Decreasing operating room costs via reduction of surgical instruments.

Background: Rising costs in health care demand waste reduction and improved efficiency throughout the hospital. Surgeons have an important role in regard to the number of instruments used in procedures. Previous studies have demonstrated instrument maintenance and sterilization cost approximately $0.

Global Adverse Event Reports of Breast Implant-Associated ALCL: An International Review of 40 Government Authority Databases.

Background: Tracking world cases of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is currently limited to patient registries at a few academic centers, dependent upon patient referral and case reports in the literature. The purpose of this study was to review and compare federal database adverse event reports of breast implant-associated ALCL encompassing the major breast implant markets worldwide.

Methods: Federal implantable device regulatory bodies were contacted and database queries were performed for 40 countries.

[Life risk and nature of SAMU: users' perspectives and implications for nursing].

The article is part of a qualitative study analisys developed in 2009 aiming at investigating the demand of emergency calls to the Emergency Mobile Attendance Service/Porto Alegre (SAMU) that classifies it as non-pertinent. The information was gathered from 16 semi-structured interviews with the subjects of that demand by utilizing as a methodological guideline the Grounded Theory. The article approaches the content of the sub-category "Entering into conflict with SAMU regulation in the evaluation of life-threatening", by focusing the divergences between the regulation and the users' perception about the operation of the service and the meaning of "life-threatening", factors implied in the construction of the non-pertinent demand.

[First aid workshop: report of an experience].

This experience report is the result of the construction process of workshops on first aid offered to inhabitants of Cavalhada, a neighborhood in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The workshops resulted from a concern of researchers involved in the project "Life risk under the perspective of users of the Mobile Urgency Care Service of Porto Alegre (SAMU)--inputs for the service management". They aimed to interfere in the studied reality in a dynamic way.