Injury to the elbow is very common in the throwing athlete and can potentially lead to long absences from play and, in the most severe scenarios, medical retirement. The throwing motion is a highly complex series of movements through the entire kinetic chain that results in very high angular velocities and valgus forces at the elbow joint. The repetitive nature of overhead throwing in combination with the high levels of accumulated force at the elbow puts both pediatric and adult athletes at risk of both acute and chronic overuse injuries of the elbow. This review provides an update on common injuries in the throwing athlete and covers clinical presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of these injuries.
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is an atherosclerotic disease that contributes to significant morbidity and mortality, including loss of limb, myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and death. Treatment options are often underutilized. A major limiting factor in PAD care is the ability to efficiently identify and screen at-risk patients. A PAD patient screening and clinician decision support tool was created to improve access to high-quality, evidence-based care to drive improved clinical outcomes. The tool identifies known PAD risk factors and presenting symptoms, in combination with objective data obtained via the ankle-brachial index (ABI). The tool utilizes this data to drive PAD diagnosis, risk assessment, and treatment, and it is adaptable across multiple care settings, by varied health professions. The implementation of a PAD screening and treatment toolkit enhances anticoagulation and PAD stewardship, and it has been integrated into use across various care settings.
Context: This is a follow-up to the original published article, Effects of the Strong Hearts Program after a Major Cardiovascular Event in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease.
Objectives: This study evaluated the long-term efficacy of the Strong Hearts program up to 2 years after program completion.
Methods: All study participants who initially completed the Strong Hearts program between 2020 and 2021 (n=128) were contacted at 12 months and 24 months following the date of program completion. A phone survey was conducted to see if any significant post-cardiovascular events or readmissions to the hospital occurred, and self-reported dates of any occurrences were recorded. Hospital readmissions and cardiac-related procedures were cross-referenced with the hospital's electronic medical record. A chi-square goodness-of-fit analysis was utilized to compare the observed rates of categorical outcomes vs. expected rates yielded from the empirical literature.
Results: The rate of all-cause readmission at 6 months post-program completion was 2/120 (1.7 %), compared to the expected rate of 50 %, χ2(1) = 112.13, p<0.001. The readmission rate at 1 year post-program completion was 17/120 (14.2 %), vs. the expected rate of 45 %, χ2(1) = 46.09, p<0.001, and at 2 years post-program completion, the readmission rate was 24/120 (20.0 %) compared to the expected rate of 53.8 %, χ2(1) = 56.43, p<0.001. Ten participants (8.3 %) had a subsequent cardiac procedure within 2 years of completing the program, including two requiring percutaneous coronary intervention (1.7 %) and eight requiring coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG, 6.7 %), compared to the expected rates of 13.4 and 57.74 %, χ2(1)=153.08, p<0.001, respectively. Mortality at 2 years post-program completion was 2/128 (1.6 %), compared to 23.4 %, χ2(1)=34.13, p<0.001.
Conclusions: Efficacy of the Strong Hearts program continued at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years post-program completion in terms of all-cause readmission, subsequent cardiac event, and all-cause mortality.
Context: Deep organ-space infection (OSI) following gynecologic surgery is a source of patient morbidity and mortality. There is currently conflicting evidence regarding the use of bowel preparation prior to gynecologic surgery to reduce the rates of infection. For the additional purpose of improving patient recovery at our own institution, a retrospective cohort study compared the rate of deep OSI in patients who received oral antibiotic bowel preparation per Nichols-Condon bowel preparation with metronidazole and neomycin.
Objectives: The primary aim of this study was to compare the rate of deep organ-space surgical site infection in gynecologic surgery before and after institution of an oral antibiotic bowel preparation, thus assessing whether the preparation is associated with decreased infection rate. The secondary objective was to identify other factors associated with deep organ-space site infection.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed. Demographic and surgical data were collected via chart review of 1,017 intra-abdominal surgeries performed by gynecologic oncologists at a single institution from April 1, 2019 to December 1, 2021. Of these, 778 met the inclusion criteria; 444 did not receive preoperative oral antibiotic bowel preparation, and 334 did receive preoperative bowel preparation. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated, and a logistic regression model was utilized for categorical variables. Multivariable regression analysis was performed.
Results: A total of 778 patients were included. Deep OSI rate in patients who did not receive oral antibiotic bowel preparation was 2.3 % compared to 0.3 % (OR 0.13, confidence interval [CI] 0.06-1.03, p=0.02) in patients who did. Receiving oral antibiotic bowel preparation predicted absence of deep OSI (OR 0.04, CI 0.00-0.87, p=0.04). Laparotomy (OR 20.1, CI 1.6-250.2, p=0.02) and Asian race (OR 60.8, CI 2.6-1,380.5, p=0.01) were related to increased rates of deep OSI.
Conclusions: Oral antibiotic bowel preparation predicts a reduced risk of deep OSI. This preparation is inexpensive and low-risk, and thus these clinically significant results support a promising regimen to improve surgical outcomes, and provide guidance for prospective larger studies.
Context: Underserved communities in southeastern Ohio and Appalachia face significant healthcare accessibility challenges, with the Midwest offering a lower density of healthcare providers compared to coastal regions. Specifically, underserved communities in southeastern Ohio and Appalachia are disadvantaged in otolaryngology care.
Objectives: This analysis aims to identify factors that lead otolaryngologists to a respective practice location, and if any of that influence comes from where otolaryngologists completed their medical education.
Methods: The proportion of otolaryngologists who performed medical school, residency, and/or fellowship in Ohio was analyzed utilizing a three-sample test for equality. Multivariate logistic regression and Pearson prediction models were produced to analyze the impact of performing medical training (medical school, residency, and fellowship) in Ohio.
Results: Going to medical school in Ohio significantly increases the odds of going to an otolaryngology residency in the state (p<0.001). Moreover, between medical school and residency, medical school was a significantly better predictor of otolaryngologists practicing in Appalachia (Δ Bayesian Information Criterion [BIC]>2) and southeast Ohio (ΔBIC>10). Medical school in state was also a better predictor of percent rural and median household income than residency (ΔBIC>10). The multivariate model of medical school and residency was significantly better than either predictor alone for the population (ΔBIC>2). All models predicting percent rural were significantly improved with the addition of a Doctor of Osteopathy (DO) degree (ΔBIC>10).
Conclusions: Where physicians complete their medical training (medical school, residency, and fellowship) in state has a significant impact on predicting their future place of practice. This study found that the location of such training has a positive predictive nature as to whether that physician will practice in a rural and underserved area in the future. Notably, the addition of being licensed as a DO also increased the probability of that physician practicing in a rural area.
Context: Public interest in sport-related medical conditions is known to be affected by social media and pop cultural coverage. The purpose of this project was to assess the relationship between popular culture concerning chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and analyze of how often this topic was searched on the internet.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate deviations in public interest following player incidents of CTE and the effects that the media has had on public interest in CTE.
Methods: To determine our primary objective, we utilized Google Trends to extract the monthly relative search interest (RSI) in CTE between January 2002 and October 2022. To assess the increase in RSI following a major event, an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) to predict RSI from March 2012 was created through the end of the period, and calculated the differences between the actual and forecasted values.
Results: Data indicate that RSI increased over time, specifically following the release of the movie Concussion. The peak in RSI (100) over this timespan was following the release of Aaron Hernandez's autopsy results in 2017, which was 87.8 (95 % CI: 8.7-15.7) higher than forecasted, showing a 720.3 % increase in RSI. While research was published regarding CTE in 2005, the first major spike in search interest occurred after Junior Seau died in 2012. Increasing public interest in CTE continued when media exposure conveyed autopsies of former NFL players, the movie Concussion, and the release of The Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez. Given this increased interest in CTE, we recommend that media broadcasters become more educated on brain injuries, as well as the movement of Brain Injury Awareness Month and Concussion Awareness Day.
Conclusions: There has been an increase in public interest in CTE from 2004 through 2022 with surges following media releases of events involving NFL players. Therefore, physicians and media broadcasters must create partnerships to better educate the public about head injuries and the effects of CTE.