Objectives: To estimate the effect of implementation of a safety checklist in an orthopedic surgical department.

Methods: We conducted a single-center cross-sectional study to compare the incidence of complications prior to and following implementation of the Guidelines for Safe Surgery checklist. The medical records of all consecutive adult patients admitted to the orthopedics department at Wolfson Medical Center during the period 1 July 2008 to 1 January 2009 (control group) and from 1 January 2009 to 1 July 2009 (study group) were reviewed. The occurrences of all complications were compared between the two groups.

Results: The records of 760 patients (380 in each group) hospitalized during this 12 month period were analyzed. Postoperative fever occurred in 5.3% vs. 10.6% of patients with and without the checklist respectively (P = 0.008). Significantly more patients received only postoperative prophylactic antibiotics rather than both pre-and postoperative antibiotic treatment prior to implementation of the checklist (3.2% vs. 0%, P = 0.004). In addition, a statistically non-significant 34% decrease in the rate of surgical wound infection was also detected in the checklist group. In a logistic regression model of postoperative fever, the checklist emerged as a significant independent predictor of this outcome: odds ratio 0.53, 95% confidence interval 0.29–0.96, P = 0.037.

Conclusion: A significant reduction in postoperative fever after the implementation of the surgical safety checklist was found. It is possible that the improved usage of preoperative prophylactic antibiotics may explain the reduction in postoperative fever.

Background: The 20%–60% rate of acute anterior myocardial infarction (AAMI) patients with concomitant left ventricular thrombus (LVT) formation dropped to 10–20% when thrombolysis and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) were introduced.

Objective: To test our hypothesis that prolonged anticoagulation post-PPCI will lower the LVT incidence even further.

Methods: Included in this study were all 296 inpatients with ST elevation AAMI who were treated with PPCI (from January 2006 to December 2009). Treatment included heparin anticoagulation (48 hours) followed by adjusted doses of low molecular weight heparin (3 more days). All patients underwent cardiac echocardiography on admission and at discharge. LVT and bleeding complications were reviewed and compared.

Results: LVT formation was present on the first echocardiogram in 6/296 patients. Another 8/289 patients displayed LVT only on their second echocardiogram (4.7%, 14/296). LVT patients had significantly lower LV ejection fractions than non-LVT patients at admission (P < 0.003) and at discharge (P < 0.001), and longer time to reperfusion (P = 0.168). All patients were epidemiologically and clinically similar. There were 6 bleeding episodes that required blood transfusion and 11 episodes of minor bleeding.

Conclusions: Five days of continuous anticoagulation therapy post-PPCI in inpatients with AAMI is associated with low LVT occurrence without remarkably increasing bleeding events.
 

Background: There are two main approaches to breast reduction surgery today: the traditional long scar ("Wise-pattern") technique and the more recent short ("vertical") scar technique, which is becoming more popular. During the last two decades there has been a gradual shift between the two techniques, including in our institute.

Objectives: To evaluate the evidence behind this obvious trend.

Methods: We retrospectively collected data from archived hospital charts of all patients who underwent breast reduction surgery during the period 1995–2007. Epidemiological, clinical and postoperative data were analyzed and compared between patients who were operated on by means of the short scar vs. the long scar techniques.

Results: During the study period 91 patients underwent breast reduction surgery in our department: 34 with the Wise-pattern breast reduction technique and 57 with the short-scar procedure. There was no significant difference in operative and postoperative data, including length of hospital stay. In some of the categories there was even a slight advantage (but not statistically significant) to the former. The only significant difference was the size of reduction, with a tendency to prefer the long scar technique for larger reductions; however, with gained experience the limit for short scar reductions was gradually extended to a maximum of 1470 g.

Conclusions: We noticed a sharp increase in the safe and uneventful practice of the short scar technique in breast reduction in our institute for removing ≤ 1400 g – especially in young women without extreme ptosis. This observation, together with other advantages, namely, reduced scar length, prolonged shape preservation and better breast projection, support use of this technique.
 

Background: In the past, carotid endarterectomy (CEA) was the only modality for invasive intervention in cases of carotid stenosis. Due to improvements in endovascular techniques (stenting), there is a growing debate regarding the preferred procedure for carotid intervention.

Objectives: To compare the 30 day complication rate after CEA and carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) in a tertiary medical center in Israel between the years 2008 and 2010.

Methods: We reviewed the medical charts of all the patients who underwent either CEA or CAS of the internal carotid artery due to symptomatic and asymptomatic stenosis during the period 2008–2010 (total of 128 patients).

Results: There was no difference between the groups in the rate of severe complications in the peri-procedural period. Mild complications were non-significantly more common in the CEA group (17%) compared to the CAS group (7.1%).

Conclusions: There was no significant difference in the mild and severe complications rate between CEA and CAS in the peri-procedural period.

The features of infective endocarditis include both cardiac and non-cardiac manifestations. Neurologic complications are seen in up to 40% of patients with infective endocarditis and are the presenting symptom in a substantial percentage. We describe in detail the clinical scenarios of three patients admitted to our hospital, compare their characteristics and review the recent literature describing neurologic manifestations of infective endocarditis. Our patients demonstrate that infective endocarditis can develop without comorbidity or a valvular defect. Moreover, our patients were young and lacked the most common symptom of endocarditis: fever. The most common neurologic manifestations were focal neurologic deficits and confusion. We conclude that infective endocarditis should always be considered in patients presenting with new-onset neurologic complaints, especially in those without comorbidities or other risk factors. A prompt diagnosis should be reached and antibiotic treatment initiated as soon as possible.

Background: Monitoring the rate of infections in individual centers that treat patients with hematological malignancies is of major importance. However, there are no uniform guidelines for infection surveillance.

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology of bacterial and fungal infections in a single hematology ward and to compare methods for reporting surveillance and infection rates in other centers in Israel.

Methods: We conducted a prospective surveillance of all patients admitted to our hematology ward, applying standard definitions for invasive fungal infections and adapting definitions for non-fungal infections. Incidence rates were calculated using patients, admissions, hospital days and neutropenia days. We performed a search for other reported surveillance studies in Israel.

Results: We detected 79 infectious episodes among 159 patients admitted to the hematology ward during 1 year. Using neutropenia days as the denominator for calculation of incidence discriminated best between patients at high and low risk for infection. The incidence of invasive fungal infections was 7, 10 and 18 per 1000 neutropenia days, among all patients, those with acute leukemia and those with acute leukemia undergoing induction therapy, respectively. Only 10 reports from Israel were identified, 6 of which were prospective. Our data could not be compared to these reports because of the varying definitions and denominators used.

Conclusions: Hematology centers should monitor infection rates and report them in a uniform methodology.