Developing and testing competency levels for laparoscopic skills training.

Hypothesis: Expert levels can be developed for use as training end points for a basic video-trainer skills curriculum, and the levels developed will be suitable for training.

Design: Fifty subjects with minimal prior simulator exposure were enrolled using an institutional review board-approved protocol. As a measure of baseline performance, medical students (n = 11) and surgery residents (n = 39) completed 3 trials on each of 5 validated video-trainer tasks.

Acute endovascular management of a subclavian artery injury.

Traumatic injuries to the subclavian vessels are relatively uncommon and surgical repair may be technically challenging. With the increasing availability of endovascular techniques for nontraumatic arterial disease, an increase in the use of stenting for traumatic vascular injuries can be expected. This report describes the fifth successful endovascular repair with stenting of a pseudoaneurysm of the subclavian artery as a result of blunt trauma, and the first American report of such repair used in the acute or immediate management of blunt subclavian artery injury.

New Orleans Charity Hospital--your trauma center at work.

The Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans-Charity Hospital stands with pride as one of only two level I trauma centers in the state and one of the largest trauma centers in the United States, seeing over 4,000 trauma patients per year. Despite perennial funding issues, Charity Hospital's Emergency Department treated almost 200,000 patients in 2003. This brief report gives an overview of the emergency- and trauma-related services provided by Charity Hospital and underscores its value as a critical asset to healthcare in the Louisiana.

Complete femoral artery transection from blunt trauma.

Complete common femoral artery transection from blunt trauma without bony injury is a rare event. Below we report upon a young cyclist who sustained complete transection of the common femoral artery following blunt trauma. The patient was managed successfully by graft repair of the transected artery.