Scoping review of hearing loss attributed to congenital syphilis.

BACKGROUND: There are no narrative or systematic reviews of hearing loss in patients with congenital syphilis. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to perform a scoping review to determine what is known about the incidence, characteristics, prognosis, and therapy of hearing loss in children or adults with presumed congenital syphilis. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: PROSPERO, OVID Medline, OVID EMBASE, Cochrane Library (CDSR and Central), Proquest Dissertations and Theses Global, and SCOPUS were searched from inception to March 31, 2023. Articles were included if patients with hearing loss were screened for CS, ii) patients with CS were screened for hearing loss, iii) they were case reports or case series that describe the characteristics of hearing loss, or iv) an intervention for hearing loss attributed to CS was studied. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: Thirty-six articles met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Five studies reported an incidence of CS in 0.3% to 8% of children with hearing loss, but all had a high risk of bias. Seven reported that 0 to 19% of children with CS had hearing loss, but the only one with a control group showed comparable rates in cases and controls. There were 18 case reports/ case series (one of which also reported screening children with hearing loss for CS), reporting that the onset of hearing loss was usually first recognized during adolescence or adulthood. The 7 intervention studies were all uncontrolled and published in 1983 or earlier and reported variable results following treatment with penicillin, prednisone, and/or ACTH. CONCLUSIONS: The current literature is not informative with regard to the incidence, characteristics, prognosis, and therapy of hearing loss in children or adults with presumed congenital syphilis.

Training of laparoscopic novices both individually and in dyads using a simulation task.

Non-technical skill training improves outcomes in surgery and quantifying the effects of this training may aid in designing surgical teaching models. In our study, 12 novices performed a wire-chaser laparoscopic task in 9 training sessions, working both as individuals and dyads. Task duration (p < 0.001), number of ring-wire contacts (p < 0.001), total duration of contact (p < 0.001), and number of pick up attempts (p = 0.044) all showed significant improvement in both groups with no significant difference in the learning curves between individuals and dyads. There was, however, an interaction effect for the number of ring-wire contacts (p = 0.027) whereby the number of contacts dropped more dramatically among dyads. Dyads also performed significantly more anticipatory movements than individuals (p = 0.005). Novices performed similarly when working individually and as dyads, suggesting that the need for collaboration neither hindered nor helped performance for our particular task.