Publications by authors named "Altarrah Khaled"

Introduction: Despite of recent advancement in the burns wound management, burn wound infection (BWI) is still one of the major cause of burns mortality. Patients who survive their burns injury still suffers from BWI related complication like delayed wound healing and poor scarring. BWI has been treated by application of topical antimicrobial agents or systemic antibiotics.

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Background: Major thermal injury induces a complex pathophysiological state characterized by burn shock and hypercatabolism. Steroids are used to modulate these post-injury responses. However, the effects of steroids on acute post-burn outcomes remain unclear.

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Introduction: Burn-induced changes in the phenotype and function of neutrophils, cells which provide front-line protection against rapidly dividing bacterial infections, are emerging as potential biomarkers for the early prediction of sepsis. In a longitudinal study of adult burns patients, we recently demonstrated that a combined measurement of neutrophil phagocytic capacity, immature granulocyte (IG) count and plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) levels on the day of injury gave good discriminatory power for the prediction of later sepsis development. However, limited by a small sample size, single-centre design and focus on adult burns patients, these biomarkers require prospective validation in a larger patient cohort.

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Burn wound colonization can progress to invasive infection. During 14 years of this study, the burn center was relocated to a center with improved infrastructure. This study investigates the association that infrastructure, geography, and time may have on colonization.

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Pyogenic granuloma (PG) is a common vascular anomaly affecting the skin with occasional involvement of mucosa. Ophthalmic surgeons typically encounter these lesions as solitary, bright red, rapidly growing papules following surgery or trauma to the conjunctiva, e.g.

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Massive localized lymphedema of the abdomen is a rare condition resulting from a neglected lower abdominal pannus associated with significant disability and morbidity. Compared to other surgical procedures, postbariatric surgery is usually considered a financial drain. In the United Kingdom, this requires National Health Service approval and delays may lead to sequelae that adversely impact on patients' quality of life with increased morbidity.

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Obesity has become a world-wide pandemic and is considered a major risk factor for various diseases. Despite this, recent intriguing clinical observations have been made suggesting that being overweight has some advantages. Overweight and some obese patients were reported to have significantly lower all-cause mortality, described as the 'obesity paradox'.

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Objective: Surgery is a stressor that can be categorized by duration and severity and induces a systemic stress response that includes increased adrenal cortisol production. However, the precise impact of surgical stress on the cortisol response remains to be defined.

Design: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the cortisol stress response induced by surgery and to stratify this response according to different parameters.

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Vitamin D deficiency is common among the general population. It is also observed in up to 76% of critically ill patients. Despite the high prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in critical illness, vitamin D is often overlooked by medical staff as the clinical implications and consequences of vitamin D deficiency in acute contexts remain to be fully understood.

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Background: Mucormycosis is a rare, aggressive, and life-threatening infection that is caused by organisms belonging to the order Mucorales. It is usually acquired through direct means and virtually always affects immunocompromised patients with the port of entry reflecting the site of infection, in this case, cutaneous. Unlike other mucormycoses, patients affected by Apophysomyces elegans (A elegans) are known to be immunocompetent.

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