Publications by authors named "Armindo Fernandes"

Article Synopsis
  • The Portuguese clinical guidelines recommend 24 hours of hospital monitoring for patients with traumatic brain injuries, even when initial CT scans are normal, despite evidence suggesting this may be unnecessary and potentially harmful.
  • A study analyzed the costs and outcomes of this practice, comparing data from 440 patients admitted in 2022, where only 0.5% developed new intracranial lesions during a 24-hour observation period and one patient (0.2%) died from unrelated causes.
  • The current monitoring protocol cost €163,157, significantly more than the hypothetical scenario of discharging patients after an initial normal CT scan, which would have cost €29,480, highlighting a difference of €133,677.
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Background: During cardiac surgery, transcranial Doppler (TCD) represents a non-invasive modality that allows measurement of red blood cell flow velocities in the cerebral arteries. TCD can also be used to detect and monitor embolic material in the cerebral circulation. Detection of microemboli is reported as a high intensity transient signal (HITS).

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Objective: Evidence on timing for mobilization after chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) surgery is heterogeneous, and practices differ considerably among neurosurgical centers. The Impact of an Early Out-of-Bed Paradigm in Postoperative Outcomes of Chronic Subdural Hematomas: GET-UP Randomized Prospective Trial (GET-UP Trial) is a randomized clinical trial comparing a postoperative early mobilization protocol to bed rest. Previously reported results at clinical discharge and 1 month after surgery indicated a decreased risk of medical complications in the early mobilization group.

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Objective: Timing of mobilization after chronic subdural hematoma (cSDH) surgery is highly heterogeneous among neurosurgical centers. Past studies have suggested that early mobilization may reduce medical complications without increasing recurrence, but evidence remains scarce. The purpose of this study was to compare an early mobilization protocol with a 48-hour bed rest practice, with a focus on the occurrence of medical complications.

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Familial amyloid polyneuropathy with the substitution of methionine for valine at position 30 in the gene is the most common type of hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis. Although several authors have previously reported a size-dependent fibre loss, predominantly involving unmyelinated and small-diameter myelinated fibres, the mechanisms of nerve fibre loss have not been fully understood. In this study, we establish the morphometric pattern of peripheral neuropathy in patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy and asymptomatic mutation carriers in the biopsies from our archive and correlated the pathological findings with clinical features.

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Introduction: Chronic postoperative pain is the most frequent late complication of inguinal hernia repair surgery. The aim of this study is to evaluate the incidence of chronic post-hernioplasty pain in outpatient care at Centro Hospitalar do Porto, describe it, analyse its relation with other variables defined in the literature and study its functional interference.

Material And Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study between February and May 2016, using a structured telephone interview composed of questions from the authors and sections of published questionnaires, two of which are validated for the Portuguese language and culture.

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Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a common practice in our era. The medical technology used for cardiac surgery goes through rigorous testing to ensure its safety. Unfortunately, it is not fail proof.

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