Publications by authors named "C Heal"
Background And Objectives: Management of skin cancer comprises a substantial proportion of general practitioner (GP) workload in Australia. Flap and graft procedures below the knee have an increased risk of infection. Antibiotic resistance is a threat to global health, and any decision about antibiotic prophylaxis must balance adverse outcomes of antibiotic use with patient morbidity.
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- Stroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) is a common and serious complication after a stroke, leading to high mortality rates, prompting the need for effective diagnosis and treatment strategies.
- This study analyzed the National Early Warning Score (NEWS 2) and its components in 389 SAP patients to determine their relationship with time-to-mortality before starting antibiotics, revealing significant associations with respiratory rate and overall NEWS 2 score.
- Findings indicated that a higher respiratory rate and total NEWS 2 score are linked to increased mortality risk, suggesting the need for further research to improve treatment outcomes for SAP patients.
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on assessing the effectiveness of rapid point-of-care tests (POCT) for detecting group A streptococci (GAS) in patients with sore throats and evaluating GAS carrier rates in the wet tropics.* -
- Among 77 patients and 49 healthy controls, GAS carrier rates were found to be 8.3% in healthy children and 2.7% in adults, with high positive etiological predictive values (P-EPV) of 71% for children and 85% for adults.* -
- The negative etiological predictive values (N-EPV) were very high at 99% for both groups, suggesting that the test could effectively rule out GAS and help to
Clinical prediction rules for surgical site infection after minor surgery in general practice.
Aust J Gen Pract
September 2024
Background And Objectives: Surgical site infection (SSI) after dermatological surgery is associated with poor outcomes. Developing clinical prediction rules based on the predicted probability of infection might encourage guided prophylaxis and judicious prescribing. The purpose of this study was to develop a clinical prediction rule based on identified risk factors for SSI in a large general practice patient cohort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) inform health-care decisions. Unfortunately, some published RCTs contain false data, and some appear to have been entirely fabricated. Systematic reviews are performed to identify and synthesize all RCTs which have been conducted on a given topic.
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