Introduction: Sepsis is a life-threatening condition with a very narrow golden period in which confirmatory diagnosis may change the outcome dramatically. No confirmatory biomarker is available till date for early diagnosis of sepsis. This study aimed to evaluate the combined and independent role of quick sequential organ failure assessment (qSOFA) score, lactate, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in diagnosis and mortality prediction in early sepsis.
Methods: This was a hospital-based, single-center, prospective cohort study conducted in a tertiary care institute, Karnataka, India. Three hundred adult sepsis patients were recruited during 10-month period, and demographic data, qSOFA score, lactate, NLR, and culture samples were collected in ED within 1 h of admission. Outcome groups (survivor and nonsurvivor) were statistically analyzed with relative frequencies (%), median, mean ± standard deviation with 95% confidence interval (CI), univariate, bivariate, and multivariate logistic regression analysis, and Receiver -operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve to test the predictive ability of initial levels of three biomarkers.
Results: Sepsis was more prevalent among middle-aged male patients. Male gender (odds ratio [OR], 6.9; 95% CI: 1.61-30.1), qSOFA (OR, 154; 95% CI: 15-1565), and lactate (OR, 1.36; 95% CI: 22-833) show 97% (area under the curve) predictive accuracy of the model for sepsis on bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. A significant rise in NLR was a poor outcome indicator on univariate analysis (P = 0.773).
Conclusion: All three biomarkers are good outcome predictors whereas qSOFA and lactate have diagnostic significance in early sepsis. These markers can be used for patient triaging, minimizing culture report dependence for treatment and ultimately the outcome.
Introduction: To date, there is limited literature to guide emergency providers (EPs) on the proper dosing of prescription opioids. Our study aims to assess the self-reported opioid use, storage, and disposal practices of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute pain.
Methods: This prospective cohort study employed a validated, cross-sectional survey of subjects identified using electronic medical records. The survey link was e-mailed to a continuous sample of eligible participants 3-4 weeks following ED discharge. Nonrespondents were surveyed through telephone after 1 week. We used descriptive and nonparametric statistics to report survey results.
Results: Of 500 eligible subjects, 97 completed the questionnaire. Only 28% of respondents reported that they took all of the prescribed pills. Of the remaining responses, 20% stated that they did not take any pills, 33% took about one-fourth, 7.2% took about half, and 12.4% took about three-fourths of the pills. Among those who did not take any pills, 42% filled the prescription. Most (71.2%) reported storing their leftover pills; among those who stored their pills, less than one-fourth (23.8%) used a locked storage location.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that less than one-third of patients who receive prescriptions in the ED for acute pain use all of their prescribed pills, suggesting that many patients are unnecessarily prescribed opioids for acute conditions. The findings of this study also suggest that many patients with unused prescription opioids do not practice safe storage or proper disposal of leftover pills. This represents a potential opportunity for EPs to improve medication safety by educating patients on proper storage and disposal practices. Limitations include low response rate and the use of self-reporting.
Introduction: Primary intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a stroke subtype with high morbidity and mortality. Surgical treatments for ICH may be one of the beneficial modalities. There are inconsistent clinical outcomes of surgical treatments in several randomized controlled trials. This study aimed to evaluate if surgical treatment can reduce mortality in patients with ICH in a real-world setting.
Methods: This was a retrospective analytical study. The inclusion criteria were consecutive adult patients aged 18 years or over admitted to neurosurgery ward due to ICH, and indicated for surgical treatment according to the 2015 guideline for the management of spontaneous ICH. The outcomes of this study included mortality, length of stay, Barthel index, Glasgow Outcome Score (GOS), and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). Descriptive statistics were used to execute the differences between those who underwent and did not undergo surgical treatments. Factors associated with mortality were computed by multivariate logistic regression analysis.
Results: There were 110 patients with ICH who met the study criteria. Of those, 34 (30.91%) patients underwent surgical treatment: mainly craniotomy (16 patients; 47.06%). The surgical treatment group had significantly higher proportions of large ICH of 30 mL or over (62.96% vs. 27.54%; P = 0.002) and intraventricular hemorrhage (70.59% vs. 46.05%; P = 0.023) than the nonsurgical treatment group. However, both groups had comparable outcomes in terms of mortality, length of stay, Barthel index, GOS, and GCS. The mortality rate in the surgery group was 47.06%, whereas the nonsurgery group had a mortality rate of 39.47 (P = 0.532). There were three independent factors associated with mortality, including age, GCS, and intraventricular hemorrhage. The adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of these factors was 1.06 (1.02-1.12), 5.42 (1.48-19.81), and 5.30 (1.65-17.01). Intraventricular hemorrhage was more common in the elderly than in the nonelderly group (66.00% vs. 43.33%; P = 0.022).
Conclusions: Surgical treatment may not be beneficial in patients with severe ICH, particularly with intraventricular hemorrhage, large ICH volume, or low GCS. Elderly patients with ICH may also have high mortality if intraventricular hemorrhage is present.
Introduction: This systematic review aims to determine the relative risk of distal radius (Colles) fracture (DRF) malalignment between ultrasound (USG)-guided and conventional/landmark guided/blind manipulation and reduction (M&R).
Methods: We searched 3932 records from major electronic bibliographic databases on USG-guided manipulation of DRF. Studies with randomized, quasi-randomized, and cross-sectional study designs meeting the inclusion criteria were included in this review. USG and landmark-guided DRF manipulations were named cases and controls, respectively. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess the quality of included studies.
Results: Thirteen and nine studies were analysed for qualitative and quantitative analysis in this review. Nine hundred fifty-one DRF patients (475 cases and 476 controls) from 9 studies with mean ages of 51.52 ± 11.86 (22-92) and 55.82 ± 11.28 (18-98) years for cases and controls were pooled for this review. The pooled relative risk estimate from the studies included in the meta-analysis was 0.90 (0.74-1.09). There was a 10% decrease in the risk of malalignment with USG than the landmark guided M&R of DRF. The I2 statistic estimated a heterogeneity of 83%. Sensitivity analysis revealed a relative risk of 1.00 (0.96-1.05).
Conclusion: The USG-guided manipulation does not prevent malalignment over the landmark-based manipulation of DRF. The risk of bias across the included studies and heterogeneity of 83% mandates further unbiased, high-quality studies to verify the findings of this review.
Introduction: This cross-sectional interview-based study aimed to assess the prevalence and severity of probable anxiety and depression in patients with traumatic open-globe injury and to identify factors associated with anxiety and depression following open-globe injury.
Methods: Two hundred and twenty-five patients with open-globe injury were identified at the UC Davis Medical Center between 2008 and 2019. Prisoners and patients under 18 at the time of recruitment were excluded from the study. One hundred and twenty-four patients provided consent to participate in the study, which involved a phone interview and chart review. The interview consisted of a section on sociodemographic data and potential associations followed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, a standardized 14-question survey that has been validated in previous studies as an excellent predictor of anxiety and depression. A score of 8 for anxiety or depression was considered a positive test, and patients with a positive test in either category were advised to seek further evaluation with their primary care doctors. The prevalence of probable anxiety and depression was calculated, and linear regression was used to identify factors associated with anxiety and depression.
Results: The average age was 50.5 ± 19.2, and 75.8% of patients were male. The anxiety score was positive in 37.9% of patients and the depression score was positive in 28.2%. The mean anxiety and depression scores were 6.3 ± 4.7 and 5.5 ± 4.8, respectively. The P value of the linear regressions for anxiety score and depression score were both < 0.001, with R2 = 0.429 and 0.363, respectively. Younger age (P = 0.002) and unemployment at the time of the interview (P = 0.038) were associated with higher anxiety scores. Patients who were bothered by the appearance of their injured eye had higher anxiety scores (P < 0.001) and depression scores (P < 0.001). Patients without a high school diploma had higher depression scores (P < 0.001). Gender, enucleation status, number of people in support network, use of a prosthetic or scleral shell, final logMAR visual acuity, marital status, months since the initial injury, and presence of an intraocular foreign body were not significantly associated with anxiety or depression scores.
Conclusions: Traumatic open-globe injury is associated with a high prevalence of probable anxiety and depression. Dissatisfaction with the appearance of the injured eye was associated with higher anxiety and depression scores. Younger age and unemployment were associated with increased anxiety scores, and lack of a high school diploma was associated with higher depression scores.
Introduction: This retrospective cohort study presents the epidemiology of severe firearm-related ophthalmic injury and the level of ophthalmology involvement in the multidisciplinary management of head-and-neck gunshot injuries.
Methods: A retrospective study identified 207 patients with firearm-related injuries involving the head and neck treated at an Academic Tertiary Care Institution from 2010 to 2020.
Results: Ophthalmology consulted on 29% of patients with head-and-neck firearm injuries. At least one of the services managing facial trauma (plastic surgery and otolaryngology) consulted on 71.5% of cases (P < 0.001). Of patients evaluated by ophthalmology, 93.3% survived to discharge; 78.2% of patients who were not evaluated survived to discharge (P = 0.009). Ophthalmology consulted on all patients with open globe injury (10.6%) (P < 0.001), all of which were evaluated by the facial trauma service (P = 0.002), 77.3% by otolaryngology (P = 0.42), 50% by neurosurgery, 36.4% by plastic surgery, 13.6% by orthopedic surgery, and 4.5% by vascular surgery. Ophthalmology consulted on 76.5% of patients with orbital fracture (32.9%) (P < 0.001); 83.8% were evaluated by the facial trauma service (P = 0.006), 69.1% by otolaryngology (P = 0.014), 54.4% by neurosurgery, 27.9% by plastic surgery, 10.3% by orthopedic surgery, and 2.9% by vascular surgery. For patients with orbital fractures, 92.3% survived when ophthalmology was consulted (P = 0.698); 43.8% survived when not consulted (P = 0.001).
Conclusions: Firearm-related injuries of the head and neck frequently involve ocular and orbital structures, often causing serious vision-threatening injuries. Multispecialty management is common and early ophthalmology specialist evaluation and co-management are indicated to best identify ophthalmic injuries.
Introduction: This study evaluated the role of point-of-care tests (POCT) such as blood lactate, anion gap (AG), base deficit, pH, N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and troponin as the predictors of cardiac arrest outcomes in the emergency department (ED).
Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational study in the ED of a tertiary care hospital in India. All the adult patients who received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the ED were included in the study. Blood samples were collected within 10 min of initiation of CPR for assay of POCTs. Outcomes assessed were the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), 24-h survival, survival to hospital discharge (STHD), survival at 7 days, and favorable neurological outcome (FNO) at day 7 of admission.
Results: One hundred and fifty-one patients were included in the study (median age: 50 years, 65% males). Out of 151 cases, ROSC, survival at 7 days, STHD, and FNO was observed in 86 patients, six patients, five patients, and two patients, respectively. "No-ROSC" could be significantly predicted by raised lactate (odds ratio [OR]: 1.14, 95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.22) and NT-proBNP (OR: 1.05, 1.01-1.09) values at the time of cardiac arrest. "24-h mortality" could be significantly predicted by the raised lactate (OR: 1.14, 1.01-1.28), low arterial pH (OR: 0.05, 0.01-0.52), raised AG (OR: 1.08, 1.01-1.15), and lower base deficit (<-15) (OR: 1.07, 1.01-1.14). None of the other POCTs was found to be a predictor of other cardiac arrest outcomes.
Conclusion: Among various POCTs, raised lactate assayed within 10 min of cardiac arrest can predict poor outcomes like "no-ROSC" and 24-h mortality.