impact of reverse trendelenburg versus head-up position on intraoperative bleeding of elective rhinoplasty

In spite of several efforts for decreasing blood loss, our experience sometimes shows that some patients bleed more profusely during rhinoplasty. Patient position could have deep impact on bleeding amount during surgical procedures. In this study, we aimed to compare reverse trendelenburg position and head-up position on intra-operative bleeding of elective rhinoplasty. This was to check the effects of reverse trendelenburg position and head up position on the intraoperative bleeding of elective rhinoplasty. In this study, 30 ASA I [American Society of Anesthesiology physical condition classification] patients between 18 and 40 years of age who were candidate to rhinoplasty operations for first time were included. Patients were randomly assigned to reverse trendelenburg or head-up position. Exclusion criteria was any history or lab indicating coagulation problems or using any drug. All gauzes used and the blood that accumulated in the aspirator throughout the operation were calculated. Our results showed that the mean amount of blood loss in reverse trendelenburg was lower [77.00 +/- 13.20 ml] than head up position [83.33 +/- 21.18 ml], although, there was no statistical difference between two groups. However, there was no significant differences among two groups in different aspects of hemodynamic determinants and bleeding amount during and after rhinoplasty. Our results showed that patient bleeding is not increased because of positioning per se. In conclusion, perhaps in the future reverse trendelenburg will be given more often during rhinoplasry

Assessing the performance of two clinical severity scoring systems in the ICU of a tertiary respiratory disease center

The aim of this study is to compare the performance of five applied general severity scoring systems and their ability to predict mortality rate for the intensive care unit patients: Simplified Acute Physiology Score II [SAPS II], Mortality Probability Model II at admission [MPM II[0]], at 24 hours [MPM II[24]], at 48 hours [MPM II[48]] and over time [MPM II[over time]]. These scoring systems have been developed in response to an increased emphasis on the evaluation and monitoring of health care services; and also making cost-effective decisions. In this historical cohort study, all of the scoring systems were applied to 114 patients and the predicted mortality rate and the Standardized Mortality Ratio [SMR] were calculated for them. Calibration of each model and discriminative powers were evaluated by using Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test and ROC curve analysis, respectively. The predicted mortalities were not significantly deviated from the main systems [SMR for SAPS II: 0.79, MPM II[0]: 1.10, MPM II[24]: 1.32, MPM II[48]: 1.08 and MPM[Over time]: 1.02]. The Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics had the least value for MPM II[48] [C=2.922, p-value=0.939]; and the discrimination was best for MPM II[24] [AUC=0.927] followed by SAPS II [AUC=0.903], MPM II[0] [AUC=0.899], MPM II[48] [AUC=0.848] and MPM II[over time] [AUC=0.861]. All five general ICU morality predictors showed accurate standardized mortality ratio. MPM II[24] had the best discrimination, MPM II[0] had the best SMR before 24 hours and MPM[over time] had the best SMR after 24 hours. Performance of MPM II and its ease of use make it an efficient model for mortality prediction in our study

Preoperative assessment of mechanical ventilation requirement after surgical treatment of esophageal cancer

The risk of pulmonary complications after esophagectomy is higher than after any other common operation, including major lung resection. In this study, we sought to identify risk factors associated with the development of pulmonary insufficiency requiring mechanical ventilation to identify preoperative parameters involved in the estimation of the risk of pulmonary insufficiency. We performed a retrospective cohort study on consecutive patients undergoing esophagectomy for malignancy in the Thoracic Surgery Department of Modarres Hospital in Tehran from March 2002 to February 2006. Patients were assigned into two groups based on whether they required mechanical ventilation or not. Preoperative, operative, and postoperative data were compared among the two groups. To find predictive variables for requiring mechanical ventilation, backward stepwise regression analysis was carried out with risk factors as independent variables and the need for ventilatory support as the dependent variable. The study population included 77 males and 43 females with a mean age of 60.16 +/- 12.04 years [range 29-79 years]. Twenty-seven patients [27.7%] required mechanical ventilatory support. Multivariate analysis revealed sex [Odds ratio: 4.590, Cl 95%: 1.246-16.411] as a confounder and duration of operation [Odds Ratio: 1.677, Cl95%: 1.102-2.533] as a risk factor for requiring mechanical ventilation. Proper patient selection for esophagectomy is important for reducing the postoperative mortality and morbidity and benefiting from a radical resection

Pictorial warning labels and quit intention in smokers presenting to a smoking cessation clinic

At present, cigarette smoking results in the death of more than 5 million people annually and if the current trend of smoking continues in the 21[st] century, tobacco-related deaths are projected to grow to one billion. Pictorial warning labels on cigarette packaging are amongst the most effective tools for educating smokers and non-smokers alike about the health risks of tobacco use. Article 11 of the International Tobacco Control Treaty and article 5 of the National Comprehensive Law on Tobacco Control in Iran have discussed this issue. This study aimed at evaluating the correlation between pictorial warning labels on cigarette packaging and quit intention in smokers. In this cross sectional study, 581 smokers presenting to a smoking cessation clinic [affiliated to theTobacco Control Society] in the year 2009 were evaluated. Smokers were asked to fill out a questionnaire including personal information, history of smoking, number of cigarettes smoked per day, brand of cigarette smoked, whether or not the cigarette used had pictorial warning label, smoking rate before the placement of pictorial warnings compared to after, whether or not they support the placement of such images, and role of these pictures in their quit intention. Data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 15 software. A total of 581 smokers participated in this study out of which 512 were males with a mean age of 41 +/- 14 yrs and 69 were females with a mean age of 42 +/- 9.9 yrs. The mean history of smoking was 20 yrs. Six months after placement of pictorial warning labels on some cigarette packets, 67.6% of smokers still purchased packets with no such labels. A total of 62% of smokers supported the placement of pictures and 8% stated that seeing the pictorial warning motivated them to quit smoking. Pictorial warning labels play a role in motivating smokers to quit. Although most smokers presenting to the clinic used packets without pictorial warnings, most of them supported the placement of these pictures

Predictive accuracy of revised Geneva score in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism

Revised Geneva score is a clinical prediction rule used in determining the pre-test probability of pulmonary embolism [PE]. It has been recently introduced and is independent of the doctor's experience applying the rule. This study aimed to evaluate the predictive accuracy of revised Geneva score in the diagnostic protocol of pulmonary embolism and its role in decreasing the need for pulmonary imaging studies. In this study, we evaluated the medical records of 242 patients suspected for pulmonary embolism who underwent CT scan of the lung as part of their diagnostic protocol from October 2007 to February 2009. Six patients were excluded from the study due to their indeterminate CT scan results. The mean age of patients was 58 yrs and 62% of patients were males. The overall prevalence of pulmonary embolism was 24%. By increased scoring, the clinical probability of pulmonary embolism increased as well [P=0.011]. According to the classification of revised Geneva score, clinical probability of pulmonary embolism was evaluated to be low in 25% of patients, intermediate in 72% and high in 2%. Prevalence of pulmonary embolism based on the CT scan results was 7.7% ranged [0.5-14.9] in the low probability category, 22.5% ranged [15.6-29.4] in the intermediate, and 50% ranged [0.01-0.99] in the high-probability category which were comparable with the rates reported in the derivation set except for the prevalence rate for high probability patients [9%, 27.5% and 71.7%, respectively]. The area under the ROC curve was calculated based on continuous scoring to be 0.675. Revised Geneva score had an acceptable predictive accuracy in low and intermediate-probability groups. We could not reach a conclusion regarding high probability patients due to the small number of such cases in this study