Trends in spinal cord stimulation utilization: change, growth and implications for the future.

Chronic pain impacts more than 100 million Americans and has a significant impact on the economy and quality of life. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) has demonstrated efficacy in managing a growing number of chronic pain conditions. This in combination with an increasing number of physicians trained in SCS placement has produced significant changes in utilization, expense and sites of service related to SCS. In particular, there has been a large increase in SCS placement by non-surgeons, use of percutaneous leads and performance in ambulatory surgery centers instead of inpatient settings. There are also notable differences in SCS use related to age, race, insurance coverage and geography. There is a large potential market and use of these therapies is predicted to grow from $2.41 billion in 2020 to $4.12 billion US dollars globally by 2027. At the same time, there is increasing scrutiny around utilization of this therapy related to cost, complications, long-term efficacy and explant rates that has the potential to impact access to this therapy in the future. We must examine our indications, technique and management to optimize outcomes and utilization of SCS going forward.

Food and Physical Activity Environment in the US-Affiliated Pacific Region: The Children's Healthy Living Program.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of food and physical activity (PA) environments by World Bank Income level in jurisdictions from the Children's Healthy Living Program. DESIGN: Baseline cross-sectional community data were analyzed from 11 jurisdictions categorized by World Bank Income levels to describe exposure to different food and PA outlets. The Children's Healthy Living Program was a multilevel, multijurisdictional prevalence study and community intervention trial that reduced child obesity in the US-Affiliated Pacific region. SETTING: US-Affiliated Pacific region. PARTICIPANTS: Food (n = 426) and PA (n = 552) Outlets. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Physical activity and food scores that reflect the quality of the outlets that support being physically active and healthy eating options, respectively. ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics are presented as means ± SD or percentages. RESULTS: High-income-income level jurisdictions had higher food and PA scores than middle-income level jurisdictions. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The US-Affiliated Pacific region has limited quality food and PA outlets in underserved communities at risk for obesity. The findings in this paper can be used to develop tools and design interventions to improve the food and PA environment to increase a healthier, active lifestyle.

Giant pulmonary artery aneurysms / Aneurismas gigantes de arteria pulmonar

The accompanying images demonstrate giant pulmonary artery aneurysms in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (Image 1). In addition to the main pulmonary artery, both the left and right pulmonary arteries are aneurysmal and are compressing the lung parenchyma (Image 2).

Las imágenes adjuntas muestran aneurismas gigantes de la arteria pulmonar en un paciente con hipertensión arterial pulmonar idiopática (Imagen 1). Además de la arteria pulmonar principal, tanto la arteria pulmonar izquierda como la derecha son aneurismáticas y están comprimiendo el parénquima pulmonar (Imagen 2).

Association of Intraoperative Tidal Volumes and Acute Kidney Injury After Noncardiac Surgery.

BACKGROUND: Patients with acute lung injury who received lower tidal volume (VT) ventilation had significantly fewer days with acute kidney injury (AKI) when compared to those receiving higher VTs. There is a paucity of studies on the relationship between intraoperative VTs and postoperative AKI in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery. We therefore sought to assess the association of mean delivered intraoperative VT per kilogram based on predicted body weight (PBW) and postoperative AKI. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted in a large tertiary multispecialty academic medical center. Adult patients who underwent noncardiac surgery between January 2005 and July 2016 under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation were included. A total of 41,224 patients were included in the study.The relationship between mean intraoperative VT per PBW and AKI was assessed using logistic regression, adjusting for prespecified potential confounding variables. The secondary outcomes were postoperative major pulmonary complications, myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS), and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: The incidence of AKI was 10.9% in the study population. Postoperative renal replacement therapy was required in 0.1% of patients. Higher delivered mean intraoperative VT per PBW was significantly associated with increased odds of AKI. The estimated odds ratio for each 1 mL increase in VT per kilogram of PBW (1 unit) was 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-1.08; P = .001), after adjusting for potential confounding variables. A higher delivered mean intraoperative VT per PBW was significantly associated with increased odds of postoperative myocardial injury and was not significantly associated with major postoperative pulmonary complications or in-hospital mortality after noncardiac surgery. CONCLUSIONS: In adult patients undergoing noncardiac surgery, higher delivered mean intraoperative VTs per PBW are associated with an increased odds of developing AKI.