Forum Theater: An Innovative Strategy to Enhance Clinician Communication With Marginalized Trauma Patients.

BACKGROUND: Marginalized groups experience a higher frequency of traumatic injury and are more likely to report negative experiences in the health care setting. Trauma center staff are prone to compassion fatigue, which impairs patient and clinician interactions for these groups. Forum theater (a form of interactive theater designed for addressing social issues) is proposed as an innovative method of exploring bias and has never been applied in the trauma setting. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to determine the feasibility of implementing forum theater as an adjunct to enhance clinician understanding of bias and its influence on communication between clinicians and trauma populations. METHODS: This is a descriptive qualitative analysis of adopting forum theater at a Level I trauma center in a New York City borough with a racially and ethnically diverse population. The implementation of a forum theater workshop was described, including our work with a theater company to address bias in the health care setting. Volunteer staff members and theater facilitators participated in an 8-hr workshop leading to a 2-hr multipart performance. Participant experiences were collected in a postsession debrief to understand the utility of forum theater. RESULTS: Debriefing sessions after forum theater performances demonstrated that forum theater is a more engaging and effective method for dialogue surrounding bias than personal past experiences with other educational models. CONCLUSION: Forum theater was feasible as a tool to enhance cultural competency and bias training. Future research will examine the impact it has on levels of staff empathy and its impact on participants' level of comfort communicating with diverse trauma populations.

Pancreaticoduodenectomy for pediatric and adolescent pancreatic malignancy: A single-center retrospective analysis.

PURPOSE: While pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) has been extensively studied in adults, there are few data pertaining specifically to pediatric patients. We retrospectively analyzed PD-associated morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients. METHODS: Our analytic cohort included all consecutive patients ≤18years of age treated at our institution from 1993 to 2015 who underwent PD. Patient data (demographics, disease characteristics, surgical and adjuvant treatment, length of hospital stay, and postoperative course) were extracted from the medical records. RESULTS: We identified 12 children with a median age of 9years (7 female, 5 male). Final diagnoses were pancreatoblastoma (n=3), solid pseudopapillary tumor (n=3), neuroblastoma (n=2), rhabdomyosarcoma (n=2), and neuroendocrine carcinoma (n=2). Four patients underwent PD for resection of recurrent disease. 75% (9/12 patients) received neoadjuvant therapy. The median operative time was approximately 7hours with a mean blood loss of 590cm3. The distal pancreas was invaginated into the posterior stomach (n=3) or into the jejunum (n=5) or was directly sewn to the jejunal mucosa (n=4). There were no operative deaths. There were 4 patients (34%) with grade II complications, 1 with a grade IIIb complication (chest tube), and 1 with a grade IV complication (reexploration). The most common long-term morbidity was pancreas exocrine supplementation (n=10; 83%). Five patients (42%) diagnosed with either solid pseudopapillary tumor or rhabdomyosarcoma are currently alive with a mean survival of 77.4months. CONCLUSION: Pancreaticoduodenectomy is a feasible management strategy for pediatric pancreatic malignancies and is associated with acceptable morbidity and overall survival. Long-term outcome is mostly dependent on histology of the tumor. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level IV; retrospective study with no comparison group.

Three-dimensional printing of anatomically accurate, patient specific intracranial aneurysm models.

OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a method for creating realistic, patient specific replicas of cerebral aneurysms by means of fused deposition modeling. METHODS: The luminal boundaries of 10 cerebral aneurysms, together with adjacent proximal and distal sections of the parent artery, were segmented based on DSA images, and corresponding virtual three-dimensional (3D) surface reconstructions were created. From these, polylactic acid and MakerBot Flexible Filament replicas of each aneurysm were created by means of fused deposition modeling. The accuracy of the replicas was assessed by quantifying statistical significance in the variations of their inner dimensions relative to 3D DSA images. Feasibility for using these replicas as flow phantoms in combination with phase contrast MRI was demonstrated. RESULTS: 3D printed aneurysm models were created for all 10 subjects. Good agreement was seen between the models and the source anatomy. Aneurysm diameter measurements of the printed models and source images correlated well (r=0.999; p<0.001), with no statistically significant group difference (p=0.4) or observed bias. The SDs of the measurements were 0.5 mm and 0.2 mm for source images and 3D models, respectively. 3D printed models could be imaged with flow via MRI. CONCLUSIONS: The 3D printed aneurysm models presented were accurate and were able to be produced inhouse. These models can be used for previously cited applications, but their anatomical accuracy also enables their use as MRI flow phantoms for comparison with ongoing studies of computational fluid dynamics. Proof of principle imaging experiments confirm MRI flow phantom utility.

Persistent bilateral sciatic artery: Report of a rare case.

The sciatic artery - a rare finding on autopsy - and continuation of the inferior gluteal artery has been reported previously. On a routine dissection, bilateral persistent sciatic arteries were found in both thighs of a female cadaver. This provided evidence that the sciatic artery follows the sciatic nerve, supplies the back of the thigh and finally joins the popliteal artery near the knee. The profunda femoris artery was completely absent bilaterally. The present report strengthens the view that the sciatic artery plays a major role in supplying blood to the lower limbs in utero and its existence after birth may have significant clinical importance.