Characterizing risk factors for hospitalization for psoriasis patients.

Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune disease with a large economic impact. Inpatient care is a significant expense, and about one-third of patients admitted for psoriasis are readmitted. Reducing hospitalizations and readmissions is an important goal for improving outcomes for psoriasis patients. The objective of this study is to characterize patients who are hospitalized for psoriasis, and differentiate features for patients with a single hospitalization from those who were hospitalized multiple times during the study period. Hospitalized psoriasis patients were identified from an in-patient database at a single academic institution. Differences between psoriasis patients with one hospitalization and those with multiple hospitalizations were characterized, as were differences between patients who were hospitalized primarily for psoriasis and those who were admitted primarily for other reasons. Patients who were primarily hospitalized for psoriasis had fewer comorbidities, shorter hospitalizations, and a lower death rate than those hospitalized for other reasons. Patients with multiple hospitalizations had more comorbidities and worse outcomes than patients with a single hospitalization. Patients who are hospitalized primarily for psoriasis are more likely to be pustular, and tend to have fewer comorbidities and better outcomes than patients with psoriasis who are hospitalized with psoriasis as a secondary diagnosis. One limitation of this study is the lack of data available to consistently quantify disease severity, such as percent of body surface area affected by psoriasis or Physician's Global Assessment score.

Factitial dermatitis in the hospital setting.

Factitial Dermatitis (FD) is a notoriously difficult disease to diagnose, as patients produce self-induced cutaneous lesions and provide an inadequate or inaccurate history. We performed a cross-sectional study, querying an inpatient consultation database of all patients admitted to the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center from 2012 to 2017 with a dermatologic ICD as a discharge diagnosis. Our exhaustive keyword search produced 189 candidates. Consult notes were thoroughly examined, and 32 patients were found to meet case definition of FD. Our analysis of this cohort revealed a significantly greater proportion of cases in the female population. Lesions were more often found to involve the skin on the upper extremities. Isolated secondary skin changes such as erosions, ulcers and excoriations in the absence primary morphologies were also significant in our cohort. As FD is difficult to identify, further understanding of its presentation pattern will decrease time to diagnosis and improve both hospital resource allocation and patient care.

Evaluation of Dundee and ALT-70 predictive models for cellulitis in 56 patients who underwent tissue culture.

Nonpurulent cellulitis lacks a gold standard to distinguish noninfectious sources of inflammation. Two models have been created that evaluate cellulitis. The ALT-70 model was created to reduce the overdiagnosis of cellulitis and provide clinical direction. The Dundee classification was developed to grade the severity of previously diagnosed cases of cellulitis and enhance treatment and clinical outcomes. We analyzed a dataset of 56 patients who were admitted to the OSU Wexner Medical Center with a primary admission diagnosis of cellulitis. Each patient underwent extensive tissue culture sampling to identify potential pathogens. Patients were scored using both models, then evaluated based on the positive tissue culture and skin and soft tissue infection. In both models, we found low sensitivity and specificity to predict patients with positive tissue culture cellulitis. Determination of a gold standard for classification of cellulites is important to improve future diagnosis and risk models. We recommend further study to develop a scalable consensus standard in the diagnosis of nonpurulent cellulitis.

Defining Drugs that are High-Risk Associations for Drug Reactions Within the Hospital Setting.

Objective: We sought to evaluate medication exposures during an entire hospitalization, with the goal of describing medications and demographic conditions that are associated with developing a drug eruption during hospitalization. Methods: 468 patients that developed a cutaneous drug eruption were identified from a cohort of 18,140 unique inpatients with dermatologic diagnoses; medication lists and demographic information were assimilated, and drug eruption frequency tables were created. Results: The agents most commonly associated with drug eruptions included many antineoplastic, antifungal, and antibiotic therapeutics: idarubicin (27.78% reaction rate), daunorubicin (26.43%), sorafenib (25.00%), lenalidomide (23.53%), all-trans-retinoic acid (22.58%), decitabine (21.57%), aztreonam (15.15%), posaconazole (14.29%), and voriconazole (13.78%) among many others. Patients diagnosed with drug eruptions were more likely to have private insurance (3.29% vs. 2.58% reaction rate) and were on average older (56.7 vs. 52.6 years), had longer inpatient stay (14.2 vs. 7.9 days), and higher inpatient mortality (5.95% vs. 2.58%) than patients without eruptions. Limitations: This was a single-center cross-sectional study. Drug reaction codes were used substantially less frequently than more general codes for non-specific eruptions, further, the analysis was stratified by full hospitalization data to account for delayed reactions. Conclusion: Hospitalizations in which patients receive medications common to malignancies, such as cytotoxic and antifungal therapies represent the highest risk hospitalizations for the development of drug eruptions. When diagnosing and treating drug eruptions, clinicians should consider these medication classes with a high index of suspicion.

Static Cage Morphology in Short-Segment Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusions Is Associated With Alterations in Foraminal Height But Not Clinical Outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Steerable "banana" cages have been posited to increase segmental lordosis in short-segment transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions (TLIF). The same is not necessarily true for straight "bullet" cages. Although increased lordosis is generally thought to be advantageous, a potential complication is decreased foraminal height. Here we evaluate for any association between cage type and change in foraminal height and clinical outcomes following short-segment TLIFs. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed consecutive 1- and 2-level TLIFs with bilateral facetectomies with minimum 1-year clinical and radiographic follow-up. Two cohorts were based on cage morphology: steerable "banana" cage or straight "bullet" cage. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs), radiographic measurements, and revision rates were compared. RESULTS: A total of 46 patients with 53 straight and 95 patients with 131 steerable cage levels were included. Steerable cages showed increased segmental lordosis (9.1° vs. 13.5°, P < 0.001) and decreased foraminal height (20.3 vs. 18.5 mm, P < 0.001) after surgery. Straight cages demonstrated similar segmental lordosis (8.7° vs 8.1°, P = 0.30) and foraminal height (19.4 vs 20.0 mm, P < 0.065). Both cohorts showed improved PROMs at last follow-up (P ≤ 0.005). Subanalysis comparing patients who had increased or decreased foraminal height revealed similarly improved PROMs between cohorts. Revision rates at 1 year were similar between cohorts (4.3% for straight and 3.2% for steerable group, P = 0.72). CONCLUSIONS: Although the increased segmental lordosis afforded by placement of steerable cages may decrease foraminal height after short segment TLIF, clinical outcomes are not negatively affected by this association.

Radiographic and clinical outcomes in one- and two-level transforaminal lumbar interbody fusions: a comparison of bullet versus banana cages.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether cage morphology influences clinical and radiographic outcomes following short-segment transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) procedures. METHODS: The authors retrospectively reviewed one- and two-level TLIFs at a single tertiary care center between August 2012 and November 2019 with a minimum 1-year radiographic and clinical follow-up. Two cohorts were compared based on interbody cage morphology: steerable "banana" cage or straight "bullet" cage. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), radiographs, and complications were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 135 patients with 177 interbody levels were identified; 45 patients had 52 straight cages and 90 patients had 125 steerable cages. Segmental lordosis increased with steerable cages, while it decreased with straight cages (+3.8 ± 4.6 vs -1.9 ± 4.3, p < 0.001). Conversely, the mean segmental lordosis of adjacent lumbar levels decreased in the former group, while it increased in the latter group (-0.52 ± 1.9 vs +0.52 ± 2.1, p = 0.004). This reciprocal relationship results in global sagittal parameters, including pelvic incidence minus lumbar lordosis and lumbar distribution index, which did not change after surgery with either cage morphology. Multivariate analysis confirmed that steerable cage morphology, anterior cage positioning, and less preoperative index-level segmental lordosis were associated with greater improvement in index-level segmental lordosis. PROMs were improved after surgery with both cage types, and the degree of improvement did not differ between cohorts (p > 0.05). Perioperative and radiographic complications were similar between cohorts (p > 0.05). Overall reoperation rates, as well as reoperation rates for adjacent-segment disease within 2 years of surgery, were not significantly different between cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: Steerable cages are more likely to lie within the anterior disc space, thus increasing index-level segmental lordosis, which is accompanied by a reciprocal change in segmental alignment at the adjacent lumbar levels. The converse relationship occurs for straight cages, with a kyphotic change at the index levels and reciprocal lordosis occurring at adjacent levels.

Cutaneous Leishmania aethiopica diagnosed in the United States.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a parasitic infection caused by certain Leishmania spp and is endemic in the New world (Central and South America) and Old World (Africa and the Middle East) where it is transmitted via sandflies of the Phlebotomus and Lutzomyia species. We describe a case of a 61-year-old woman who presented with an asymptomatic red-brown papule on her lower back approximately one year after returning to the United States from a trip to Ethiopia and Cameroon. Polymerase chain reaction was performed on the biopsy material and identified Leishmania aethiopica. This case highlights an atypical location and demonstrates how to accurately diagnose and treat this parasitic infection.