Publications by authors named "Courtney Pokrzywa"

Introduction: Older age is a well-established risk factor for withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WDLST) and discharge to hospice (DH) in traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, a paucity of data exists in identifying factors associated with end-of-life (EoL) care in younger patients with TBI. We sought to identify hospital and patient factors associated with EoL care and timing of EoL care in younger adults with severe TBI.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the safety of observing patients with small concurrent traumatic hemopneumothorax (HPTX), finding that 74% of patients were managed with observation instead of immediate tube thoracostomy (TT).
  • Results indicate that patients under observation experienced lower rates of pulmonary complications and shorter hospital stays compared to those who underwent early TT.
  • However, observation had a notable failure rate, with many patients needing further intervention, but those who did fail showed outcomes similar to those who got immediate TT.
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Article Synopsis
  • Recurrent pneumothorax (rPTX) is a common issue after removing thoracostomy tubes in chest trauma patients, and traditional chest X-rays (CXR) are used to detect it, but bedside ultrasound (UPUS) offers a low-cost, radiation-free alternative.
  • A study with 92 patients aimed to determine the best timing for UPUS after tube removal, revealing that ultrasound performed at 3 hours post-removal had the highest sensitivity for detecting clinically concerning rPTX.
  • The findings suggest that rPTX size stabilizes by 4 hours, indicating that if no symptoms are present, further imaging beyond this timeframe may not be necessary.*
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Introduction: The Traumatic Brain Injury - Patient Reported Outcome (TBI-PRO) model was previously derived to predict long-term patient satisfaction as assessed by the Quality of Life After Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) score. The aim of this study is to externally and prospectively validate the TBI-PRO model to predict long-term patient-reported outcomes and to derive a new model using a larger dataset of older adults with TBI.

Methods: Patients admitted to a Level I trauma center with TBI were prospectively followed for 1 y after injury.

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Background: Tiered trauma team activation (TTA) allows systems to optimally allocate resources to an injured patient. Target undertriage and overtriage rates of <5% and <35% are difficult for centers to achieve, and performance variability exists. The objective of this study was to optimize and externally validate a previously developed hospital trauma triage prediction model to predict the need for emergent intervention in 6 hours (NEI-6), an indicator of need for a full TTA.

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Background: Traumatic rib fracture is associated with a high morbidity rate and identifying patients at risk of developing pulmonary complications (PC) can guide management and potentially decrease unnecessary intensive care admissions. Therefore, we sought to assess and compare the utility of a physiologic parameter, vital capacity (VC), with the admission radiologic findings (RibScore) in predicting PC in patients with rib fractures.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective review (2015-2018) of all adult (≥18 years) patients admitted to a Level I trauma center with traumatic rib fracture.

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Introduction: Patients with colorectal peritoneal metastases (CRPM) are increasingly treated with cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC). Unfortunately, data identifying preoperative risk factors for poor oncologic outcomes after this procedure are limited. We aimed to determine the prognostic value of preoperative CEA, CA 125, and CA 19-9 on disease progression after CRS/HIPEC.

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Background: Non-aortic arterial injuries are common and are associated with high morbidity and mortality. Historically, open surgical repair (OSR) was the conventional method of repair. With recent advancements in minimally invasive techniques, endovascular repair (ER) has gained popularity.

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Introduction: The American Board of Surgery is transitioning from a volume-based to a competency-based assessment of residents using Entrustable Professional Activities. This form of feedback and evaluation should also apply to operative procedures to help residents track their own progress. We describe an operative readiness tool that measures perceived competency in trainees across several operative, procedural, and clinical activities.

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Background: Understanding the expectations of early career acute care surgeons will help clarify the practice and employment models that will attract and retain high-quality surgeons, thereby sustaining our workforce. This study aimed to outline the clinical and academic preferences and priorities of early career acute care surgeons and to better define full-time employment.

Methods: A survey on clinical responsibilities, employment preferences, work priorities, and compensation was distributed to early career acute care surgeons in the first 5 years of practice.

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Introduction: The decision to withdraw life sustaining treatment (WDLST) in older adults with traumatic brain injury is subject to wide variability leading to nonbeneficial interventions and unnecessary use of hospital resources. We hypothesized that patient and hospital factors are associated with WDLST and WDLST timing.

Methods: All traumatic brain injury patients ≥65 with Glasgow coma scores (GCS) of 4-11 from 2018 to 2019 at level I and II centers were selected from the National Trauma Data Bank.

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Background: Patients undergoing surgical procedures are at an increased risk of venous thromboembolism events. A fixed Enoxaparin dosing regimen is the standard of care for chemoprophylaxis in most institutions; however, breakthrough venous thromboembolism events are still reported. We aimed to systematically review the literature to determine the ability of various Enoxaparin dosing regimens to achieve adequate prophylactic anti-Xa levels for venous thromboembolism prevention in hospitalized general surgery patients.

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Objectives: Early pelvic binder placement in the field stabilizes pelvic fractures and tamponades potential hemorrhage within the pelvis. Despite known risk factors for pelvic fracture, it remains challenging to quickly triage and correctly apply a pelvic binder. We aim to develop a prediction model that exclusively uses prehospital criteria to inform the decision to place a pelvic binder.

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Background: Rates of venous thromboembolism (VTE) remain high in emergency general surgery (EGS) patients despite chemical VTE prophylaxis. Emerging literature supports anti-factor Xa (AFXa) monitoring for patients on enoxaparin (LMWH), although a significant knowledge gap remains regarding the optimal dosing and monitoring in EGS patients. We hypothesize that standard dose VTE prophylaxis regimens provide inadequate VTE prophylaxis in EGS patients.

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Background: Cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC) is increasingly performed for peritoneal surface malignancies but remains associated with significant morbidity. Scant research is available regarding the impact of insurance status on postoperative outcomes.

Methods: Patients undergoing CRS/HIPEC between 2000 and 2017 at 12 participating sites in the US HIPEC Collaborative were identified.

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Background: Observative management of small traumatic pneumothoraces (PTX) has been shown to decrease chest tube utilization in non-mechanically ventilated patients without compromising outcomes. This approach could be used in mechanically ventilated (MV) patients, though many feel these patients are at increased risk of observation failure.

Methods: A single center retrospective study of all adults undergoing observation of a computed tomography (CT) diagnosed PTX from 2015-2019.

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Introduction: The long-term prognosis of patients who undergo cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for peritoneal surface malignancies (PSM) varies considerably on the basis of histological and operative factors. While overall survival (OS) estimates are used to inform adjuvant therapy and surveillance strategies, conditional survival may provide more clinically relevant estimates of prognosis by accounting for disease-free time elapsed.

Patients And Methods: All patients from 12 academic institutions who underwent CRS ± HIPEC for PSM from 2000 to 2017 were retrospectively analyzed.

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Background: Estimation of long-term quality of life in patients sustaining Traumatic brain injuries is a difficult but important task during the early hospitalization. There are very limited tools to assess these outcomes, therefore we aimed to develop a predictive model for quality-of-life that could be used in hospitalized adults with TBIs.

Methods: The TRACK-TBI dataset was used to identify adult patients with TBI from 2014 to 2018.

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Background: Prognostication based on preoperative clinical factors is lacking in patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC). This study aims to determine the value of preoperative tumor markers as predictors of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from a primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix (MACA).

Methods: We queried the United States HIPEC Collaborative, a database of patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis treated with CRS/HIPEC at twelve institutions between 2000 and 2017, identifying 409 patients with MACA.

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Background: While recent studies have introduced the composite measure of a textbook outcome (TO) for measuring postoperative outcomes, the incidence of a TO has not been characterized among patients undergoing cytoreductive surgery (CRS) for peritoneal surface malignancies (PSM).

Study Design: All patients who underwent CRS ± hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) between 1999 and 2017 from 12 institutions were included. A TO was defined as the absence of any of the following criteria: completeness of cytoreduction >1, reoperation within 90-days, readmission within 90-days, mortality within 90-days, any grade ≥2 complication, hospital stay >75th percentile, and non-home discharge.

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Introduction: CRS/HIPEC is thought to confer a survival advantage for patients with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (MPM). However, the impact of nonperitoneal organ resection is not clearly defined. We evaluated the impact of major organ resection (MOR) on postoperative outcomes and overall survival (OS).

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Introduction: Mucinous appendiceal carcinoma is a rare malignancy that commonly spreads to the peritoneum leading to peritoneal metastases. Complete cytoreduction with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (PIC) is the mainstay of treatment, administered as either hyperthermic intra peritoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) or early post-operative intraperitoneal chemotherapy (EPIC). Our goal was to assess the perioperative and long term survival outcomes associated with these two PIC methods.

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Background: While parenchymal hepatic metastases were previously considered a contraindication to cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC), liver resection (LR) is increasingly performed with CRS/HIPEC.

Methods: Patients from the US HIPEC Collaborative (2000-2017) with invasive appendiceal or colorectal adenocarcinoma undergoing primary, curative intent CRS/HIPEC with CC0-1 resection were included. LR was defined as a formal parenchymal resection.

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Background: Cytoreductive surgery (CRS) with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for peritoneal carcinomatosis can be performed in two ways: Open or closed abdominal technique.

Aim: To evaluate the impact of HIPEC method on post-operative and long-term survival outcomes.

Methods: Patients undergoing CRS with HIPEC from 2000-2017 were identified in the United States HIPEC collaborative database.

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Background: Postoperative complications (POCs) are associated with worse oncologic outcomes in various cancer histologies. The impact of POCs on the survival of patients with appendiceal or colorectal cancer after cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is unknown.

Methods: The US HIPEC Collaborative (2000-2017) was reviewed for patients who underwent CCR0/1 CRS/HIPEC for appendiceal/colorectal cancer.

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