Introduction: Sepsis is a devastating postoperative consequence and carries a high mortality. The objective of this study was to examine a common general surgery procedure, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and identify risk factors which could potentially predict risk of sepsis preoperatively.
Methods: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database was queried from 2005-2012 for patients who developed sepsis postoperatively following laparoscopic ch
A healthy 37 year old multiparous woman presented to an emergency department with one day history of nausea, repeated vomiting, abdominal distension and obstipation. She had no previous history of abdominal surgery. On examination, she was reporting significant pain but was maintaining normal vital signs. Her abdomen was distended, with mild tenderness in the lower quadrants and hyperactive bowel sounds. The results of basic laboratory investigations (i.e., complete blood count, electrolyte pane
Introduction: A major complication of blunt thoracic trauma is arterial bleeding, often due to rib fracture and associated injury to an intercostal artery. Tube thoracostomy reliably adresses most bleeding, but many patients are left with retained hemothorax, adn are pron to re bleeding events. A variety of methods have been identified to deal with these injuries, including thoracotomy. Identification and ligation of a bleeding intercostal artery can be difficult during thoracotomy, particularly
Although common in children, intussusception in adults is rare. It accounts for approximately 5% of the total incidence of intussusception and less than 5% of cases of intestinal obstruction. In adults, approximately 90% of cases of intussusception are associated with a pathologic lesion, which typically functions as the lead point for the intussusceptum.
Our case is a 37 year old male, who was otherwise healthy with no prior abdominal operations, who presented with less than 24 hours of righ
Introduction: Overall mortality from diverticulitis has plateaued over the past decade. Case reports and small case series suggest patients with diverticular disease taking chronic corticosteroids are predisposed to perforation and their ability to contain early stages of perforation may be impaired. However, no large scale study has examined this population. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between chronic corticosteroid use and mortality in patients with acute diverticuliti