Incident reporting in Mashhad hospitals

In this study, our aim was to evaluate and classify the voluntary error reports in the hospitals of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Patients have the right to receive health care in accordance to the best standards. Health care carries a risk of harm for patient safety, and with respect to today's stressful systems with a large number of patients, it would be inevitable. The meaning of risk management is to predict adverse events and reduce their occurrence. A voluntary medical error reporting form was designed and approved by the clinical governance team of Mashhad Medical University. They were then distributed inside hospitals in the way in which everyone [health providers and patients] could access them easily. The forms were collected and classified monthly in all wards. Classification was performed on the base of type, outcome and reporter. Data gathering took place from spring to autumn 2012. The data was analyzed by the SPSS software. 2500 errors were extracted from 1000 voluntary error reporting forms of the 12 hospitals of Mashhad Medical University. The most frequent error type was treatment errors [36%] related to drug administration, standard procedures and surgical events. Error reporting as a basic activity has an important role in discovering pitfalls of the health care system. To promote the reporting culture, its non punitive base must become clear for all professors and staff members, because this kind of reporting could lead to fewer medical errors and higher staff awareness about probable errors.

Meckel's diverticulum: prevalence in 1000 laparatomies

To detect the prevalence of Meckel's Diverticulum in children and adults aged 1 day to 90 years old. This is a cross sectional descriptive study of 1000 cases aged 1 day to 90 years old in the surgery wards of two educational hospitals, Mashhad, Iran from 1998 to 2004. The prevalence of Meckel's diverticulum, age, sex, and chief complain of patient and the site and size of the diverticulum were evaluated. Meckel's diverticulum was seen in 5.4% of patients. 62% of patients were younger than 2 years and 80% were male. Gastrointestinal and obstructive symptoms were the most common presenting feature of the condition [38%]. Meckel's diverticulum was observed at 40-59 cm distance from the ileosecal valve with 1-1.49cm length and 0.5-0.99 cm width. Meckel's diverticulum was more common in children younger than 2 years and was presented by GI obstructive signs in most patients.

Comparison of neonatal complications in newborns by cesarean and vaginal delivery

Background and Purpose: Because of the uncontrolled prevalence of cesarean in Iran and its complications for mother and infant with further social and ethical consequences, this study was conducted to compare the neonatal complications in newborns by cesarean and vaginal delivery

Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional, analytical descriptive study was conducted on infants born at the maternity ward of Imamreza Hospital and Ghaem Hospital in Mashad, Iran. The sample size with the confidence interval of 95% and test power of 80% was estimated to be 770 neonates. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS 11.5 using Student t-test, Mann Whitney U and chi-square test

Results: Vaginal delivery was attempted by 344 women, and 426 women underwent elective cesarean delivery. The two delivery procedures were significantly different [p=0.002]as for the occurrence of RDS, which occurred in 31 cesarean cases [7.3%] and 12 vaginal cases [3.7%]. Also, in 14 cesarean cases [3.4%] and 24 vaginal cases [7%], asphyxia occurred. Transient tachypnea was observed to occur in 14 cesarean cases [3.3%] and 2 vaginal cases [0.6%], and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant [p=0.001]. Hospitalization in NICU was prescribed for 28 cesarean cases [6.6%] and 33 vaginal cases [10.2%], and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant [p=0.001]. Six cesarean cases [1.4%] and 48 vaginal cases [14%] experiences labor disorders, and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant [p<0.001]

Conclusion: Fetal complications like RDS, gestational asphyxia and neonatal tachypnea due to cesarean were significantly higher in infants born by cesarean section than those born by vaginal delivery