Incidence of wound complications after cesarean delivery: is suture closure better?

Background: Wound complications (WC) following cesarean delivery (CD) result in significant morbidity. A randomized trial in 2013, which demonstrated lower WC rates with suture closure compared to staple closure, resulted in a practice change within our academic institution.

Objective: To determine the impact of this practice change on WC rates and identify other modifiable risk factors for WC.

Industry Payments to Obstetrician-Gynecologists: An Analysis of 2014 Open Payments Data.

Objective: To evaluate publically available, individually identified data regarding industry payments made to obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) during 2014 posted on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Open Payments website for the purposes of encouraging ob-gyns to partake in disclosure of their fiscal relationships to patients and to take an active role in maintaining accuracy of their payment data.

Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Open Payments website for all 2014 nonresearch payments to ob-gyns. We compared payments to ob-gyns with payments to those in other specialties as well as subspecialties within the field of obstetrics and gynecology.

Recent warming by latitude associated with increased length of ragweed pollen season in central North America.

A fundamental aspect of climate change is the potential shifts in flowering phenology and pollen initiation associated with milder winters and warmer seasonal air temperature. Earlier floral anthesis has been suggested, in turn, to have a role in human disease by increasing time of exposure to pollen that causes allergic rhinitis and related asthma. However, earlier floral initiation does not necessarily alter the temporal duration of the pollen season, and, to date, no consistent continental trend in pollen season length has been demonstrated.