Terrorist bombing

Bombings and explosion incidents directed against innocent civilians are the primary instrument of global terror. In the present review we highlight the major observations and lessons learned from these events. Five mechanisms of blast injury are outlined and the different type of injury that they cause is described. Indeed, the consequences of terror bombings differ from those of non-terrorism trauma in severity and complexity of injury, and constitute a new class of casualties that differ from those of conventional trauma. The clinical implications of terror bombing, in treatment dilemmas in the multidimensional injury, ancillary evaluation and handling of terror bombing mass casualty event are highlighted. All this leads to the conclusion that thorough medical preparedness to cope with this new epidemic is required, and that understanding of detonation and blast dynamics and how they correlate with the injury patterns is pivotal for revision of current mass casualty protocols

Malnutrition in Surgical Wards: A Plea for Concern

Background. Malnutrition in hospitalized patients is underdiagnosed, with 30 to 60% of patients admitted being malnourished. The objective of this study was to investigate the nutritional status of patients in a general surgery ward and to define the correlation between the risk of malnutrition and the hospital course and clinical outcome. Study design. The study group included 100 consecutive patients admitted to a general surgery ward who were ambulant and could undergo the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST). Results. Thirty-two patients (33%) had aMUST score of 2 or higher, and were therefore defined at high-malnutrition risk. The patients at risk had longer hospitalization and worse outcome. The length of stay of the malnourished patients was significantly longer than that of patients without malnutrition risk (18.8 ± 11.5 vs. 7 ± 5.3 days, P = .003). Mortality in the high-risk group was higher overall, in hospital, and after six months and one year of followup. Conclusions. Medical personnel must be aware that malnutrition afflicts even patients whose background is not suggestive of malnutrition. Best results are achieved when cooperation of all staff members is enlisted, because malnutrition has severe consequences and can be treated easily

Aberrant right subclavian artery- suggested mechanism for esophageal foreign body impaction: Case report

Aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA) is asymptomatic in most cases. This variant anatomy can cause dysphagia in elderly patients. Impaction of foreign body in the esophagus is rarely the presenting symptom of ARSA. We present an eighty four years old patient who first presented with esophageal foreign body impaction and was diagnosed with an aberrant right subclavian artery compressing the esophagus just below the site of impaction

Gallbladder ulcer erosion into the cystic artery: a rare cause ofupper gastro-intestinal bleeding Case report

Intra luminal gallbladder bleeding is a rare cause of hemobilia that results in upper gastro-intestinal bleeding. In this case report we present a patient who presented with melena and eventually was diagnosed as bleeding from an ulcer in the gallbladder which was induced by gallstones and eroded into the cystic artery. Surgery revealed perforation of gallbladder which was the result of a pressure sore induced by a second gallstone

Postpancreatoduodenectomy Hemorrhage: Association between the Causes and the Severity of the Bleeding

The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the causes of PPH as a complication and to explore possible associations between the causes and the severity of late PPH

Timing of early laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

Te study aimed to explore the hypothesis that adopting immediate cholecystectomy performed within 24 h of admission as early timing could reduce post-operative complications when compared to delayed cholecystectomy

Surgical emergencies confounded by H1N1 influenza infection - a plea for concern

The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza pandemic resulted in unprecedented, overwhelming exposure in the medical and lay media, with the obvious focus of healthcare providers being on patients in internal medicine or intensive care settings. Recently, we treated 3 patients with various surgical emergencies who were also diagnosed with active H1N1 influenza. The purpose of this report is to bring the issue of H1N1 flu in association with surgical emergencies to the forefront of the literature, and suggest that surgical diseases might be significantly accentuated in patients with H1N1 influenza

Kidney and uro-trauma : WSES-AAST guidelines

Renal and urogenital injuries occur in approximately 10-20% of abdominal trauma in adults and children. Optimal management should take into consideration the anatomic injury, the hemodynamic status, and the associated injuries. The management of urogenital trauma aims to restore homeostasis and normal physiology especially in pediatric patients where non-operative management is considered the gold standard. As with all traumatic conditions, the management of urogenital trauma should be multidisciplinary including urologists, interventional radiologists, and trauma surgeons, as well as emergency and ICU physicians. The aim of this paper is to present the World Society of Emergency Surgery (WSES) and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) kidney and urogenital trauma management guidelines.Peer reviewe

Timing of early laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute calculous cholecystitis revised: Protocol of a systematic review and meta-analysis of results

Background Early laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been adopted as the treatment of choice for acute cholecystitis due to a shorter hospital length of stay and no increased morbidity when compared to delayed cholecystectomy. However, randomised studies and meta-analysis report a wide array of timings of early cholecystectomy, most of them set at 72 h following admission. Setting early cholecystectomy at 72 h or even later may influence analysis due to a shift towards a more balanced comparison. At this time, the rate of resolving acute cholecystitis and the rate of ongoing acute process because of failed conservative treatment could be not so different when compared to those operated with a delayed timing of 6-12 weeks. As a result, randomised comparison with such timing for early cholecystectomy and meta-analysis including such studies may have missed a possible advantage of an early cholecystectomy performed within 24 h of the admission, when conservative treatment failure has less potential effects on morbidity. This review will explore pooled data focused on randomised studies with a set timing of early cholecystectomy as a maximum of 24 h following admission, with the aim of verifying the hypothesis that cholecystectomy within 24 h may report a lower post-operative complication rate compared to a delayed intervention. Methods A systematic review of the literature will identify randomised clinical studies that compared early and delayed cholecystectomy. Pooled data from studies that settled the early intervention within 24 h from admission will be explored and compared in a sub-group analysis with pooled data of studies that settled early intervention as more than 24 h. Discussion This paper will not provide evidence strong enough to change the clinical practice, but in case the hypothesis is verified, it will invite to re-consider the timing of early cholecystectomy and might promote future clinical research focusing on an accurate definition of timing for early cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis

Trauma quality indicators : internationally approved core factors for trauma management quality evaluation

Introduction Quality in medical care must be measured in order to be improved. Trauma management is part of health care, and by definition, it must be checked constantly. The only way to measure quality and outcomes is to systematically accrue data and analyze them. Material and methods A systematic revision of the literature about quality indicators in trauma associated to an international consensus conference Results An internationally approved base core set of 82 trauma quality indicators was obtained: Indicators were divided into 6 fields: prevention, structure, process, outcome, post-traumatic management, and society integrational effects. Conclusion Present trauma quality indicator core set represents the result of an international effort aiming to provide a useful tool in quality evaluation and improvement. Further improvement may only be possible through international trauma registry development. This will allow for huge international data accrual permitting to evaluate results and compare outcomes.Peer reviewe