Introduction: Patient engagement is increasingly recognized as a key strategy to promote patient-centered care and accelerate health care improvements. Ensuring patient participation in improvement efforts is particularly important with stigmatized illnesses and marginalized populations. Despite the attention it has garnered, patient engagement is still not widely implemented and has not been well documented in global health literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtypical pulmonary carcinoid (APC) is a lung neuroendocrine neoplasm (NEN), whose treatment draws from management of gastrointestinal NENs and small-cell lung carcinoma. We present a patient with recurrent metastatic APC and persistent mediastinal lymphadenopathy refractory to cisplatin and etoposide. After pursuing alternative treatments, he returned with significant progression, including diffuse subcutaneous nodules, weight loss and worsening cough.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Corrective surgery for pectus excavatum often relies on the Haller index (HI), derived from chest roentgenograms or computed tomography; however, this exposes children to potentially unnecessary radiation. Our aim was to develop a novel three-dimensional (3D) optical imaging technique to accurately measure chest wall dimensions in a clinically relevant manner.
Methods: Patients with pectus excavatum were imaged using a 3D structured light scanner.
Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors are known to sometimes regress spontaneously or in response to treatment with antiinflammatory drugs. We present the case of a 13-year-old boy with an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the proximal duodenum, which regressed rapidly within days of an open surgical biopsy, resulting in perforation of the duodenum. Ketorolac was administered intravenously after the biopsy and is implicated as a potential cause of the rapid regression of the tumor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although treatment for nonperforated acute appendicitis is usually straightforward, the optimal treatment of patients with perforated appendicitis remains controversial.
Methods: Our institution performed a 2.5-year retrospective review of outcomes for postoperative treatment of perforated appendicitis.
Manpower limitations are occurring in residency programs because of fewer residency positions and increasing governmental regulations. This limitation prompted the development of a program to utilize pediatric nurse practitioners (PNPs) in our Department of Surgery. Two began in September 1989.
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