Development and demonstration of a data visualization platform of short-term guidelines for ambient air levels of benzene during disaster response in Houston, Texas.

Industrial disasters have caused hazardous air pollution and public health impacts. Response officials have developed limited exposure guidelines to direct them during the event; often, guidelines are outdated and may not represent relevant elevated-exposure periods. The 2019 Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) fire in Houston, Texas led to large-scale releases of benzene and presented a public health threat.

Novel Opiate-Free Anesthetic Technique for Major Urologic Procedures.

Objectives: We postulated that an opiate-free (OF) general anesthesia (GA) technique could adequately control a patient's pain without adversely affecting recovery. We compared patients undergoing major urologic procedures with and without opiate-based GA.

Methods: A propensity-matched analysis was performed comparing hospital length of stay, postoperative nausea and vomiting, ileus occurrence, postanesthesia care unit, and total opiate consumption, as well as sedation and hemodynamic variables.

Attitudes and Perceptions amongst Critical Care Physicians towards Handshake Antimicrobial Stewardship Rounds.

Rationale In an era of antimicrobial resistance, antimicrobial stewardship programs are tasked with reducing inappropriate use of antimicrobials in community and hospital settings. Intensive care units are unique, high-stakes environments where high usage of broad-spectrum antimicrobials is often seen. Handshake stewardship has emerged as an effective mode of prospective audit and feedback to help optimize antimicrobial usage, emphasizing an in-person approach to providing feedback.

An Evidence-Based Opioid-Free Anesthetic Technique to Manage Perioperative and Periprocedural Pain.

Background: The epidemic of opioid abuse is increasing, and the number of deaths secondary to opioid overdose is also increasing. Recent attention has focused on opioid prescribing and management of chronic pain. However, opioid use in perioperative and periprocedural patients, whether they have chronic pain or exhibit new persistent opioid abuse after a procedure, has received little attention.

Long-Term Cardiac Morbidity and Mortality in Patients With Aortic Valve Disease Following Liver Transplantation: A Case Matching Study.

Introduction: This retrospective study examined the role of aortic valve (AV) disease in patients who underwent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) to determine the incidence of postoperative cardiac morbidity and mortality when compared with a matched control group without AV disease.

Methods: Patients were included in the AV group if diagnosed with aortic stenosis (AS) or aortic regurgitation or had received AV replacement prior to OLT. The AV group (n = 53) was matched to a control group (n = 212) with the following preoperative variables: type of organ transplanted, age, gender, race, body mass index, MELD, redo-transplantation, preoperative renal replacement therapy, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, viral hepatitis, diabetes, and coronary artery disease.

Psychosocial resources and sleep disturbance before chemotherapy for gynecologic cancer.

Personal psychosocial resources (e.g., positive affect, social support, perceived mastery, meaning in life) are associated with better sleep in noncancer populations, but there have been few studies in cancer patients.

Sleep disruption in hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients: prevalence, severity, and clinical management.

Sleep disruption is common among hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) recipients, with over 50% of recipients experiencing sleep disruption pre-transplant, with up to 82% of patients experiencing moderate to severe sleep disruption during hospitalization for transplant and up to 43% after transplant. These rates of sleep disruption are substantially higher than what we see in the general population. Although sleep disruption can be distressing to patients and contribute to diminished quality of life, it is rarely discussed during clinical visits.