Management of pediatric urinary tract infections in the emergency department.

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common diagnosis in pediatric patients presenting to the emergency department. Although there are several evidence-based guidelines for UTI, they have small variations that can make the workup and management for UTI challenging. This issue reviews the current state of the literature and best practices for the diagnosis and management of UTI in children presenting to the emergency department, including criteria to help the clinician decide whether to test a patient's urine, the best method for urine testing based on the clinical scenario, and how to manage the patient based on the results of urine testing.

Exploring opioid use disorder, its impact, and treatment among individuals experiencing homelessness as part of a family.

Background: Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) causes significant morbidity and mortality among people experiencing homelessness. We aimed to explore the unique way in which OUD impacts individuals experiencing homelessness as part of a family.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with adults experiencing OUD staying in Boston-area family shelters along with dependent children.

Dorsal muscle group area and surgical outcomes in liver transplantation.

Introduction: Better measures of liver transplant risk stratification are needed. Our previous work noted a strong relationship between psoas muscle area and survival following liver transplantation. The dorsal muscle group is easier to measure, but it is unclear if they are also correlated with surgical outcomes.

Morphometric age and mortality after liver transplant.

Importance: Morphometric assessment has emerged as a strong predictor of postoperative morbidity and mortality. However, a gap exists in translating this knowledge to bedside decision making. We introduced a novel measure of patient-centered surgical risk assessment: morphometric age.

Abdominal aortic calcification and surgical outcomes in patients with no known cardiovascular risk factors.

Introduction: In the setting of cardiovascular (CV) risk evaluation before major elective surgery, current risk assessment tools are relatively poor for discriminating among patients. For example, patients with clinical CV risk factors can be clearly identified; but among those without appreciated clinical CV risk, there may be a subset with stigmata of CV disease noted during the preoperative radiographic evaluation. Our study evaluated the relationship between abdominal aortic (AA) calcification measured on preoperative computed tomography (CT) imaging and surgical complications in patients undergoing general elective and vascular surgery.

Surgical site infection and analytic morphometric assessment of body composition in patients undergoing midline laparotomy.

Background: Obesity is a known risk factor for surgical site infection (SSI). Our hypothesis is that morphometric measures of midline subcutaneous fat will be associated with increased risk of SSI and will predict SSI better than conventional measures of obesity.

Study Design: We identified 655 patients who underwent midline laparotomy (2006 to 2009) using the Michigan Surgical Quality Collaborative database.