Publications by authors named "Graber S"

Purpose/objective: The transition from childhood to adulthood often involves emotional challenges. These problems may be especially prominent for transition-age adults (TAA) with pediatric-onset disabilities, although there are currently few studies that speak to this. The aim of this study is to characterize depressive symptoms and the association with family functioning in a sample of TAA with pediatric-onset disabilities.

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Objective: We aim to describe health care, vocational, and educational transitions in young adults with pediatric-onset disabilities and to examine the associations with social determinants of health and depressive symptoms.

Design: This cross-sectional study used multinomial and binary logistic regression to examine the associations of sociodemographic factors and depressive symptoms with health care, educational, and vocational transitions.

Setting: Participants were recruited from outpatient specialty clinics in a rehabilitation medicine department at a quaternary academic children's hospital.

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Purpose: Antibiotics are often only available in predefined pack sizes, which may not align with guideline recommendations. This can result in leftover pills, leading to inappropriate self-medication or waste disposal, which can both foster the development of antibiotic resistance. The magnitude of inappropriate pack sizes is largely unknown.

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Background: Integrated care models (ICMs) might be an effective strategy to improve patients' quality of care. The aim of this study was to compare different ICMs such as family-doctor models, and a standard care model (SCM) regarding patients' drug safety in Swiss primary care.

Methods: We performed an observational study using health insurance claims data from patients who were continuously enrolled in an ICM or in a SCM between 2020 and 2021.

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Objective: The primary objective of this study was to determine the frequency and nature of complications that occur during intrathecal baclofen (ITB) therapy, including nonsurgical complications as well as complications associated with both implantation surgeries and subsequent revisions.

Methods: The authors retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients who had baclofen pumps implanted at a tertiary children's hospital from 2006 through June 2019. The study employed appropriate descriptive statistics and statistical models to analyze patient demographics, improvements in tone, and clinical complications.

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BackgroundIn Europe and other high-income countries, antibiotics are mainly prescribed in the outpatient setting, which consists of primary, specialist and hospital-affiliated outpatient care. Established surveillance platforms report antimicrobial consumption (AMC) on aggregated levels and the contribution of the different prescriber groups is unknown.AimTo determine the contribution of different prescribers to the overall outpatient AMC in Switzerland.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed the use of prescribed medications among pregnant women in Switzerland from 2015 to 2021 using the Helsana claims database, focusing on various periods such as pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum.
  • A significant finding was that 87.5% of the 34,584 participants claimed at least one drug during pregnancy, with 33.3% claiming five or more, highlighting a higher drug usage compared to pre-pregnancy and a similar rate postpartum.
  • The research emphasizes the need for careful consideration of the safety and effectiveness of prescribed drugs for pregnant women, as many of the most frequently prescribed medications differ from those typically used before or after pregnancy.
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  • Transient hyperphosphatasemia (TH) is a harmless condition noted in healthy young children, characterized by elevated alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels, usually returning to normal within four months.* -
  • A 12-month-old girl was identified with TH after presenting with some gastrointestinal symptoms and an elevated ALP level of 2379 IU/L; other serious conditions were considered but ruled out.* -
  • The report highlights the importance of recognizing TH to prevent unnecessary medical tests, as it is typically managed through observation and monitoring ALP levels.*
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N-Nitrosamine impurities, including nitrosamine drug substance-related impurities (NDSRIs), have challenged pharmaceutical industry and regulators alike and affected the global drug supply over the past 5 years. Nitrosamines are a class of known carcinogens, but NDSRIs have posed additional challenges as many lack empirical data to establish acceptable intake (AI) limits. Read-across analysis from surrogates has been used to identify AI limits in some cases; however, this approach is limited by the availability of robustly-tested surrogates matching the structural features of NDSRIs, which usually contain a diverse array of functional groups.

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Introduction: At our institution, revascularization after indirect moyamoya surgery is routinely evaluated using magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) rather than catheter angiography. In this paper, we review how revascularization can be visualized on axial MRA and compare its visualization on MRA to that on catheter angiography. We also compare clinical outcomes of patients followed with routine postoperative MRA with outcomes of patients followed with routine catheter angiography.

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Background: Prostate cancer (PC) is the most prevalent cancer in men in Switzerland. However, evidence on the real-world health care use of PC patients is scarce. The aim of this study is to describe health care utilization, treatment patterns, and medical costs in PC patients over a period of five years (2014-2018).

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  • Data on the impact of chemotherapy on fertility (gonadotoxicity) is crucial for advising young cancer patients about infertility risks and fertility preservation options, but recent studies on bone cancer have been lacking.
  • A systematic review included 11 relevant studies since 2000, revealing that a significant percentage of male patients (52.2% for osteosarcoma and 89.5% for Ewing's sarcoma) showed signs of suspected infertility, while female patients had lower rates (5.1% for osteosarcoma and 13.0% for Ewing's).
  • The studies revealed that Ewing’s sarcoma patients, particularly those receiving alkylating-agent chemotherapy, had a higher risk of infertility; however
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Objective: Updated report about the randomized comparison of the effect of radiotherapy on painful osteoarthritis (OA) applying a standard dose vs. a very low dose regime after a follow-up of 1 year.

Patients And Methods: Patients presenting with OA of the hand/finger and knee joints were included.

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Background: Underwater rugby (UWR) is a team sport. Athletes require a high degree of strength, endurance, speed, and coordination involving intense physical contact. Currently, a paucity of literature exists regarding injury occurrence in UWR.

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Purpose: To assess patient outcomes following reverse shoulder arthroplasty in patients with complex proximal humerus fracture and the clinical implications of greater tuberosity malunions.

Methods: This prospective study included 56 patients who underwent RSA (DELTA XTEND™, DePuy Synthes, Warsaw, IN, USA) to treat proximal humerus fractures. We used a standardized suture technique to reattach the tuberosities.

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Background: A novel incentive scheme based on a joint agreement of a large Swiss health insurance with 56 physician networks was implemented in 2018. This study evaluated the effect of its implementation on adherence to evidence-based guidelines among patients with diabetes in managed care models.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study, using health care claims data from patients with diabetes enrolled in a managed care plan (2016-2019).

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Background: Pulmonary disease is the major cause for morbidity and mortality in cystic fibrosis (CF). In CF, forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) referenced against a healthy population (FEV1%predicted) and body mass index (BMI) do not allow for the comparison of disease severity across age and gender.

Objectives: We aimed to determine updated FEV1 and BMI percentiles for patients with CF and to study their dependence on mortality attrition.

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Introduction: After treating a child with familial sagittal craniosynostosis, clinocephaly, and bilateral parietomastoid/posterior squamosal suture fusion, the authors wondered if major-suture synostosis and clinocephaly were associated with abnormal fusion of minor lateral calvarial sutures.

Methods: The authors reviewed all preoperative volume-rendered head computed tomography reconstructions performed for craniosynostosis at their institution from 2010 through 2014 and determined whether the sphenoparietal, squamosal, and parietomastoid sutures were open, partially fused, or fused. The authors determined whether any sutures were abnormally fused based upon a previous study from their center, in which abnormal fusion was defined as either 1 of 3 abnormal fusion patterns or abnormally-early fusion.

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Objective: The authors of this study evaluated the safety and efficacy of stereotactic laser ablation (SLA) for the treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) in children.

Methods: Seventeen North American centers were enrolled in the study. Data for pediatric patients with DRE who had been treated with SLA between 2008 and 2018 were retrospectively reviewed.

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Introduction: Encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis (EDAS) for moyamoya is predominantly performed using a branch of the superficial temporal artery (STA) as the donor artery. At times, other branches of the external carotid artery are better suited for EDAS than is the STA. There is little information in the literature concerning using the posterior auricular artery (PAA) for EDAS in the pediatric age-group.

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Calcium plays an essential role in the biology of vertebrates. Calcium content in body fluids is maintained within a narrow physiologic range by feedback control. Phosphate is equally important for metabolism and is likewise controlled, albeit over a wider range.

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Large brains support numerous cognitive adaptations and therefore may appear to be highly beneficial. Nonetheless, the high energetic costs of brain tissue may have prevented the evolution of large brains in many species. This problem may also have a developmental dimension: juveniles, with their immature and therefore poorly performing brains, would face a major energetic hurdle if they were to pay for the construction of their own brain, especially in larger-brained species.

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Background: Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is a devastating disease with poor prognosis. Due to the multitude of underlying factors, prediction of outcomes remains poor. We aimed to identify factors governing diagnosis and survival in AMI and develop novel prognostic tools.

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Fetuin-A is a liver derived plasma protein showing highest serum concentrations in utero, preterm infants, and neonates. Fetuin-A is also present in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). The origin of CSF fetuin-A, blood-derived via the blood-CSF barrier or synthesized intrathecally, is presently unclear.

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