The barbados emergency ambulance service: high frequency of nontransported calls.

Objectives. There are no published studies on the Barbados Emergency Ambulance Service and no assessment of the calls that end in nontransported individuals. We describe reasons for the nontransport of potential clients. Methods. We used the Emergency Medical Dispatch (Medical Priority Dispatch System) instrument, augmented with five local call types, to collect information on types of calls. The calls were categorised under 7 headings. Correlations between call types and response time were calculated. Results. Most calls were from the category medical (54%). Nineteen (19%) percent of calls were in the non-transported category. Calls from call type Cancelled accounted for most of these and this was related to response time, while Refused service was inversely related (P = 0.01). Conclusions. The Barbados Ambulance Service is mostly used by people with a known illness and for trauma cases. One-fifth of calls fall into a category where the ambulance is not used often due to cancellation which is related to response time. Other factors such as the use of alternative transport are also important. Further study to identify factors that contribute to the non-transported category of calls is necessary if improvements in service quality are to be made.

A pre-emptive multimodal pathway featuring peripheral nerve block improves perioperative outcomes after major orthopedic surgery.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery experience significant postoperative pain. Failure to provide adequate analgesia may impede early physical therapy and rehabilitation, which are important factors for maintaining joint range of motion and facilitating hospital dismissal. We examined the effect of a pre-emptive, multimodal, perioperative analgesic regimen emphasizing peripheral nerve block in patients undergoing total hip (THA) and total knee (TKA) arthroplasty. Perioperative outcomes and major postoperative complications were evaluated. METHODS: One hundred consecutive patients undergoing primary or revision THA or TKA using the Mayo Clinic Total Joint Regional Anesthesia (TJRA) protocol were retrospectively reviewed. The TJRA protocol is a pre-emptive, multimodal, perioperative analgesic regimen emphasizing peripheral nerve block that was jointly developed by the Departments of Anesthesiology and Orthopedic Surgery. Identified patients were matched 1:1 with historical controls undergoing identical surgical procedures with traditional anesthetic techniques. Matching criteria included patient age, gender, surgeon, date of surgery, and American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status. Patient demographics, preoperative joint range of motion, and anesthetic management were recorded for each patient. The primary study outcome was hospital length of stay. Secondary outcome variables included time to ambulation, joint range of motion, and discharge eligibility. Postoperative verbal analog pain scores (VAS), opioid requirements, side effects, and perioperative complications were also documented. RESULTS: One hundred patients underwent THA or TKA using the newly implemented Mayo Clinic TJRA protocol. Matched controls (n = 100) received intravenous patient-controlled analgesia with subsequent conversion to oral analgesics for postoperative pain management. TJRA patients had significantly shorter hospital lengths of stay (3.8 days v 5.0 days; P < .001), achieved discharge eligibility significantly sooner (1.7 +/- 1.9 days earlier; P < .0001), and had improved joint range of motion (90 degrees v 85 degrees ; P = .008) when compared with matched controls. TJRA patients had significantly improved postoperative analgesia, including lower VAS pain scores (postoperative day 0 through postoperative day 3; P < .001), and lower opioid requirements (postoperative day 0 to postoperative day 2; P = .04). Adverse outcomes such as postoperative urinary retention (50% v 31%; P < .001), and ileus formation (7% v 1%; P = .01) occurred more frequently among control patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing THA or TKA using a comprehensive, pre-emptive, multimodal analgesic regimen emphasizing peripheral nerve block may have significantly improved perioperative outcomes, and fewer adverse events, when compared with patients receiving traditional intravenous opioids during the initial postoperative period. Improved perioperative outcomes include a shortened hospital length of stay, and a significant reduction in postoperative urinary retention and ileus formation.

Embryonic cerebral cortex cells retain CNS phenotypes after transplantation into peripheral nerve.

Differentiation of stem cells depends on environmental cues. In this study, acutely dissociated or expanded cells derived from embryonic day 14 (E14) rat cerebral cortex were transplanted into the distal tibial nerve stump of adult Fischer rats to determine whether a peripheral nervous system (PNS) environment would influence cell differentiation. Acutely dissociated cells, which included neural precursors and post-mitotic neurons, were transplanted immediately after harvest. Expanded cortical cells were transplanted after 8 days of culture with fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2), a process that yields a population of neural stem cells and/or neural precursors. After 2 or 10 weeks in peripheral nerve, the majority of the transplanted cells was astrocytes, as judged from glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP) expression. Only acutely dissociated transplants had cells that exhibited neuronal phenotypes. Those neurons present in transplants at 10 weeks stained positive for glutamate decarboxylase and did not reinnervate muscle. Maintenance of this cortical phenotype in peripheral nerve suggests that it is necessary to transplant cells with neural phenotypes appropriate for muscle to restore its function.