Do It to Them, Not to Me: Doctors' and Nurses' Personal Preferences Versus Recommendations for End-of-Life Care.

BACKGROUND: The emotional toll and financial cost of end-of-life care can be high. Existing literature suggests that medical providers often choose to forego many aggressive interventions and life-prolonging therapies for themselves. To further investigate this phenomenon, we compared how providers make medical decisions for themselves versus for relatives and unrelated patients. METHODS: Between 2016 and 2019, anonymous surveys were emailed to physicians (attendings, fellows, and residents), nurse practitioners, physician assistances, and nurses at two multifacility tertiary medical centers. Participants were asked to decide how likely they would offer a tracheostomy and feeding gastrostomy to a hypothetical patient with a devastating neurological injury and an uncertain prognosis. Participants were then asked to reconsider their decision if the patient was their own family member or if they themselves were the patient. The Kruskal-Wallis H, Mann-Whitney U, and Tukey tests were used to compare quantitative data. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. RESULTS: Seven hundred seventy-three surveys were completed with a 10% response rate at both institutions. Regardless of professional identity, age, or gender, providers were significantly more likely to recommend a tracheostomy and feeding gastrostomy to an unrelated patient than for themselves. Professional identity and age of the respondent did influence recommendations made to a family member. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that medical practitioners make different end-of-life care decisions for themselves compared with others. It is worth investigating further why there is such a discrepancy between what medical providers choose for themselves compared with what they recommend for others.

An Evolving Clinical Need: Discordant Oxygenation Measurements of Intubated COVID-19 Patients.

Since the first appearance of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) earlier this year, clinicians and researchers alike have been faced with dynamic, daily challenges of recognizing, understanding, and treating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) due to SARS-CoV-2. Those who are moderately to severely ill with COVID-19 are likely to develop acute hypoxemic respiratory failure and require administration of supplemental oxygen. Assessing the need to initiate or titrate oxygen therapy is largely dependent on evaluating the patient's existing blood oxygenation status, either by direct arterial blood sampling or by transcutaneous arterial oxygen saturation monitoring, also referred to as pulse oximetry. While the sampling of arterial blood for measurement of dissolved gases provides a direct measurement, it is technically challenging to obtain, is painful to the patient, and can be time and resource intensive. Pulse oximetry allows for non-invasive, real-time, continuous monitoring of the percent of hemoglobin molecules that are saturated with oxygen, and usually closely predicts the arterial oxygen content. As such, it was particularly concerning when patients with severe COVID-19 requiring endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation within one of our intensive care units were observed to have significant discordance between their predicted arterial oxygen content via pulse oximetry and their actual measured oxygen content. We offer these preliminary observations along with our speculative causes as a timely, urgent clinical need. In the setting of a COVID-19 intensive care unit, entering a patient room to obtain a fresh arterial blood gas sample not only takes exponentially longer to do given the time required for donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE), it involves the consumption of already sparce PPE, and it increases the risk of viral exposure to the nurse, physician, or respiratory therapist entering the room to obtain the sample. As such, technology similar to pulse oximetry which can be applied to a patients finger, and then continuously monitored from outside the room is essential in preventing a particularly dangerous situation of unrealized hypoxia in this critically-ill patient population. Additionally, it would appear that conventional two-wavelength pulse oximetry may not accurately predict the arterial oxygen content of blood in these patients. This discordance of oxygenation measurements poses a critical concern in the evaluation and management of the acute hypoxemic respiratory failure seen in patients with COVID-19.

Is Opioid Prescribing Driving Trauma Recidivism or Is Trauma Driving Opioid Use?

In the past 30 years, opioid prescription rates have quadrupled and hospital admissions for overdose are rising. Previous studies have focused on alcohol use and trauma recidivism, however rarely evaluating recidivism and opioid use. We hypothesized there is an association between opioid use and trauma recidivism. This is a retrospective review of patients with multiple admissions for traumatic injury. Demographics, opioid toxicology screen (TS) results, and injury characteristics were collected. Statistical analysis was performed with chi-squared and Poisson regression models. One thousand six hundred forty-nine patients (age ≥18 years) had multiple trauma admissions. Seven hundred nine patients had TS data for both admissions. Thirty-one per cent (218) were TS positive on the 1st admission compared with 34 per cent (244) on their 2nd admission. Fifty-five per cent of patients who were TS positive on the 1st admission were positive on their 2nd admission, whereas 25 per cent who were TS negative on the 1st admission were subsequently positive on their 2nd admission (P < 0.0001). Patients who were TS positive on the subsequent admission were less severely injured than TS negative patients (Injury Severity Score > 15, 26.3% vs 22.3%, P = 0.04). The only significant risk factor for being TS positive on the 2nd admission was being TS positive on the 1st admission (relative risk = 2.18, P < 0.001). A previous history of opioid use is the strongest predictor of recurrent use in recidivists.

Validation of predictive equations to assess energy expenditure in acute spinal cord injury.

BACKGROUND: Acute spinal cord injury (SCI) is devastating with morbidities compounded by inadequate nutrition. The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition recommends indirect calorimetry (IC) to evaluate energy needs in SCI because no predictive energy equations have been validated. We sought to determine the accuracy of predictive equations to predict measured energy expenditure (MEE). METHODS: A retrospective review was performed over 2 years. Patients 18 years or older with cervical SCI who received IC were included. Height, weight, maximum temperature and minute ventilation on day of IC, plus MEE and VCO2 from IC were obtained. Predicted energy expenditure (PEE) was calculated using Harris-Benedict (HB), Penn State (PS), Mifflin St. Jeor (MSJ), Weir, Ireton-Jones (IJ), and 25 kcal/kg formulas. MEE was then compared to the PEE of each method. RESULTS: Thirty-nine IC studies were completed for 20 patients. Weir had the strongest correlation to MEE (r = 0.98), followed by PS (r = 0.82). Correlations were similar among HB (r = 0.78), MSJ (r = 0.75), and IJ (r = 0.73), and weakest with 24 kcal/kg (r = 0.55). All had a p value <0.001. Deming regression confirmed strong correlations between Weir and PS to MEE, with coefficients of 1.03 and 1.515 (p < 0.001), respectively. Other formulas had comparatively higher coefficients and standard errors. Bland-Altman analysis confirmed Weir had the narrowest range of difference, with a mean difference of 25.5 kcal/day, followed by PS (-336.1 kcal/day). CONCLUSIONS: Weir is the best predictive energy equation, with all statistical tests demonstrating a strong correlation between MEE and Weir. The second best predictive equation is the Penn State formula, which predicts actual MEE measured by IC with high accuracy. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Diagnostic study, level III.

Geriatric nursing home falls: A single institution cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury in geriatric patients. Nursing home falls occur at twice the rate of community falls, yet few studies have compared these groups. We hypothesized that nursing home residents admitted for fall would be sicker than their community counterparts on presentation and have worse outcomes. METHODS: Records of 1708 patients, age 65 years and older with a documented nursing home status, admitted to our center between 2008 and 2012 were reviewed. Clinical data including injury severity score (ISS), admission Glasgow coma scale (GCS), in-hospital complications, length of stay (LOS), and in-hospital mortality were collected. Continuous data were analyzed using Mann-Whitney tests and categorical data using Fisher exact tests. Variables in the univariate tests were analyzed in a multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Nursing home patients were older than community patients, presented with lower GCS, lower hemoglobin, higher international normalized ratio (INR) and a higher percentage of patients with body mass index (BMI)<18.5. LOS for nursing home patients was longer, and they suffered higher rates of in-hospital complications. ISS, rates of traumatic brain injury, operative intervention and mortality were not significantly different. In a multivariate logistic regression, ISS, GCS and age, but not nursing home status, were significant predictors of in-hospital mortality. CONCLUSIONS: In comparison to their community counterparts, nursing home patients presenting after fall are more debilitated and have increased morbidity as evidenced by more in-house complications and increased LOS. However, nursing home residency was not a significant predictor of mortality.

A biological basis for depression in pancreatic cancer.

BACKGROUND: Patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma frequently present with depression the symptoms of which may precede cancer diagnosis, suggesting that the pathophysiology of depression in pancreatic adenocarcinoma may result from biological changes that are induced by the presence of the tumour itself. The present study was conducted to test a hypothesized relationship with the kynurenine pathway, which has been implicated in both depression and tumour-induced immunosuppression. METHODS: 17 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma were recruited and completed mood questionnaires (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy -Pancreatic Cancer, Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory) and blood testing for serum levels of tryptophan, kynurenine, kynurenic acid and quinolinic acid. Tumour burden was determined from pathology reports (tumour size and nodal involvement). RESULTS: Findings indicated a negative correlation between mood scores and the plasma kynurenic acid : tryptophan ratio in plasma, and a positive correlation between tumour burden and plasma kynurenine level. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that pancreatic cancer may influence mood via the kynurenine pathway. The relationship of the kynurenine pathway with pancreatic tumour burden should be explored further in large multicentre studies because a better understanding of this physiology might have significant clinical benefit.

Routine intraoperative hepatic sonography does not affect staging or postsurgical hepatic recurrence in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of intraoperative sonography of the liver in the staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its impact on the rate of postoperative tumor recurrence in the liver. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of the rate in which intraoperative sonography of the liver changed surgical management in 470 surgical candidates with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. In postsurgical patients, we performed a χ(2) analysis to examine whether the patients who underwent hepatic intraoperative sonography had a lower rate of recurrent disease in the liver within the first 6 months of surgery compared to patients who did not undergo the procedure. RESULTS: Hepatic intraoperative sonography affected management in less than 1% of cases, detecting 1 unsuspected liver metastasis in 470 surgical patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Of 3 patients with equivocal liver lesions identified on preoperative computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, hepatic intraoperative sonography excluded metastasis and cleared all the patients for surgical resection. There was no significant difference in postoperative liver recurrence between the group of patients who received intraoperative sonography before resection and patients who did not have the procedure done (P > .99). CONCLUSIONS: Routine intraoperative sonography of the liver does not affect staging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma. It may be useful for evaluating equivocal lesions.

Atrial fibrillation and delayed gastric emptying.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation and delayed gastric emptying (DGE) are common after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Our aim was to investigate a potential relationship between atrial fibrillation and DGE, which we defined as failure to tolerate a regular diet by the 7(th) postoperative day. METHODS: We performed a retrospective chart review of 249 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy at our institution between 2000 and 2009. Data was analyzed with Fisher exact test for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U or unpaired T-test for continuous variables. RESULTS: Approximately 5% of the 249 patients included in the analysis experienced at least one episode of postoperative atrial fibrillation. Median age of patients with atrial fibrillation was 74 years, compared with 66 years in patients without atrial fibrillation (p = 0.0005). Patients with atrial fibrillation were more likely to have a history of atrial fibrillation (p = 0.03). 92% of the patients with atrial fibrillation suffered from DGE, compared to 46% of patients without atrial fibrillation (p = 0.0007). This association held true when controlling for age. CONCLUSION: Patients with postoperative atrial fibrillation are more likely to experience delayed gastric emptying. Interventions to manage delayed gastric function might be prudent in patients at high risk for postoperative atrial fibrillation.