1,720,990 research outputs found
Impact of Hospital Teaching Status on Length of Stay and Mortality Among Patients Undergoing Complex Hepatopancreaticobiliary Surgery in the USA
No full textTo define the impact of hospital teaching status on length of stay and mortality for patients undergoing complex hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) surgery in the USA. Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, we identified 285,442 patient records that involved a liver resection, pancreatoduodenectomy, other pancreatic resection, or hepaticojejunostomy between years 2000 and 2010. Year-wise distribution of procedures at teaching and non-teaching hospitals was described. The impact of teaching status on in-hospital mortality for operations performed at hospitals in the top tertile of procedure volume was determined using multivariate logistic regression analysis. A majority of patients were under 65 years of age (59.6 %), white (74.0 %), admitted on an elective basis (77.3 %), and had a low comorbidity burden (70.5 %). Ninety percent were operated upon at hospitals in the top tertile of yearly procedure volume. Among patients undergoing an operation at a hospital in the top tertile of procedure volume (> 25/year), non-teaching status was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital death (OR 1.47 [1.3, 1.7]). Other factors associated with increased risk of mortality were older patient age (OR 2.52 [2.3, 2.8]), male gender (OR 1.73 [1.6, 1.9]), higher comorbidity burden (OR 1.49 [1.3, 1.7]), non-elective admission (OR 3.32 [2.9, 4.0]), and having a complication during in-hospital stay (OR 2.53 [2.2, 3.0]), while individuals with private insurance had a lower risk of in-hospital mortality (OR 0.45 [0.4, 0.5]). After controlling for other covariates, undergoing complex HPB surgery at a non-teaching hospital remained independently associated with 32 % increased odds of death as (OR 1.32, 95 % CI 1.11-1.58; P < 0.001). Even among high-volume hospitals, patients undergoing complex HPB have better outcomes at teaching vs. non-teaching hospitals. While procedural volume is an established factor associated with surgical outcomes among patients undergoing complex HPB procedures, other hospital-level factors such as teaching status have an important impact on peri-operative outcomes
Failure to rescue as a source of variation in hospital mortality after hepatic surgery
No full textBackground: The mechanisms that underlie the association between high surgical volume and improved outcomes remain uncertain. This study examined the impact of complications and failure to rescue patients from these complications on mortality following hepatic resection. Methods: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample was used to identify patients who had liver surgery between 2000 and 2010. Hospital volume was stratified into tertiles (low, intermediate and high). Rates of major complications, failure to rescue and mortality following hepatic surgery were compared. Results: Some 9874 patients were identified. The major complication rate was 19.6 per cent in low-volume, 19.3 per cent in intermediate-volume and 16.6 per cent in high-volume hospitals (P < 0.001). Most common major complications included respiratory insufficiency or failure (8.8 per cent), acute renal failure (4.2 per cent) and gastrointestinal bleeding (3.9 per cent), with each of these complications being less common in high-volume hospitals (P < 0.050). The incidence of major morbidity following hepatectomy remained the same over the past decade, but failure to rescue patients from these complications decreased (P = 0.011). The overall inpatient mortality rate following liver surgery was 3.2 per cent (3.8, 3.6 and 2.3 per cent for low-, intermediate-and high-volume hospitals respectively; P < 0.001). The rate of failure to rescue (death after a complication) was higher at low-and intermediate-volume hospitals (16.8 and 16.1 per cent respectively) compared with high-volume hospitals (11.8 per cent) (P = 0.032). After accounting for patient and hospital characteristics, patients treated at low-volume hospitals who had a complication were 40 per cent more likely to die than patients with a complication in a high-volume hospital (odds ratio 1.40, 95 per cent confidence interval 1.02 to 1.93). Conclusion: The risk of death following hepatic surgery is lower at high-volume hospitals. The reduction in mortality appears to be the result of both lower complication rates and a better ability in high-volume hospitals to rescue patients with major complications
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
A nationwide analysis of the use and outcomes of perioperative epidural analgesia in patients undergoing hepatic and pancreatic surgery
No full textBACKGROUND: We sought to define trends in the use of epidural analgesia (EA) for hepatopancreatic procedures, as well as to characterize inpatient outcomes relative to the use of EA. METHODS: The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was queried to identify all elective hepatopancreatic surgeries between 2000 and 2012. In-hospital outcomes were compared among patients receiving EA vs conventional analgesia using propensity matching. RESULTS: EA utilization was 7.4% (n = 3,961). The use of EA among minimally invasive procedures increased from 3.8% in 2000 to 9.1% in 2012. The odds of sepsis (odds ratio [OR] .72, 95% confidence interval [CI] .56 to .93), respiratory failure (OR .79, 95% CI .69 to .91), and postoperative pneumonia (OR .77, 95% CI .61 to .98), as well as overall in-hospital mortality (OR .72, 95% CI .56 to .93) were lower in the EA cohort (all P <.05). In contrast, no association was noted between EA and postoperative hemorrhage (OR .81, 95% CI .65 to 1.01, P = .06). CONCLUSIONS: EA use among patients undergoing hepatopancreatic procedures remains low. After controlling for confounding factors, EA remained associated with a reduction in specific pulmonary-related complications, as well as in-hospital mortality. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
A Risk Model to Predict 90-Day Mortality among Patients Undergoing Hepatic Resection
No full textBACKGROUND: Reliable criteria to predict mortality after hepatectomy remain poorly defined. We sought to identify factors associated with 90-day mortality, as well as validate the "50-50" and peak bilirubin of >7 mg/dL prediction rules for mortality after liver resection. In addition, we propose a novel integer-based score for 90-day mortality using a large cohort of patients. STUDY DESIGN: Data from 2,056 patients who underwent liver resection at 2 major hepatobiliary centers between 1990 and 2011 were identified. Perioperative laboratory data, as well as surgical and postoperative details, were analyzed to identify factors associated with liver-related 90-day death. RESULTS: Indications for liver resection included colorectal metastasis (39%), hepatocellular carcinoma (19%), benign mass (17%), or noncolorectal metastasis (14%). Most patients had normal underlying liver parenchyma (71%) and resection involved >= 3 segments (36%). Overall morbidity and mortality were 19% and 2%, respectively. Only 1 patient fulfilled the 50-50 criteria; this patient survived and was discharged on day 8. Twenty patients had a peak bilirubin concentration >7 mg/dL and 5 died within 90 days; the sensitivity and specificity of the > 7-mg/dL rule were 25% and 99.3%, respectively, but overall accuracy was poor (area under the curve 0.574). Factors associated with 90-day mortality included international normalized ratio (odds ratio = 11.87), bilirubin (odds ratio = 1.16), and serum creatinine (odds ratio = 1.87) on postoperative day 3, as well as grade of postoperative complications (odds ratio = 5.08; all p = 11 points had a sensitivity and specificity of 83.3% and 98.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The 50-50 and bilirubin > 7-mg/dL rules were not accurate in predicting 90-day mortality. Rather, a composite integer-based risk score based on postoperative day 3 international normalized ratio, bilirubin, creatinine, and complication grade more accurately predicted 90-day mortality after hepatectomy. (J Am Coll Surg 2013; 216: 1049-1056. (C) 2013 by the American College of Surgeons
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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