General considerations

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-72

This chapter covers the general considerations in safely and effectively performing paediatric surgery. It starts with the ethical and legal requirements, including withdrawal of treatment, treating children in the Jehovah’s Witness faith, and safeguarding. It then outlines evidence-based medicine, including meta-analysis, statistics, and reporting trials. Transport of the sick child, anaesthesia, analgesia, intensive care, sepsis, and the use of antibiotics in children are all covered. Day-case surgery, from its history to indications, pre- and postoperative care, and proper documentation, is described. Pre-assessment, care of the neurologically impaired child, basics of vascular access and radiology, and nutrition in the surgical patient are all covered.

This new edition of the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Surgery is thoroughly revised with the latest guidelines, management algorithms, and guidance on decision-making. It features three new chapters, on day case surgery, remote and rural surgery, and emergency surgery. The book also offers surgically relevant anatomy and physiology, quick reference symbols, key diagrams, and a focus on evidence-based practice with key references throughout. It is thoroughly comprehensive, without sacrificing the clear, concise, and quick-reference style the Oxford Medical Handbooks are known for. Ultimately, the new edition provides an accessible pocket reference for surgical trainees, medical students, and all those involved in the care of the surgical patient.


2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Morris ◽  
E Hassin ◽  
M Borschmann

AbstractObjective:The safety of day-case tonsillectomy is widely documented in the literature; however, there are no evidence-based guidelines recommending patient characteristics that are incompatible with day-case tonsillectomy. This study aimed to identify which patients should be considered unsafe for day-case tonsillectomy based on the likelihood of needing critical intervention.Method:Retrospective review of 2863 tonsillectomy procedures performed at University Hospital Geelong from 1998 to 2014.Results:Of the patients, 7.81 per cent suffered a post-tonsillectomy complication and 4.15 per cent required intervention. The most serious complications, haemorrhage requiring a return to the operating theatre and airway compromise, occurred in 0.56 per cent and 0.11 per cent of patients respectively. The following patient characteristics were significantly associated with poorer outcomes: age of two years or less (p < 0.01), tonsillectomy indicated for neoplasm (p < 0.01) and quinsy (p < 0.05).Conclusion:The authors believe that all elective tonsillectomy patients should be considered for day-case surgery, with the following criteria necessitating overnight observation: age of two years or less; an indication for tonsillectomy of neoplasm or quinsy; and an American Society of Anesthesia score of more than 2.


Author(s):  
Paul Harrison ◽  
Philip Cowen ◽  
Tom Burns ◽  
Mina Fazel

‘Evidence-based approaches to psychiatry’ describes the application of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to psychiatric practice. The chapter covers the key processes in EBM, including the formulation of a clinically relevant question, the systematic search for high-quality evidence and the meta-analytic synthesis of data. It demonstrates how evidence-based approaches to psychiatry have led to important developments showing quantitative effects of different treatments through advanced meta-analysis of data from randomized trials. This has underpinned the development of clinical guidelines that have the aim of improving the reliability and quality of treatments that patients receive. The chapter also describes how meta-analyses should be critically reviewed, as well as their problems and limitations. Not all relevant questions in psychiatric research are susceptible to the quantitative approach offered by EBM, and the chapter also outlines how qualitative methodologies can play a key role in answering important questions related, for example, to the patient experience.


Author(s):  
Ann Merete Møller

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is defined as ‘The judicious use of the best current evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients’. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is meant to integrate clinical expertise with the best available research evidence and patient values. The purpose of EBM is to assist clinicians in making the best decisions. Practising EBM includes asking an answerable, well-defined clinical question, searching for information, critically appraising information retrieved, extracting data, synthesizing data, and making conclusions about the overall effect. The clinical question includes information of the following elements: the population, the intervention, and the clinically relevant outcomes in focus. The clinical question is a tool to make the focus of the question clearer, and an aid to build the following search strategy. A comprehensive and reproducible literature search is essential for conducting a high-quality and up-to-date search. The search should include all relevant clinical databases. Papers retrieved after the search must be critically appraised and evaluated for the risk of bias. Evidence-based methods are used in the production of systematic reviews, and the development of clinical guidelines. Whether a meta-analysis should be performed depends on the quality and nature of the extracted data. Practising EBM may be challenged by a lack of well-performed trials, various types of bias (including publication bias), and heterogeneity between existing trials. Several tools have been constructed to help the process; examples are the CONSORT statement, the PRISMA statement, and the AGREE instrument.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Cipriani ◽  
C. Barbui ◽  
C. Rizzo ◽  
G. Salanti

Standard meta-analyses are an effective tool in evidence-based medicine, but one of their main drawbacks is that they can compare only two alternative treatments at a time. Moreover, if no trials exist which directly compare two interventions, it is not possible to estimate their relative efficacy. Multiple treatments meta-analyses use a meta-analytical technique that allows the incorporation of evidence from both direct and indirect comparisons from a network of trials of different interventions to estimate summary treatment effects as comprehensively and precisely as possible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-39
Author(s):  
Maria A. Berezhnaya ◽  
V. G. Amcheslavskiy

This article includes studies which meet the requirements of evidence-based medicine and is written for resuscitation and intensive care unit staff. Articles from PubMed database were used in it. The review of the relevant literature is aimed at practitioners and nurses. These recommendations reflect the current scientific and clinical knowledge base. In everyday practice, the differences and limitations of thermal monitoring and the application of thermoregulatory effects in each individual patient should be taken into account. These recommendations should not be construed as a mandatory protocol of action, and the use of these recommendations does not guarantee a specific clinical outcome. There is no conflict of interest.


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