Incidence and predictors of mortality among patients admitted to adult intensive care unit at public hospitals in Western Ethiopia: a retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: In resource-constrained countries, the incidence of mortality among patients admitted to adult intensive care units is higher than that in developed countries, which has a physical, economic, and emotional impact on the lives of patients and their families. However, there is limited evidence on factors related to nursing care that can potentially contribute to predicting and reducing mortality rates in intensive care units. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the incidence of mortality and its predictors in patients admitted to an adult intensive care unit.

Survival Outcomes Among Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Large Integrated US Health System.

Importance: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the leading oncologic cause of death among patients with cirrhosis, but large studies examining mortality trends are lacking.

Objective: To evaluate survival among patients with HCC in one of the largest integrated health care systems in the US.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study included 3441 adult patients who received a diagnosis of HCC between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2019, with end of follow-up on December 31, 2020.

Factors associated with time to death among HIV/TB co-infected patients on ART in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia: A retrospective study.

Background: Tuberculosis is one of the leading causes of death, especially for people living with HIV. However, little is known about the time to death of HIV/TB co-infected patients and associated factors in the study area. This study focused on identifying factors associated with time to death among HIV/TB co-infected patients under antiretroviral therapy in Ethiopia.

Examining the Influence of a General Surgery Resident's Transplant Experience on Their Pursuit of Transplant Surgery Fellowship.

Background: Transplant surgery has historically been a less desirable fellowship among general surgery graduates. Limited work has been done to understand factors associated with residents' interest in transplantation. Using a multi-institutional cohort, we examined how the resident experience on transplant surgery may influence their decision to pursue transplant fellowship.

Magnitude of standard precautions practices among healthcare workers in health facilities of Low and Middle Income Countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Standard precautions are the minimum standard of infection control to prevent transmission of infectious agents, protect healthcare workers, patients, and visitors regardless of infection status. The consistent implementation of standard precautions is highly effective in reducing transmission of pathogens that cause HAIs. Despite their effectiveness, compliance, resources, patient behavior, and time constraints are some of the challenges that can arise when implementing standard precautions.

Barriers to liver transplant referral in safety net settings: A national provider survey.

Safety net systems care for patients with a high burden of liver disease yet experience many barriers to liver transplant (LT) referral. This study aimed to assess safety net providers' perspectives on barriers to LT referrals in the United States. We conducted a nationwide anonymous online survey of self-identified safety net gastroenterologists and hepatologists from March through November 2022.

Does Combining Antenatal Care Visits at Health Posts and Health Centers Improve Antenatal Care Quality in Rural Ethiopia?

Background: Even though quality maternal care is crucial for the well-being of women and their newborns, the inferior quality of antenatal care in rural Ethiopia is a timely concern. This study aimed to investigate the effects of combining antenatal care visits at health posts and health centers on improving antenatal care quality in rural Ethiopia.

Methods: Using the 2019 Ethiopia Health Extension Program assessment done by MERQ, we extracted and analyzed the survey responses of 2,660 women who had received at least one antenatal visit from a primary health care unit.

Infection prevention and control practices in the Pediatrics and Child Health Department of Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia.

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a set of practices that are designed to minimize the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) spreading among patients, healthcare workers, and visitors. Implementation of IPC is essential for reducing infection incidences, preventing antibiotic use, and minimizing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The aim of the study was to assess IPC practices and associated factors in Pediatrics and Child Health at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital.

Compliance with research ethics in epidemiological studies targeted to conflict-affected areas in Western Ethiopia: validity of informed consent (VIC) by information comprehension and voluntariness (ICV).

Background: The conduct of research is critical to advancing human health. However, there are issues of ethical concern specific to the design and conduct of research in conflict settings. Conflict-affected countries often lack strong platform to support technical guidance and monitoring of research ethics, which may lead to the use of divergent ethical standards some of which are poorly elaborated and loosely enforced.

Optimal Liver Transplantation Criteria for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Liver transplantation continues to be the optimal treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Given the limited organ supply, patient selection for liver transplant must carefully balance tumor progression with risk of recurrence posttransplant. There are several pretransplant selection criteria that incorporate biomarkers as well as imaging modality to risk-stratify patients as we continue to look for the optimal transplant cutoff for patients with HCC, which should be transplant-center specific, and account for organ availability and dynamic response to locoregional therapy.

A framework to improve retention of Black surgical trainees: A Society of Black Academic Surgeons white paper.

Attrition is high among surgical trainees, and six of ten trainees consider leaving their programs, with two ultimately leaving before completion of training. Given known historically and systemically rooted biases, Black surgical trainees are at high risk of attrition during residency training. With only 4.

Community-level social vulnerability and individual socioeconomic status on liver transplant referral outcome.

Background: Recent endeavors emphasize the importance of understanding early barriers to liver transplantation (LT) by consistently collecting data on patient demographics, socioeconomic factors, and geographic social deprivation indices.

Methods: In this retrospective single-center cohort study of 1657 adults referred for LT evaluation, we assessed the association between community-level vulnerability and individual socioeconomic status measures on the rate of waitlisting and transplantation. Patients' addresses were linked to Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) at the census tract-level to characterize community-level vulnerability.

Factors Associated With Liver Transplant Referral Among Patients With Cirrhosis at Multiple Safety-Net Hospitals.

Importance: A high proportion of underserved patients with cirrhosis receive care at safety-net hospitals (SNHs). While liver transplant (LT) can be a life-saving treatment for cirrhosis, data on referral patterns from SNHs to LT centers are lacking.

Objective: To identify factors associated with LT referral within the SNH context.

Geographic disparities in access to liver transplantation.

Since the Final Rule regarding transplantation was published in 1999, organ distribution policies have been implemented to reduce geographic disparity. While a recent change in liver allocation, termed acuity circles, eliminated the donor service area as a unit of distribution to decrease the geographic disparity of waitlisted patients to liver transplantation, recently published results highlight the complexity of addressing geographic disparity. From geographic variation in donor supply, as well as liver disease burden and differing model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scores of candidates and MELD scores necessary to receive liver transplantation, to the urban-rural disparity in specialty care access, and to neighborhood deprivation (community measure of socioeconomic status) in liver transplant access, addressing disparities of access will require a multipronged approach at the patient, transplant center, and national level.

The relationship between postpartum depression and appropriate infant feeding practice in eastern zone of Tigray, Ethiopia: A comparative cross-sectional study.

Background: Understanding the relationship between postpartum depression and infant feeding practice may help to reduce the indirect impact of postpartum depression on infant feeding practice. This will further have a positive impact on reducing infant morbidity and mortality attributed to improper feeding practices. Although studies in the country have assessed the prevalence of infant feeding practices, those assessing the association between postpartum depression and infant feeding practices are lacking.

Hypertension Requiring Medication Use: a Silent Predictor of Poor Outcomes After Pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Background: Although hypertension requiring medication (HTNm) is a well-known cardiovascular comorbidity, its association with postoperative outcomes is understudied. This study aimed to evaluate whether preoperative HTNm is independently associated with specific complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Study Design: Adults undergoing elective pancreaticoduodenectomy were included from the 2014-2019 NSQIP-targeted pancreatectomy dataset.

Hand-Assisted Versus Pure Minimally-Invasive Distal Pancreatectomy: Is There a Downside to Lending a Hand?

Background: Hand-assisted laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (HALDP) is suggested to offer similar outcomes to pure laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP). However, given the longer midline incision, it is unclear whether HALDP increases the risk of postoperative hernia. Our aim was to determine the risk of postoperative incisional hernia development after HALDP.

Models to Predict Development or Recurence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) in Patients with Advanced Hepatic Fibrosis.

Purpose Of Review: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States (U.S.).

Expedited evaluation for liver transplantation: A critical look at processes and outcomes.

Background: Most patients are listed for liver transplant (LT) following extensive workup as outpatients ("conventional evaluation"). Some patients undergo urgent evaluation as inpatients after being transferred to a transplant center ("expedited evaluation"). We hypothesized that expedited patients would have inferior survival due to disease severity at the time of transplant and shorter workup time.

Burden and Determinants of Chronic Kidney Disease Among Diabetic Patients in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) among diabetic patients is becoming a global health burden with a high economic cost to health systems. The incidence of CKD is higher in low-income countries such as Ethiopia. In Ethiopia, there is no national representative evidence on the burden and determinants of CKD among patients with diabetes.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Toward Corona virus Infection Among Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care at Public Hospitals in Three Wollega Zones, Ethiopia.

Background: Pregnancy is an immune-suppressed state which makes pregnant women generally more susceptible to COVID-19 infection and severe illness. Extensive precautions have been recommended to avoid exposure to the virus. Knowledge and attitude toward the disease play an integral role in readiness to accept public health measures.

Equity in kidney transplant allocation - North American perspective.

Purpose Of Review: Seven years have passed since the implementation of the kidney allocation policy by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network in the United States, the purpose of this article is to review the impact of these policy changes in addressing disparity and inequities in access to transplantation as well as to assess future directions needed in achieving equity in kidney transplantation.

Recent Findings: The 2014 kidney allocation system policy aimed to improve access to transplantation through various approaches by reducing organ/recipient longevity mismatches, prioritizing highly sensitized patients, and backdating waitlist time to start of dialysis. The policy however did not improve utilization of high-kidney donor profile index kidneys or decrease kidney discard rate.

Magnitude and factors associated with surgical site infection among mothers underwent cesarean delivery in Nekemte town public hospitals, western Ethiopia.

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is a serious public health problem due to its impacts on maternal morbidity and mortality and it can have a significant effect on quality of life for the patient. However, little has been studied regarding the magnitude and factors associated with SSI among women underwent cesarean delivery (CD) in study area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the magnitude and factors associated with SSI among women underwent cesarean delivery in Nekemte Town Public Hospitals 2020.