Optimization of a Sterile Processing Department Using Lean Six Sigma Methodology, Staffing Enhancement, and Capital Investment.

Background: Many hospitals and surgery centers have focused improvement efforts on operating room inefficiencies. A common inefficiency is missing and unusable surgical instrumentation, which can result in case delays and decreased effectiveness. Lean Six Sigma methodology, a set of process improvement tools focused on the reduction of waste and variation, has been used to identify and correct root causes of missing and unusable instrumentation.

Neighborhood Disadvantage in a Nationally Representative Sample of Community-Living Older US Adults.

Importance: Although neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage has become the standard for evaluating contextual socioeconomic deprivation at the Census-block level, little is known about its prevalence or association with long-term mortality in nationally representative samples of older persons.

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of neighborhood disadvantage among a nationally representative sample of community-living older adults; to identify how prevalence estimates differ based on relevant demographic, socioeconomic, geographic, clinical, and geriatric characteristics; and to evaluate the association between neighborhood disadvantage and all-cause mortality.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study analyzed linked data of community-living persons aged 65 years or older in the contiguous US participating in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) from 2011 to 2021.

Associations between dietary macronutrient composition and cardiometabolic health: data from NHANES 1999-2014.

Purpose: Dietary macronutrients significantly impact cardiometabolic health, yet research often focuses on individual macronutrient relationships. This study aimed to explore the associations between dietary macronutrient composition and cardiometabolic health.

Methods: This study included 33,681 US adults (49.

Precision in Prosthetics: Two Case Reports on Transformative Rehabilitation With Custom Ocular and Orbital Prostheses.

The eyes play a crucial role in vision and emotional expression, and their loss can profoundly affect appearance and psychological well-being. Eye loss may result from trauma, tumors, infections, malignancies, or congenital abnormalities. Surgical methods for removing an eye include enucleation, evisceration, and exenteration.

Local excision of early rectal cancer: A multi-centre experience of transanal endoscopic microsurgery from the United Kingdom.

Background: Total mesorectal excision remains the gold standard for the management of rectal cancer however local excision of early rectal cancer is gaining popularity due to lower morbidity and higher acceptance by the elderly and frail patients.

Aim: To investigate the results of local excision of rectal cancer by transanal endoscopic microsurgery (TEMS) approach carried out at three large cancer centers in the United Kingdom.

Methods: TEMS database was retrospectively reviewed to assess demographics, operative findings and post operative clinical and oncological outcomes.