Factors Associated With Lack of Long-Term Follow-Up Data After Global Cardiac Surgery Missions.

Humanitarian medical missions attempt to lessen the burden of limited access to cardiac surgery in low- and middle-income countries. While organizations express difficulties obtaining follow-up information, there is currently little evidence to support the various assumptions for lack of data. This study examines the factors influencing long-term patient follow-ups on repeated short-term cardiac surgery missions across nine countries.

Accurate long-term prediction of death for patients with cirrhosis.

Background And Aims: Cirrhosis is a major cause of death and is associated with extensive health care use. Patients with cirrhosis have complex treatment choices due to risks of morbidity and mortality. To optimally counsel and treat patients with cirrhosis requires tools to predict their longer-term liver-related survival.

Eastern European and Asian-born populations are prone to gastric cancer: an epidemiologic analysis of foreign-born populations and gastric cancer.

Background: The highest incidence of gastric cancer is in East Asia, corresponding to a high prevalence of (), yet other regions with a similarly high prevalence of have lower cancer rates. Foreign-born persons who immigrate to the United States are thought to remain at high-risk for gastric cancer, but this has not been confirmed by large population-based studies.

Methods: We evaluated total and foreign-born populations in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs).

Development and Validation of a Model to Predict Long-Term Survival After Liver Transplantation.

Patients are prioritized for liver transplantation (LT) under an "urgency-based" system using the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score. This system focuses solely on waitlist mortality, without considerations of posttransplant morbidity, mortality, and health care use. We sought to develop and internally validate a continuous posttransplant risk score during 5-year and 10-year time horizons.

Predicting survival after liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma using the LiTES-HCC score.

Background & Aims: Liver transplant priority in the US and Europe follows the 'sickest-first' principle. However, for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), priority is based on binary tumor criteria to expedite transplant for patients with 'acceptable' post-transplant outcomes. Newer risk scores developed to overcome limitations of these binary criteria are insufficient to be used for waitlist priority as they focus solely on HCC-related pre-transplant variables.