Economic evaluation of robot-assisted training versus an enhanced upper limb therapy programme or usual care for patients with moderate or severe upper limb functional limitation due to stroke: results from the RATULS randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To determine whether robot-assisted training is cost-effective compared with an enhanced upper limb therapy (EULT) programme or usual care.

Design: Economic evaluation within a randomised controlled trial.

Setting: Four National Health Service (NHS) centres in the UK: Queen's Hospital, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust; Northwick Park Hospital, London Northwest Healthcare NHS Trust; Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde; and North Tyneside General Hospital, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Robot-assisted training compared with an enhanced upper limb therapy programme and with usual care for upper limb functional limitation after stroke: the RATULS three-group RCT.

Background: Loss of arm function is common after stroke. Robot-assisted training may improve arm outcomes.

Objective: The objectives were to determine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of robot-assisted training, compared with an enhanced upper limb therapy programme and with usual care.

Evaluation of the enhanced upper limb therapy programme within the Robot-Assisted Training for the Upper Limb after Stroke trial: descriptive analysis of intervention fidelity, goal selection and goal achievement.

Objective: To report the fidelity of the enhanced upper limb therapy programme within the Robot-Assisted Training for the Upper Limb after stroke (RATULS) randomized controlled trial, the types of goals selected and the proportion of goals achieved.

Design: Descriptive analysis of data on fidelity, goal selection and achievement from an intervention group within a randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Out-patient stroke rehabilitation within four UK NHS centres.

Modern oncological and operative outcomes in oesophageal cancer: the St. James's hospital experience.

Background: Oesophageal cancer has a reputation for poor survival, and a relatively high risk of major postoperative morbidity and mortality. Encouragingly, a recent international cancer registry study reports a doubling of survival outcomes in Ireland over the last 20 years. This study focused on both oncologic and operative outcomes in patients treated with curative intent requiring surgery at a high-volume center.

Robot assisted training for the upper limb after stroke (RATULS): a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Background: Loss of arm function is a common problem after stroke. Robot-assisted training might improve arm function and activities of daily living. We compared the clinical effectiveness of robot-assisted training using the MIT-Manus robotic gym with an enhanced upper limb therapy (EULT) programme based on repetitive functional task practice and with usual care.

Robot Assisted Training for the Upper Limb after Stroke (RATULS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Loss of arm function is a common and distressing consequence of stroke. We describe the protocol for a pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial to determine whether robot-assisted training improves upper limb function following stroke.

Methods/design: Study design: a pragmatic, three-arm, multicentre randomised controlled trial, economic analysis and process evaluation.

Medical student attitudes toward older people and willingness to consider a career in geriatric medicine.

Objectives: To evaluate the attitudes of first- and fourth-year medical students toward older people and the relationship between these attitudes and possible career choice. To examine the effects of an intensive geriatric medicine (GM) teaching program on these attitudes and career aspirations.

Design: Observational study.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiation may increase the risk of respiratory complications and sepsis after transthoracic esophagectomy.

Background: The role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation therapy before resection in esophageal cancer remains controversial. Operative risks may be increased, but this has not been systematically addressed in published trials or reports.

Methods: This was a prospective, nonrandomized, restricted cohort design of patients (n = 200) from 1997 to 2003 with resectable cancer of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction.

TIMI Risk Score predicts early readmission.

Aim: To assess if the TIMI Risk Score could predict early readmission.

Participants: 869 consecutive admissions to a Scottish district general hospital with suspected acute coronary syndrome.

Methods: A computerised clinical information system was interrogated to verify readmission.

Intraoperative splanchnic hypoperfusion, increased intestinal permeability, down-regulation of monocyte class II major histocompatibility complex expression, exaggerated acute phase response, and sepsis.

Background: A compromised gut barrier function may be associated with systemic inflammatory response syndrome, sepsis, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome in patients after major trauma or critical illness, and inadequate oxygenation of the gut mucosa has been incriminated as an underlying mechanism. The focus of this study was the relationship of splanchnic hypoperfusion to regional and systemic immune responses after major surgery.

Methods: Patients (n=20) undergoing curative oncologic resection of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction were studied.