the lowest use of CNS drugs. The criteria for prescribing CNS drugs in clinical practice should be evidence-based. The criteria should be used not to prohibit the use of the listed medications but to support the clinical judgement as well as patient safety

Venous thromboembolism in critically ill COVID-19 patients receiving prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulation: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Many aspects of care such as management of hypercoagulable state in COVID-19 patients, especially those admitted to intensive care units is challenging in the rapidly evolving pandemic of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We seek to systematically review the available evidence regarding the anticoagulation approach to prevent venous thromboembolism (VTE) among COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units. Electronic databases were searched for studies reporting venous thromboembolic events in patients admitted to the intensive care unit receiving any type of anticoagulation (prophylactic or therapeutic). The pooled prevalence (and 95% confidence interval [CI]) of VTE among patients receiving anticoagulant were calculated using the random-effects model. Subgroup pooled analyses were performed with studies reported prophylactic anticoagulation alone and with studies reported mixed prophylactic and therapeutic anticoagulation. We included twelve studies (8 Europe; 2 UK; 1 each from the US and China) in our systematic review and meta-analysis. All studies utilized LMWH or unfractionated heparin as their pharmacologic thromboprophylaxis, either prophylactic doses or therapeutic doses. Seven studies reported on the proportion of patients with the previous history of VTE (range 0–10%). The pooled prevalence of VTE among ICU patients receiving prophylactic or therapeutic anticoagulation across all studies was 31% (95% CI 20–43%). Subgroup pooled analysis limited to studies reported prophylactic anticoagulation alone and mixed (therapeutic and prophylactic anticoagulation) reported pooled prevalences of VTE of 38% (95% CI 10–70%) and 27% (95% CI 17–40%) respectively. With a high prevalence of thromboprophylaxis failure among COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care units, individualised rather than protocolised VTE thromboprophylaxis would appear prudent at interim

Antimicrobial drug use in primary healthcare clinics: a retrospective evaluation

Objectives: To examine the appropriateness of antibiotics prescribed for acute infection based on the Malaysian national antibiotic guidelines and the defined daily dose (DDD) system of the World Health Organization (WHO). This study also aimed to describe the factors influencing the drug use pattern and to investigate the procurement patterns of antibiotics in the primary healthcare setting. Methods: A retrospective cohort follow-up study of randomly selected patients from all patients who received any antibiotic between January and December 2013 was conducted at three primary healthcare clinics in Selangor State of Malaysia. For each patient, the following information was recorded: name of the antibiotic, frequency and dose, and Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) group. The defined daily dose per 1000 inhabitants per day was calculated for each antibiotic. The national antibiotic guidelines were used to assess the appropriateness of each antibiotic prescription. Results: A total of 735 patients were included in the study. The five most used antibiotics were amoxicillin (1.36 g, 35.2%), cloxacillin (0.68 g, 26.3%), erythromycin (0.32 g, 22.3%), bacampicillin (0.13 g, 7.2%), and cephalexin (0.11 g, 6.9%). Respiratory tract infections were the most commonly treated infections, and the doctors’ preferred antibiotic for the treatment of these infections was amoxicillin. More than 18% of all amoxicillin prescriptions were deemed inappropriate according to the national antibiotic guidelines. In terms of procurement costs, USD 88 885 was spent in 2011, USD 219 402 in 2012, and USD 233 034 in 2013 at the three primary healthcare clinics, an average of USD 180 440 per year for the three clinics. Conclusions: This study reports the antibiotic usage at three primary healthcare clinics in Klang Province. The most prescribed antibiotic was amoxicillin in capsules (250 mg), which was mainly prescribed for respiratory infections. Although the national antibiotic guidelines state that amoxicillin is a preferred drug for acute bacterial rhinosinusitis, this drug is also being prescribed for other disease conditions, such as acute pharyngitis and acute tonsillitis. This result shows that current practice is not following the current antibiotic guidelines, which state that phenoxypenicillin should be the preferred drug

The use of mesenchymal stem cells for cartilage repair and regeneration: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The management of articular cartilage defects presents many clinical challenges due to its avascular, aneural and alymphatic nature. Bone marrow stimulation techniques, such as microfracture, are the most frequently used method in clinical practice however the resulting mixed fibrocartilage tissue which is inferior to native hyaline cartilage. Other methods have shown promise but are far from perfect. There is an unmet need and growing interest in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to improve the outcome for patients requiring cartilage repair. Many published reviews on cartilage repair only list human clinical trials, underestimating the wealth of basic sciences and animal studies that are precursors to future research. We therefore set out to perform a systematic review of the literature to assess the translation of stem cell therapy to explore what research had been carried out at each of the stages of translation from bench-top (in vitro), animal (pre-clinical) and human studies (clinical) and assemble an evidence-based cascade for the responsible introduction of stem cell therapy for cartilage defects. This review was conducted in accordance to PRISMA guidelines using CINHAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus and Web of Knowledge databases from 1st January 1900 to 30th June 2015. In total, there were 2880 studies identified of which 252 studies were included for analysis (100 articles for in vitro studies, 111 studies for animal studies; and 31 studies for human studies). There was a huge variance in cell source in pre-clinical studies both of terms of animal used, location of harvest (fat, marrow, blood or synovium) and allogeneicity. The use of scaffolds, growth factors, number of cell passages and number of cells used was hugely heterogeneous. SHORT CONCLUSIONS: This review offers a comprehensive assessment of the evidence behind the translation of basic science to the clinical practice of cartilage repair. It has revealed a lack of connectivity between the in vitro, pre-clinical and human data and a patchwork quilt of synergistic evidence. Drivers for progress in this space are largely driven by patient demand, surgeon inquisition and a regulatory framework that is learning at the same pace as new developments take place

Risk factors for intra-operative and post-operative fractures associated with primary total ankle replacement surgery - a data linkage study from the UK National Joint Registry

Category: Ankle Introduction/Purpose: Intra and post-operative fractures are recognised complications of total ankle replacement (TAR) surgery. Intra-operative fractures are captured on the National Joint Registry (NJR) in the UK. The NJR has been capturing data on ankle replacement surgery since April 2010 and the number of TARs on the register is approaching 4000. Post-operative fractures are captured in the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) database. HES stores all patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England and captures 125 million records each year. Diagnostic information is stored using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) and operative details using the Office of Population, Censuses and Surveys Classification (OPCS) codes. The purpose of this work was to determine the rate of intra and post-operative fracture with primary TAR and determine risk factors. Methods: A data-linkage study of the UK National Joint Registry (NJR) data and Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) database was peformed using the first 3 years of NJR data. These two databases were linked in a deterministic fashion. 1522 NJR records were linked with the HES data set of over 90 million records. 1110 records were able to linked and available for analysis. Unlinked NJR data was analysed to identify intra-operative fractures. Linked data was analysed to identify post-operative fractures using ICD codes. Logistic regression was used to model predictors of intra and post-operative fractures. Every model was adjusted for patient characteristics including age, BMI, comorbidity and ASA grade. Results: The rate of intra-operative fracture was 2.69% (95% CI 2.67% to 2.74%). When looking at patient characteristics no significant predictors emerged. Logistic regression adjusted for patient characteristics showed that patients with rheumatoid arthritis were twice as likely to have a intra-operative fractures. The rate of post-operative fracture in the 12 months following primary TAR was 1.08% (95% CI 1.05% to 1.14%). Age emerged as a risk factor with a 5 five fold increase in risk of post-operative fracture with age 65-74 compared with those below 65. Adjusted logistic regression showed an increase risk of post-operative fracture in rheumatoid patients, hybrid operations and with those with multiple concurrent procedures. The risk of fracture was doubled with one associated procedure and tripled with two procedures. Conclusion: The rate of intra and post-operative fracture associated with primary total ankle replacement is low. However care should be taken with patients over 65 as they are at greater risk of intra operative fractures. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis are at greater risk of both, likely due to the effect of drug treatment. All efforts should be made to review medications and bone protective medication prescribed for these patents when undergoing TAR