Effectiveness and feasibility of an evidence-based intraoperative infection control program targeting improved basic measures: a post-implementation prospective case-cohort study.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: A randomized controlled study demonstrated that an optimized intraoperative infection control program targeting basic preventive measures can reduce Staphylococcus aureus transmission and surgical site infections. In this study we address potential limitations of operating room heterogeneity of infections and compliance with behavioral interventions following adoption into clinical practice. DESIGN: A post-implementation prospective case-cohort study. SETTING: Twenty-three operating rooms at a large teaching hospital. PATIENTS: A total of 801 surgical patients [425 (53%) women; 350 (44%) ASA > 2, age 54.6 ± 15.9 years] were analyzed for the primary and 804 for the secondary outcomes. INTERVENTIONS: A multifaceted, evidence-based intraoperative infection control program involving hand hygiene, vascular care, and environmental cleaning improvements was implemented for 23 operating room environments. Bacterial transmission monitoring was used to provide monthly feedback for intervention optimization. MEASUREMENTS: S. aureus transmission (primary) and surgical site infection (secondary). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The incidence of S. aureus transmission and surgical site infection before (3.5 months) and after (4.5 months) infection control optimization was assessed. Optimization was defined by a sustained reduction in anesthesia work area bacterial reservoir isolate counts. Poisson regression with robust error variances was used to estimate the incidence risk ratio (IRR) of intraoperative S. aureus transmission and surgical site infection for the independent variable of optimization. MAIN RESULTS: Optimization was associated with decreased S. aureus transmission [24% before (85/357) to 9% after (42/444), IRR 0.39, 95% CI 0.28 to 0.56, P < .001] and surgical site infections [8% before (29/360) and 3% after (15/444) (IRR 0.42, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.77, P = .005; adjusted for American Society of Anesthesiologists' physical status, aIRR 0.45, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.82, P = .009]. CONCLUSION: An optimized intraoperative infection control program targeting improvements in basic preventive measures is an effective and feasible approach for reducing S. aureus transmission and surgical site infection development.

Noninvasive Diagnostic Modalities in an Isolated Case of Cardiac Amyloidosis.

Amyloidoses are a family of inherited or acquired disorders characterized by the deposition of insoluble extracellular protein fibrils in various organs and tissues, thereby impairing their function. Amyloidoses are typically misfolded proteins, and on rare occasions, can deposit in the myocardium resulting in an infiltrative/restrictive cardiomyopathy. Restrictive cardiomyopathy is an underdiagnosed cause of congestive heart failure (CHF) with preserved ejection fraction, atrial and ventricular arrhythmias along with conduction defects. In elderly patients, as with this study, cardiac amyloidosis most often results from abnormalities in the liver protein transthyretin (TTR), a thyroxine and retinol-retinol binding complex transporter in blood. Mutated serum TTR results in familial systemic amyloidosis, whereas wild-type TTR results in senile cardiac amyloidosis predominantly seen in elderly males. Scintigraphy, a common non-invasive method used to facilitate early diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis was the method used in this study. However, the gold standard for definitive diagnosis of cardiac amyloidosis is endomyocardial biopsy (EMB). Besides organ transplant, which is rarely done, therapy for cardiac amyloidosis is mainly aimed at symptomatic and supportive care. Plenty of evidence has shown that the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in patients with restrictive cardiomyopathy is usually preserved. However, in this study, we review the unique case of an 82-year-old male who was diagnosed with isolated cardiac amyloidosis with severe systolic dysfunction (decreasedLVEF), the methods used to establish the diagnosis, as well as the therapeutic interventions.