A Warm Water Immersion Intervention for Symptoms of PTSD in Military Veterans: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.

Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a substantial problem for Veterans and active members of armed forces across the globe, resulting in debilitating mental and physical comorbidities. Evidence-based treatments have demonstrated some success; however, many Veterans remain symptomatic mandating the urgent need for innovative treatment strategies.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of military Veterans with PTSD symptoms who participated in a therapeutic warm water immersion intervention aimed at reducing their symptoms.

Infant and parent heart rates during a babywearing procedure: Evidence for autonomic coregulation.

Babywearing is the practice of carrying an infant in a baby carrier, which may provide an inexpensive, nonpharmacological intervention for the parent-infant dyads to handle mental stressors, such as pain and anxiety, especially among vulnerable infants. This study investigated the influence of babywearing on parent-infant autonomic coregulation based on the changes in the HR of mother-infant and father-infant dyads for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Guided by the Calming Cycle Theory as the framework, the correlation between parent HR and infant HR and the difference in the mother-infant dyad (n = 17) compared to the father-infant dyad (n = 8) were examined.

Use of External Uterine Electromyography Across Stage I Labor.

Introduction: Highly sensitive, external uterine electromyography (EMG) measures myometrial electrical activity and is noninvasive compared with the clinical intrauterine pressure catheter. Most experimental studies have measured EMG in 30-minute epochs, limiting the utility of this instrumentation in intrapartum clinical practice. To test proof of concept, surface uterine EMG contraction activity was continuously collected throughout the first stage of labor from healthy women at term gestation with (n = 3) and without (n = 1) epidural or combined spinal-epidural analgesia for a maximal length of 11 hours and 24 minutes.

Spatial variations in family planning demand to limit childbearing and the demand satisfied with modern methods in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: There is an increasing demand for family planning to limit childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, limited studies have quantified the spatial variations. This study examined: (i) the spatial patterns in the demand for family planning to limit childbearing and satisfied with modern methods, and (ii) the correlates of the demand for family planning to limit childbearing satisfied with modern methods in SSA.

Intrauterine contraction parameters at baseline and following epidural and combined spinal-epidural analgesia: A repeated measures comparison.

Objective: The effects of epidural and combined spinal-epidural analgesia on uterine contraction parameters are unclear, although as many as 80% of laboring women use neuraxial analgesia. We explored the effects of epidural and combined spinal-epidural analgesia on all uterine contraction parameters using a retrospective analysis of selected parturients, who required Intrauterine Pressure Catheter (IUPC) instrumentation for clinical management. Additionally, we analyzed the effects of parity, Pitocin dose, and mode of neuraxial anesthesia, i.

Individual- and country-level correlates of female permanent contraception use in sub-Saharan Africa.

Background: Female permanent contraception is a cost-effective contraceptive method that can help clients with the desire to limit childbearing achieve their reproductive intention. However, despite its benefits, the use of FPC remains low in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and limited studies have examined the correlates of its uptake. In this study, we assessed the individual- and country-level factors associated with the use of FPC among married or in-union women using modern contraceptive methods to limit childbearing in SSA.

Uterine Contraction Parameters Before and During the Pre-Epidural Fluid Bolus: A Pilot Study.

Background: The first stage of labor is significantly longer with epidural analgesia use, implying an alteration in uterine contractility. Although the pre-epidural fluid bolus is used with every epidural and affects as many as 80% of laboring women, its effects on uterine contraction parameters are unknown.

Design: Using a retrospective descriptive repeated measures design, we compared uterine contraction parameters including frequency, duration, peak intensity, resting tone, and Montevideo units at baseline and during the intravascular pre-epidural fluid bolus (Bolus) epochs for healthy laboring women at term gestation undergoing augmentation or induction.

Culture, bathing and hydrotherapy in labor: An exploratory descriptive pilot study.

Objective: Though bathing (hydrotherapy) is widely used during labor to decrease anxiety and pain and to promote relaxation, the influence of cultural beliefs about bathing by parturients is virtually unknown. This pilot study explored pregnant women's experiences of bathing, bathing in labor, and cultural beliefs about bathing.

Design: An exploratory, descriptive design.

Cortisol as a biomarker of stress in term human labor: physiological and methodological issues.

Literature on the use of plasma cortisol to quantify psychophysiological stress in humans is extensive. However, in parturition at term gestation, the use of cortisol as a biomarker of stress is particularly complex. Plasma cortisol levels increase as labor progresses.

Initial predictors associated with outcome in injured multiple traumatic limb amputations: a Kandahar-based combat hospital experience.

Introduction: Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are the defining mechanism of injury during Operation Enduring Freedom. This is a retrospective analysis of initial management for IED blast injuries presenting with bilateral, traumatic, lower-extremity (LE) amputations with and without pelvic and perineal involvement.

Methods: A database of trauma admissions presenting to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Role 3 combat hospital in southern Afghanistan over a 7-month period was created to evaluate the care of this particular injury pattern.

Multidisciplinary trauma team care in Kandahar, Afghanistan: current injury patterns and care practices.

Multidisciplinary trauma care systems have been shown to improve patient outcomes. Medical care in support of the global war on terror has provided opportunities to refine these systems. We report on the multidisciplinary trauma care system at the Role III Hospital at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan.

The effects of hydrotherapy on anxiety, pain, neuroendocrine responses, and contraction dynamics during labor.

Background: Hydrotherapy (immersion or bathing) is used worldwide to promote relaxation and decrease parturient anxiety and pain in labor, but the psychophysiological effects of this intervention remain obscure.

Design: A pretest-posttest design with repeated measures was used to examine the effects of hydrotherapy on maternal anxiety and pain, neuroendocrine responses, plasma volume shift (PVS), and uterine contractions (CXs) during labor. Correlations among variables were examined at three time points (preimmersion and twice during hydrotherapy).

The epidemiology of dog attacks in an urban environment and the risk of vascular injury.

We performed this study to determine the associated injuries after dog attacks and determine the incidence of vascular injury (VI) and potential associated factors. The registry at our Level I center was queried for admissions after dog bites between January 1,1992 and June 30, 2008. Demographic, injury, and outcome data were studied.

Organometallic control at the nanoscale: a new, one-pot method to decorate a magnetic nanoparticle surface with noble metal atoms.

A novel cascade of reactions is designed to control in situ the deposition of noble metal islands (e.g. Rh) on top of nanoparticles of a 3d metal (e.

Iliac artery injuries and pelvic fractures: a national trauma database analysis of associated injuries and outcomes.

Background: Although infrequent, injury to the common or external iliac artery in association with pelvic fractures can be devastating, and descriptive data are lacking. This study was performed to determine the incidence, injury patterns, and outcomes of blunt iliac artery injuries (BIAIs) in association with moderate or severe pelvic fractures.

Methods: Patients with moderate or severe pelvic fractures (abbreviated injury score of 3 or 4) were identified from the National Trauma Databank.

Prospective evaluation of a predictive model of mortality in patients with isolated head injury.

Background: In a previous retrospective study, we developed a predictive model of survival in isolated head injuries based on easily available parameters such as age, mechanism of injury, Glasgow Coma Scale, and head Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). The purpose of the present study is to prospectively evaluate this predictive model.

Methods: Isolated head injuries admitted to a Level I urban trauma center were prospectively accrued from May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007.

Outcomes of blunt assault at a level I trauma center.

Background: Physical assault is common in trauma patients. Penetrating injuries resulting from interpersonal violence have been well described in literature, but there have been few studies examining the injury patterns due to assaults with hands and feet or blunt instruments.

Methods: The Trauma Registry of an American College of Surgeons Level I center was queried for all patients with an E-code diagnosis of assault by hands and feet or blunt instrument for the period of January 1, 1992 to September 30, 2005.

Blunt assault is associated with failure of nonoperative management of the spleen independent of organ injury grade and despite lower overall injury severity.

Objective: Nonoperative management (NOM) of blunt splenic injuries has become standard of care for its high success rate. We observe that many blunt assault (BA) patients fail NOM despite lower overall injury severity. We performed this study to determine whether BA is independently associated with failed initial NOM (FiNOM) of splenic injuries.

Coagulopathy in severe traumatic brain injury: a prospective study.

Background: The incidence and risk factors for traumatic brain injury (TBI)-associated coagulopathy after severe TBI (sTBI) and the effect of this complication on outcomes have not been evaluated in any large prospective studies.

Methods: Prospective study of all patients admitted to the surgical intensive care unit (ICU) of an urban, Level I trauma center from June 2005 through May 2007 with sTBI (head Abbreviated Injury Scale score of >or=3). Criteria for TBI-coagulopathy included a clinical condition consistent with coagulopathy, i.

Waterproofing EMG Instrumentation.

While still experimental, measurement of external uterine electromyographic (EMG) activity is a more sensitive and noninvasive method for measuring uterine contractility in human labor than the methods currently used in clinical practice. Hydrotherapy is purported to improve contractility in labor, yet there have been no reports of abdominal uterine EMG activity measured during immersion. To test telemetric EMG equipment and different waterproofing techniques under dry and immersed conditions, the authors recorded surface EMG activity from the abdominal muscles of 11 healthy, nonpregnant women, 22 to 51 years of age.

Structure of assemblies of metal nanowires in mesoporous alumina membranes studied by EXAFS, XANES, X-ray diffraction and SAXS.

Mesoporous alumina membranes ("anodic aluminium oxide", or "AAO") are made by anodic oxidation of aluminium metal. These membranes contain hexagonal arrays of parallel non-intersecting cylindrical pores perpendicular to the membrane surface. By varying the anodisation voltage, the pore diameters are controllable within the range 5-250 nm.

Magnetic nanoparticles through organometallic synthesis: evolution of the magnetic properties from isolated nanoparticles to organised nanostructures.

Co and NiFe nanoparticles (2.7 to 3.3 nm mean diameter) of narrow size distribution have been obtained through the decomposition of organometallic precursors in organic solutions of long alkyl chain ligands, namely oleic acid and hexadecylamine.

Hydrotherapy in labor.

Purpose: To review the literature on hydrotherapy in labor to direct prescription of the intervention and design studies to test its effectiveness.

Methods: Studies of hydrotherapy were identified via searching literature and electronic databases.

Findings: A primary effect of immersion is a central blood volume bolus, which occurs almost immediately after bathing begins.