A follow-up meeting post death is appreciated by family members of deceased patients.

BACKGROUND: A practice with a follow-up meeting post death (FUMPD) with physician and staff for family members of patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU) was started as a quality project to improve the support of families in post-ICU bereavement. A quality improvement control was conducted after 4 years. METHOD: The quality improvement control was made retrospectively as an anonymous non-coded questionnaire. Part A related to the FUMPD. Part B inquired if we could contact the family member again for a research project to evaluate family support post-ICU bereavement. The questionnaires were sent to 84 family members of 56 deceased patients. RESULTS: Part A: 46 out of 84 family members answered and had attended a FUMPD. Ninety-one percent of the family members thought that we should continue to offer FUMPD. Seventy-eight percent were satisfied with their meeting. Eighty percent felt that they understood the cause of death. The majority wanted the meeting to take place within 6 weeks of death. Ninety-one percent rated the physician as important to be present at the meeting. The social worker was rated more important to attend the meeting than the assistant nurse. Ninety-one percent wanted to discuss the cause of death.Part B: 54 out of 84 family members answered. Twenty out of 54 did not want us to contact them again. CONCLUSION: A routine with a Follow-Up Meeting Post Death with the ICU team for the families of the patients who die in the ICU is appreciated. The presence of the physician is important.

Background factors of ectopic pregnancy. I. Frequency distribution in a case-control study.

Two hundred and five patients with ectopic pregnancy in a well-defined Swedish population were interviewed with respect to prior disease and pregnancy histories as well as various constitutional and socioeconomic factors. The results were compared with those of two control groups, i.e. 110 early pregnant women intending to continue the gestation to term as well as 101 women seeking voluntary interruption of pregnancy. The results provide evidence that several may be involved in the etiology of ectopic pregnancy, including abdominal (or pelvic) surgery, previous ectopic pregnancy and pelvic inflammatory disease. Furthermore, a history of infertility is strongly correlated to ectopic pregnancy. On the other hand, there is no evidence that uncomplicated spontaneous or induced abortion, parity or marital status are important factors.

PIP: To further understanding of the etiology of ectopic pregnancy, selected background variables and pregnancy histories were compared among 205 women treated for ectopic pregnancy and 2 groups of controls--110 women in early pregnancy intending to carry the pregnancy to term and 101 women seeking voluntary pregnancy termination. The study findings suggested that previous ectopic pregnancy, abdominal surgery, infertility, and pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) may be involved in the etiology of ectopic pregnancy. 37% of ectopic pregnancy cases reported a history of involuntary fertility of at least 1 year's duration compared with 18% of the delivery controls and 3% of the abortion controls. 15% of cases had a history of prior ectopic pregnancy compared with 2% of the delivery controls and none of the abortion controls. 44% of cases but only 17% of both groups of controls had a history of abdominal surgery, i.e. laparotomy. Finally, a history of PID was found in 34% of cases compared with 21% of delivery controls and 15% of abortion controls. Nationality, marital status, profession parity, uncomplicated legal or spontaneous abortion, endometritis, bleeding abnormalities, intercurrent disease, physical constitution, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption did not differ significantly between ectopic pregnancy cases and controls. Multivariate analysis or logistic models is suggested to provide more detailed information concerning the validity of possible risk factors and to assess confounding factors.