Publications by authors named "Biccard B"

Article Synopsis
  • Mothers in Africa face a significantly higher risk of dying from complications after cesarean deliveries compared to high-income countries, primarily due to postpartum hemorrhage (PPH).
  • A survey conducted among anesthesiologists and obstetricians in 140 hospitals across Africa aimed to assess the readiness of these facilities to implement World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for preventing and treating PPH.
  • The survey found that while many hospitals had access to key medications like oxytocin and crystalloids, there were gaps in the availability of some critical treatments, such as heat-stable carbetocin and intrauterine balloon tamponades, highlighting the need for improved resources and training in PPH management.
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Article Synopsis
  • Access to safe surgery is a human right, but significant disparities exist between high-income and low-to-middle-income countries in terms of surgical care.* -
  • The LASOS-Peds study is a 14-day international research project exploring the rates of complications after pediatric surgeries in Latin America, focusing on both elective and emergency cases.* -
  • Approved by an Institutional Review Board, the findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared at international conferences, with the aim of improving pediatric surgical outcomes.*
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  • ERAS (Enhanced Recovery After Surgery) is a plan to help patients recover faster after surgery by reducing stress. Many places in rich countries use it, but there isn’t much information about it in Africa.
  • Researchers looked at studies from three African countries to see how well ERAS is being used and what problems they face.
  • They found some good results, like shorter hospital stays and less pain for patients, but also challenges like sticking to the ERAS plans and a need for more research. They suggest more hospitals should use ERAS and study it even more to see how it helps.
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Background: The average number of times a person will have surgery in their lifetime, and the amount of surgical healthcare resources they use, is unknown. Lifetime risk is a measure of the risk of an average person having a specific event within their lifetime. We report the lifetime risk of surgery and the change observed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Background: Myocardial injury after a hip fracture is common and has a poor prognosis. Patients with a hip fracture and myocardial injury may benefit from accelerated surgery to remove the physiological stress associated with the hip fracture. This study aimed to determine if accelerated surgery is superior to standard care in terms of the 90-day risk of death in patients with a hip fracture who presented with an elevated cardiac biomarker/enzyme measurement at hospital arrival.

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Surgical patients are often transfused to manage bleeding and anemia. Best practices for red blood cell (RBC) transfusion administration in patient having noncardiac surgery remains controversial and a robust evaluation and description of perioperative transfusion practices is lacking. We characterized perioperative hemoglobin concentrations and transfusion practices from the prospective VISION cohort which included 39,222 patients aged ≥45 years who had inpatient noncardiac surgery.

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Background: Low- and middle-income countries have a critical shortage of specialist anaesthetists. Most patients arriving for surgery are of low perioperative risk. Without immediate access to preoperative specialist care, an appropriate interim strategy may be to ensure that only high-risk patients are seen preoperatively by a specialist.

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Background: The African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS) found that maternal mortality following cesarean delivery in Africa is 50 times higher than in high-income countries, and associated with obstetric hemorrhage and anesthesia complications. Mothers who died were more likely to receive general anesthesia (GA). The associations between GA versus spinal anesthesia (SA) and preoperative risk factors, maternal anesthesia complications, and neonatal outcomes following cesarean delivery in Africa are unknown.

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Introduction: Patients undergoing vascular procedures are prone to developing postoperative complications affecting their short‑term mortality. Prospective reports describing the incidence of long‑term complications after vascular surgery are lacking.

Objectives: We aimed to describe the incidence of complications 1 year after vascular surgery and to evaluate an association between myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) and 1‑year mortality.

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Background: Improved access to healthcare in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has not equated to improved health outcomes. Absence or unsustained quality of care is partly to blame. Improving outcomes in intensive care units (ICUs) requires delivery of complex interventions by multiple specialties working in concert, and the simultaneous prevention of avoidable harms associated with the illness and the treatment interventions.

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Background: In previous analyses, myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery, major bleeding, and sepsis were independently associated with most deaths in the 30 days after noncardiac surgery, but most of these deaths occurred during the index hospitalization for surgery. The authors set out to describe outcomes after discharge from hospital up to 1 yr after inpatient noncardiac surgery and associations between predischarge complications and postdischarge death up to 1 yr after surgery.

Methods: This study was an analysis of patients discharged after inpatient noncardiac surgery in a large international prospective cohort study across 28 centers from 2007 to 2013 of patients aged 45 yr or older followed to 1 yr after surgery.

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Background: Improving women's health is a critical component of the sustainable development goals. Although obstetric outcomes in Africa have received significant focus, non-obstetric surgical outcomes for women in Africa remain under-examined.

Methods: We did a secondary analysis of the African Surgical Outcomes Study (ASOS) and International Surgical Outcomes Study (ISOS), two 7-day prospective observational cohort studies of outcomes after adult inpatient surgery.

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Objectives: To describe the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients in an HIV endemic, resourced constrained setting. To describe the incidence of VTE in relation to HIV status and anticoagulant therapy, and to evaluate VTE-associated cardio-respiratory changes. To establish the contribution of HIV, anticoagulation therapy and other risk factors to mortality.

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Background: Among patients having noncardiac surgery, perioperative hemodynamic abnormalities are associated with vascular complications. Uncertainty remains about what intraoperative blood pressure to target and how to manage long-term antihypertensive medications perioperatively.

Objective: To compare the effects of a hypotension-avoidance and a hypertension-avoidance strategy on major vascular complications after noncardiac surgery.

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Article Synopsis
  • Perioperative registries are essential for tracking surgical outcomes, developing risk assessment models, and informing evidence-based practices, especially in low-resource settings.
  • The study evaluated the necessity, challenges, and successful factors for creating these registries in regions facing high surgical demand and increased mortality rates compared to wealthier nations.
  • Findings revealed that to enhance registry implementation, it is crucial to involve local research teams and stakeholders, while addressing funding issues and ensuring data quality in order to improve surgical policies and patient care.
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Background: It is often difficult for clinicians in African low- and middle-income countries middle-income countries to access useful aggregated data to identify areas for quality improvement. The aim of this Delphi study was to develop a standardised perioperative dataset for use in a registry.

Methods: A Delphi method was followed to achieve consensus on the data points to include in a minimum perioperative dataset.

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Background: Provision of timely, safe, and affordable surgical care is an essential component of any high-quality health system. Increasingly, it is recognized that poor quality of care in the perioperative period (before, during, and after surgery) may contribute to significant excess mortality and morbidity. Therefore, improving access to surgical procedures alone will not address the disparities in surgical outcomes globally until the quality of perioperative care is addressed.

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