Publications by authors named "Gray W K"

Purpose: Revision knee replacement (RevKR) for infection is rare but increasing. It is hypothesised that higher hospital volume reduces adverse outcomes. The aim was to estimate the association of surgical unit volume with outcomes following first, single-stage RevKR for infection.

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  • The study aimed to assess how a community diabetes specialist nurse (cDSN) collaborating with district nurses (DNs) could improve insulin therapy management and optimize patient care.
  • The research involved monitoring 148 patients before and after implementing the intervention, focusing on hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic events and overall DN workload.
  • Results showed a significant decrease in both types of events, reduced DN visits, and substantial cost savings of £1.9 million, suggesting the intervention's effectiveness and the potential for broader application in other areas.
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Introduction: Postponement of surgery at preoperative assessment in the days or weeks before the patient is admitted for surgery, as distinct from cancellation on the planned day of surgery, can be devastating for patients and an inefficient use of finite resources. However, postponements are often poorly recorded. The primary aim of this pilot study was to investigate elective surgical postponement rates during or after preoperative assessment across England, and the reasons for postponement for patients on an elective surgical pathway.

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Objectives: To compare recorded patient management between a clinical audit and administrative dataset for patients presenting with ureteric stones in England and to assess the feasibility of using administrative data for routine audit.

Patients And Methods: The British Association of Urological Surgeons conducted a clinical audit of all patients presenting as an emergency to 107 hospitals in England during November 2020 with ureteric stones. All patients were followed up until 31st March 2021 and in-patient and out-patient management received recorded.

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  • The NHS in England aims for net zero carbon emissions by 2045, focusing on reducing the carbon footprint of elective total hip arthroplasty (THA) procedures.
  • A study analyzed data from over 537,000 THA surgeries between 2014 and 2022, finding that the carbon footprint per patient decreased by about 25% during this period.
  • Key improvements, particularly in reducing hospital stay lengths, significantly contributed to this decline, suggesting that enhancing surgical efficiency can help meet sustainability goals while benefiting patient care and reducing costs.
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  • There is an urgent need for societal transformation to reduce humanity's environmental impact, as environmental health directly influences human health; health care contributes approximately 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
  • Health-care professionals must lead efforts to enhance environmental performance in health systems, utilizing Life-cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of healthcare products and processes from creation to disposal.
  • Urological conditions often require intensive resource management and have considerable environmental impacts, prompting the need for improved methodologies in LCA to identify environmentally harmful practices and accelerate sustainable innovations within healthcare.
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Background: The National Health Service (NHS) in England has set a target to be net zero for carbon emissions by 2045. The aim of this study was to investigate the estimated difference between the carbon footprint of the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) High Volume Low Complexity (HVLC) pathway for cataract surgery and current practice.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of administrative data.

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Background: Best practice pathways for common surgical procedures, including total knee arthroplasty (TKA), have the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce carbon emissions. We aimed to estimate the reduction in carbon emissions due to changing trends in the care of patients undergoing TKA in England.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics data from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2022 on adults undergoing elective primary TKA in England.

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Objectives: To evaluate the carbon footprint of the perioperative transurethral resection of bladder tumour (TURBT) pathway from decision to treat to postoperative discharge, and model potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies.

Materials And Methods: This process-based attributional cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment (LCA) of GHG emissions modelled the perioperative TURBT pathway at a hospital in Southwest England. We included travel, energy and water use, all reusable and consumable items, and laundry and equipment sterilisation.

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HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are highly prevalent in those ageing with HIV. High-income country data suggest that vascular risk factors (VRFs) may be stronger predictors of HAND than HIV-disease severity, but data from sub-Saharan Africa are lacking. We evaluated relationships of VRFs, vascular end-organ damage and HAND in individuals aged ≥ 50 in Tanzania.

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: This study aimed to understand the care needs, care arrangements and burden of care for people with dementia in Northern Tanzania. : This was a cross-sectional, observational study. People with dementia and their carers ( = 53) were recruited from an outpatient clinic, and data on carer burden and independence in activities of daily living were collected.

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Objective: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND) prevalence is expected to increase in East Africa as treatment coverage increases, survival improves, and this population ages. This study aimed to better understand the current cognitive phenotype of this newly emergent population of older combination antiretroviral therapy (cART)-treated people living with HIV (PLWH), in which current screening measures lack accuracy. This will facilitate the refinement of HAND cognitive screening tools for this setting.

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The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme is a quality improvement initiative covering the National Health Service in England. The programme aims to standardise clinical practices and improve patient and system level outcomes by utilising data-driven insights and clinically-led recommendations. There are GIRFT workstreams for every medical and surgical specialty, including urology.

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Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the safety of day-case laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and the association between day-case rates and, post the COVID-19 pandemic, recovery of activity to prepandemic levels for integrated care boards (ICBs) in England.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data set. Elective laparoscopic cholecystectomies for the period 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2022 were identified.

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Purpose: Elective primary inguinal hernia repair surgery is increasingly being conducted as a day-case procedure. However, some patients planned for day-case surgery have to stay in hospital for at least one night. The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with conversion from day-case to in-patient management for elective inguinal hernia repair surgery.

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Purpose: This study aimed to identify factors associated with poorer patient outcomes for lumbar decompression and/or discectomy (PLDD).

Methods: We extracted data from the Hospital Episodes Statistics database for the 5 years from 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2019. Patients undergoing an elective one- or two-level PLDD aged ≥ 17 years and without evidence of revision surgery during the index stay were included.

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In 2020 the NHS in England set a target of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040. Progress has already been made towards this goal, with substantial reductions in the use of environmentally harmful anaesthetic gases, such as desflurane, in recent years. Where an effective replacement already exists, changing practice to use low carbon alternatives is relatively easy to achieve, but much greater challenges lie ahead.

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Emergency and acute hospital services in England are under increasing pressure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between key case-mix indicators and outcomes for adults admitted to hospital with an acute medical condition in England. All patients aged ≥16 years admitted to hospital in England as an acute unselected medical admission and who survived to discharge during the financial year 2021-2022 were included.

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Introduction: HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are a spectrum of cognitive impairments in chronic HIV infection. HAND is common in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), despite combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). Older people appear to be at increased risk.

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Objectives: Skeletal fluorosis is a metabolic bone disease caused by excessive exposure to fluoride, predominantly through contamination of drinking water. This study aimed to identify all cases of skeletal fluorosis in Tindigani village situated in Northern Tanzania. This was done following changes in drinking water sources after a previous prevalence study in 2009 in this population.

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Aims: We evaluated the effectiveness of an intervention to improve the care of people with diabetes undergoing surgery when implemented across multiple organisations.

Methods: This was an observational study using routinely collected data. Eight hospitals in England implemented the Improving the Peri-operative Pathway of People with Diabetes (IP3D) intervention, with pre-implementation data collected from 1st February to 31st July 2019 and post-implementation data collection within the period 1st February to 31st October 2021.

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Purpose: Elective primary inguinal hernia repair surgery is increasingly being conducted as a day-case procedure. However, in England there is evidence of wide variation in day-case rates across hospitals. Reducing the extent of this variation has the potential to support more efficient use of resources (e.

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Objectives: To describe the contemporary evolution of day-case bladder outflow obstruction (BOO) surgery in England and to profile day-case BOO surgery practices across England in terms of the types of operation performed and their safety profiles.

Materials And Methods: This was a retrospective observational analysis of Hospital Episode Statistics and UK Office for National Statistics data. All 111 043 recorded operations across 117 hospital trusts over 66 months, from 1 January 2017 to 30 June 2022, were obtained.

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Study Design: Retrospective analysis of an administrative dataset.

Objective: This study aims to investigate changing practice over a six-year period in the use of repeated lumbar facet joint injections/medial branch blocks in England.

Methods: Patient data were extracted from the Hospital Episodes Statistics database for the period 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2021 for the index lumbar injection and for repeat lumbar injections performed within one year of the first.

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