Anesthesiologists' Preferences regarding Visitor Presence during Placement of Neuraxial Labor Analgesia.

Introduction: Neuraxial labor analgesia has become an integral part of modern obstetric anesthetic practice. Presence of a familiar person during its placement may be beneficial to the patient. A survey was sent to anesthesiologists practicing obstetric anesthesia in the USA to determine their views.

Clinical oversight and the avoidance of repeat induced abortion.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of patient counseling, demographics, and contraceptive methods on repeat induced abortion in women attending family planning clinics.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of repeat induced abortions was performed. The analysis included patients with an initial induced abortion obtained between January 1, 2001, and March 31, 2014, at New York City Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan.

Neural Network Prediction of ICU Length of Stay Following Cardiac Surgery Based on Pre-Incision Variables.

Background: Advanced predictive analytical techniques are being increasingly applied to clinical risk assessment. This study compared a neural network model to several other models in predicting the length of stay (LOS) in the cardiac surgical intensive care unit (ICU) based on pre-incision patient characteristics.

Methods: Thirty six variables collected from 185 cardiac surgical patients were analyzed for contribution to ICU LOS.