Publications by authors named "W J Chwals"
Objective: We aimed to determine the incidence of growth failure in infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) and whether initial laparotomy versus peritoneal drainage (PD) impacted the likelihood of growth failure.
Summary Background Data: Infants with surgical NEC and SIP have high mortality, and most have neurodevelopmental impairment and poor growth. Existing literature on growth outcomes for these infants is limited.
Background: In 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandated that every hospital create a publicly available webtool for pricing various medical services in an effort to give patients transparency in regard to their health care expenses and allow patients to "shop around" to receive the care most fitting their budget. Our objective is to investigate the utility this mandate provides for vascular surgery patients.
Methods: Standardized searches were performed to find patient cost calculators for Newsweek's Top 50 Hospitals in the United States.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to find which surgical treatment for premature infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or isolated intestinal perforation (IP) led to lower rates of death or neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI).
- Researchers conducted a large trial with 310 infants across 20 US centers, comparing laparotomy and peritoneal drainage as initial treatments and assessing outcomes at 18 to 22 months.
- Results showed similar rates of death or NDI overall (69% for laparotomy vs. 70% for drainage), but preoperative diagnosis influenced outcomes, with laparotomy being more beneficial for NEC but less for IP.