Evaluating the Use of Dexamethasone in Diabetic Patients Undergoing Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis.

Background: The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons strongly recommends the use of dexamethasone in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty due to its therapeutic effects. However, use in diabetic patients is controversial due to safety. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine safety: (1) calculating the postoperative glucose levels; (2) finding the ideal dexamethasone dosing regimen; and (3) reporting complications of dexamethasone administration in diabetic patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty.

Cancer Nursing Frameworks to Guide Clinical Capability, Education and Careers: A Scoping Review of the International Literature.

Aim: This review aimed to provide a current global profile of all existing cancer nursing competency, capability, education and career frameworks and map capabilities and competencies to the clinical, facilitation of education, management and research pillars of practice.

Design: Scoping review.

Data Sources: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos, Google Scholar, Medline, and PubMed.

The role of the gut microbiome in regulating the response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have revolutionised cancer therapy, yet the proportion of patients who achieve long-term disease control remain suboptimal. Over the past decade, the gut microbiome has been shown to influence immune-mediated tumour suppression as well as responses to ICI therapies. Compositional differences in gut microbiome may account for the differences in outcomes from immune checkpoint blockade.

Poor vaccine responders mask the true trend in vaccine effectiveness against progression to severe disease.

Vaccines can reduce an individual's risk of infection and their risk of progression to severe disease given infection. The latter effect is less commonly estimated but is relevant for vaccine impact modeling and cost-effectiveness calculations. Using a motivating example from the COVID-19 literature, we note how vaccine effectiveness against progression to severe disease can appear to increase from below 0 % to over 70 % within 8 months.

Sequential auditory grouping reduces binaural pitch fusion in listeners with normal hearing, hearing aids, and cochlear implantsa).

Binaural pitch fusion, the perceptual integration of dichotically presented stimuli that evoke different pitches, can be considered a type of simultaneous grouping. Hence, auditory streaming cues such as temporally flanking stimuli that promote sequential grouping might compete with simultaneous dichotic grouping to reduce binaural fusion. Here, we measured binaural pitch fusion using an auditory streaming task in normal-hearing listeners and hearing-impaired listeners with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants.

Current era HOLEP with MOSES 2.0 technology compared to the gold standard TURP.

Purpose: Bipolar TURP is regarded as the gold standard for treatment of BPH. Historically, when compared to HOLEP, bTURP has been found to have shorter operative times and is considered more efficient. We sought to compare the efficiency, efficacy, and safety of current era HOLEP with MOSES 2.

The TIRS trial: Enrollment procedures and baseline characterization of a pediatric cohort to quantify the epidemiologic impact of targeted indoor residual spraying on Aedes-borne viruses in Merida, Mexico.

Aedes mosquito-borne viruses (ABVs) place a substantial strain on public health resources in the Americas. Vector control of Aedes mosquitoes is an important public health strategy to decrease or prevent spread of ABVs. The ongoing Targeted Indoor Residual Spraying (TIRS) trial is an NIH-sponsored clinical trial to study the efficacy of a novel, proactive vector control technique to prevent dengue virus (DENV), Zika virus (ZIKV), and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infections in the endemic city of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico.

A qualitative study on the experiences of women undergoing surgery for developmental breast asymmetry.

Background: Developmental breast asymmetry (DBA) is a largely underreported condition where the natural growth of one breast is smaller than the other. While some degree of asymmetry or difference in size and shape is present in most women, DBA can result in more profound differences that can impact a woman's psychosocial well-being.

Objectives: This study aims to better understand the experiences of women living with DBA, their experiences seeking treatment, and their reconstructive surgical journey and outcomes.

To Hold or Continue Blood Thinners? A Retrospective Analysis on Outcomes of Holmium Laser Enucleation of the Prostate in Patients Who Either Held or Continued Antiplatelet/Anticoagulation Therapy.

Objective: To compare the outcomes between those who held or continued antiplatelet or anticoagulation therapy (APAC) for holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients on APAC who underwent HoLEP between January 2021 and August 2023 by a single surgeon at a high-volume center. APAC was further categorized to the specific medication: clopidogrel, apixaban, warfarin, rivaroxaban.

Outcomes of a Single Transverse Chest Roll for Prone Positioning Technique During Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy.

Objective: To compare anesthetic parameters using a novel prone single transverse chest roll technique (STR) to the standard thoraco-pelvic dual transverse roll technique (DTR).

Methods: A retrospective review of 441 patients who underwent PCNL between 2018 and 2022 was performed. A total of 4 surgeons were included-surgeon 1 utilized the STR technique while surgeons 2, 3, and 4 used the DTR technique.

Severity-dependent test-seeking behaviors and test-negative designs: impact on estimated vaccine effectiveness and utility of analytic and design choices.

Test-negative designs are increasingly used to evaluate vaccine effectiveness because of desirable properties like reduced confounding due to healthcare-seeking behaviors and lower cost compared to other study designs. An individual's decision to seek care often depends on their disease severity, with severe disease more likely to be captured than mild disease. As many vaccines likely attenuate disease severity, this phenomenon generally results in an upward-biased estimate of vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease.

Do Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PIRADS) lesions predict holmium laser enucleation of prostate outcomes?

Introduction And Objectives: Prostate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used for prostate cancer (PCa) screening and risk stratification and is helpful for surgical planning for patients undergoing holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP). There are few studies investigating the correlation between MRI Prostate Imaging-Reporting and Data System (PIRADS) lesion characteristics and HoLEP pathology and outcomes.

Methods: We performed retrospective review of patients who underwent HoLEP between January 2021 and August 2023 by a single surgeon.

Ureteric wall thickness as a novel predictor for failed retrograde ureteric stent placement.

Introduction: We sought to identify predictors of failed retrograde ureteric stent (FRS) placement in the setting of obstructing ureteric calculi. In addition to patient- and stone-specific characteristics, we also considered computed tomography (CT) measures of ureteric wall thickness (UWT), as it has shown clinical potential in predicting outcomes of shockwave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy, and spontaneous stone passage.

Methods: We performed a retrospective, case-control study comparing patients who had successful retrograde stent (SRS) insertions with those who failed stent placement and ultimately required nephrostomy tube (NT) insertion (2013-2019).

Revisiting the effects of maternal education on adolescents' academic performance: Doubly robust estimation in a network-based observational study.

In many contexts, particularly when study subjects are adolescents, peer effects can invalidate typical statistical requirements in the data. For instance, it is plausible that a student's academic performance is influenced both by their own mother's educational level as well as that of their peers. Since the underlying social network is measured, the Add Health study provides a unique opportunity to examine the impact of maternal college education on adolescent school performance, both direct and indirect.

Association of Preoperative Patient Resilience With Postoperative Patient-Reported Outcomes and Sleep Quality Following Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair: A Systematic Review.

Recent studies have shown that low preoperative resilience may lead to inferior outcomes following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review is to evaluate whether preoperative patient resilience is associated with outcome measures, including patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs) and sleep quality, following arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. To perform the review, a literature search was conducted according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines using the PubMed and Embase databases to gather studies related to the influence of preoperative resilience on postoperative outcomes of rotator cuff repair.

Effectiveness of the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines against severe COVID-19 among adults 40 years or older in Brazil: a population-based cohort study.

Background: The emergence of COVID-19 variants with immune scape and the waning of primary vaccine schemes effectiveness have prompted many countries to indicate first and second booster COVID-19 vaccine doses to prevent severe COVID-19. However, current available evidence on second booster dose effectiveness are mostly limited to high-income countries, older adults, and mRNA-based vaccination schemes scenarios. We aimed to investigate the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of the fourth dose compared to three doses for severe COVID-19 outcomes in Brazil; and compare the rVE of a fourth dose with an mRNA vaccine compared to adenovirus-based product in the same settings.

Five-Year Outcomes among U.S. Bronchiectasis and NTM Research Registry Patients.

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are prevalent among patients with bronchiectasis. However, the long-term natural history of patients with NTM and bronchiectasis is not well described. To assess the impact of NTM on 5-year clinical outcomes and mortality in patients with bronchiectasis.