ABSTRACT
Background Diabetes mellitus is a chronic progressive metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar affecting the whole body resulting in a significant impact on the quality of life for the patients and their families. Diabetes mellitus complications lead to morbidity, disability, and mortality and represent a serious global health issue threatening the health system worldwide and resulting in a critical economic impact for all countries, especially epidemic ones. Objective The objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and awareness regarding diabetic foot and related behaviour among diabetic patients and their relatives, as well as healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia. Methods A cross-sectional analytic study was conducted in 2022 on healthcare workers, diabetic patients, and their relatives above the age of 18 in Saudi Arabia by using a valid, pretested structured questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 26 (Released 2019; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Results In this study, there was no correlation between the healthcare workers' attitude and knowledge. A total of 131 healthcare workers were involved, and a majority of them had good knowledge regarding the predisposing factors of diabetic foot ulcers, and 63 (48.1%) had good knowledge regarding diabetes foot care. On the other hand, there was poor knowledge regarding the characteristics and complications of diabetes ulcers. This study showed various attitudes among healthcare workers regarding diabetic ulcer care. For example, they prioritized the prevention of ulcers over treatment (N=67, 51.1%), the majority of healthcare workers were very keen to wound care (N=77, 58.8%), and they believed that it was their responsibility to educate their patients about reducing re-ulceration (N=86; 65.7%). However, 52 participants (39.7%) considered management of diabetic foot ulcer time-consuming, 54 (41.2%) mentioned that if they had the opportunity, they would like to avoid taking care of the diabetic wound, and 51 (38.9%) reported non-satisfaction with diabetic wound care. One hundred diabetic patients and 117 relatives also were involved, and only 41.3% of participants (patients and relatives) had good knowledge regarding diabetes mellitus. However, our findings also revealed that 91.65% of the participants had good knowledge and a favourable attitude towards diabetes mellitus and diabetic foot care. Nevertheless, even though the participants had good knowledge regarding foot care, they had poor practice, with 56.55% scoring poor on the assessment questionnaire. Conclusion Our study shows that most of the participants had good knowledge and attitudes but poor practices. This highlights the need for more efforts to educate the Saudi population about diabetes and its complications.
ABSTRACT
Introduction Day surgery is defined as the admission of a patient and discharge after the surgical procedure within the same day. It is becoming increasingly popular as it provides multiple advantages for the health care system and patients, including better resource utilization in the form of decreasing the cost, increasing the number of patients served, a reduction in the waiting list length, and preservation of hospital beds for complex advanced cases. Internationally, patients' admission rate after a planned day surgery was found at 1.5%. Etiologies for day surgery conversion vary among studies, 75% of which were labeled as potentially preventable. As patients are admitted, the benefits of day surgery decrease. Aim This study aimed to measure the unanticipated admission rate of day surgery while evaluating the reasons for admission in King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Buraydah, Qassim, Saudi Arabia. Materials and methods This is a retrospective review study in which all medical records of patients admitted and operated as day surgery from January 1, 2015 to February 28, 2021 in King Fahad Specialist Hospital in Buraydah, Qassim region in Saudi Arabia were evaluated. Variables collected included baseline characteristics such as age, gender, body mass index (BMI), chronic diseases, surgical history, operation name, complications, and causes of conversion. Results A total of 6,771 day surgery cases were found from January 1, 2015 to February 28, 2021. Of them, 231 cases were converted to inpatient admission, and the prevalence of conversion was 3.4%. The most common cause of conversion was pain (35.1%) followed by postoperative care (16%), need of antibiotics (12.1%), and bleeding (8.2%); most of these cases were associated with laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Furthermore, laparoscopic cholecystectomy (36.4%), hernia repair (12.1%), and pilonidal sinus excision were the most frequent surgical intervention. Conclusion The day surgery conversion rate was minimal in this study (3.4%). Pain, postoperative care, and the need for antibiotics were the most common reasons for conversion. Continuous monitoring of day surgery conversion rate and causes will all help the institution to gain the maximum benefits of day surgeries.
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AIM: This study aimed to measure breast cancer (BC) awareness among women in Al-Qassim and to compare the results to previous studies in Saudi Arabia and international studies. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study conducted in Al-Qassim region, Saudi Arabia. All women above 18 years of age were included and those who could not complete the questionnaire for any reason were excluded. The data were collected by using a valid pretested structured questionnaire taken from previous studies. Descriptive statistics were presented using frequency and proportion for all categorical variables and mean ± standard deviation for continuous variable. The relationship between dependent variable versus independent variables had been conducted using Chi-square test. P value of ≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: Nearly all participants were highly aware of BC (95.4%) and half of them correctly identified that not only females are affected by BC. With regards to personal breast assessment, more than a half of them have done breast self-examination; however, only one out of four females had done clinical breast examination and mammography test. The most common risk factor of BC was family history and the commonest signs and symptoms were the size and shape changes of the breast. The prevalence of poor knowledge was 202 (38.9%) while good knowledge was 317 (61.1%). Age group in years and use of oral contraceptives were the independent significant factors of poor knowledge. CONCLUSION: The overall knowledge of women about BC in this study was inadequate. While half of the women performed breast self-examination on the contrary, the actual clinical breast examination found to be low. The most common risk factor being identified was family history of BC and smoking. Size and shape changes of breast as well as breast lump were the most common signs and symptoms. Age group in years and the use of contraceptives pills were being identified as the significant factors of knowledge toward BC.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound (US) in predicting acute appendicitis in relation to histopathology reports at King Fahad Specialist Hospital in Buraidah, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A retrospective cohort study included 500 medical records of patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis upon admission to King Fahad Specialist Hospital, Buraidah, Saudi Arabia, between January 2015 and January 2017. Results: Of the 200 patients, 187 (93.5%) were diagnosed with acute appendicitis by histopathology. Of these 187 patients, 57 (30.5%) underwent CT and 54 (29%) underwent US. Computed tomography correctly identified 86.0% of the patients as having acute appendicitis and incorrectly identified 14% as not having acute appendicitis. Similarly, US correctly identified 37% of the patients as having acute appendicitis, while the remaining 63% were incorrectly identified as not having acute appendicitis. Thirteen patients (6.5%) did not have acute appendicitis (confirmed by histology report). Six (46.15%) of these 13 patients underwent CT. Five of these 6 (83.3%) were incorrectly diagnosed with acute appendicitis by CT, whereas one of the 6 (16.7%) was identified as a true negative. On the other hand, US correctly identified 100% of the 13 patients as true negative. CONCLUSION: Computed tomography was shown to have sensitivity 86% and a specificity of 16.7% for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. On the other hand, US had a sensitivity of 37% and a specificity of 100%. Therefore, we conclude that if imaging needed to confirm the diagnosis of appendicitis, CT is the choice. Ultrasound can be used only to exclude gynecological disorders.
