Prevention of infections associated with permanent cardiac antiarrhythmic devices by implementation of a comprehensive infection control program. | LitMetric
Infectious Disease Institute, Soroka University Medical Center and Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Published: June 2004
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
Objective: To implement a comprehensive infection control (IC) program for prevention of cardiac device-associated infections (CDIs).
Design: Prospective before-after trial with 2 years of follow-up.
Setting: A tertiary-care, university-affiliated medical center.
Patients: A consecutive sample of all adults undergoing cardiac device implantation between 1997 and 2002.
Intervention: An IC program was implemented during late 2001 and included staff education, preoperative modification of patient risk factors, intraoperative control of strict aseptic technique, surgical scrubbing and attire, control of environmental risk factors, optimization of antibiotic prophylaxis, postoperative wound care, and active surveillance. The clinical endpoint was CDI rates.
Results: Between 1997 and 2000, there were 7 CDIs among 725 procedures (mean annual CDI incidence, 1%). During the first 9 months of 2001, there were 7 CDIs among 167 procedures (4.2%; P = .007): CDIs increased from 7 among 576 to 3 among 124 following pacemaker implantation (P = .39) and from 0 among 149 to 4 among 43 following cardioverter-defibrillator implantation (P = .002). Of the 14 CDIs, 5 involved superficial wounds, 7 involved deep wounds, and 2 involved endocarditis. Following intervention, there were no cases of CDI among 316 procedures during 24 months of follow-up (4.2% reduction; P = .0005).
Conclusions: We observed a high CDI rate associated with substantial morbidity. IC measures had an impact on CDI. Although the relative weight of each measure in the prevention of CDI remains unknown, our results suggest that implementation of a comprehensive IC program is feasible and efficacious in this setting.
Objective: Mental health has become a widely concerned topic worldwide. However, the impact and mechanism of positive activities on mental health still needed to be explored. This study aimed to apply the positive-activity model to investigate the effect of participation in positive activities on mental health and the mediating role of positive emotion.
Introduction: Laparoscopic surgery (LS) has been a promising development in surgical practice globally ever since its introduction. LS has exhibited many an advantage, including bettering patient outcomes, lowering the risk of postoperative infection, and displaying economical affluence. However, its implementation in the African continent still faces various challenges.
Background And Aims: Sub-Saharan Africa drives global HIV-related mortality, and patients continuously present with advanced HIV disease (AHD) at diagnosis. We describe prevalence, predictors, and treatment outcomes in HIV clients with AHD.
Methods: We systematically reviewed PUBMED, SCOPUS, Web of Science, JSTOR, and CINAHL for relevant studies conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2010 to 2022.
Many football injury prevention programmes (IPPs) have been developed to target various injuries and populations. There was no specific IPP for youth players in place before. However, several existing IPPs designed for adults were also assessed in the youth population.
Since the introduction of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in 2016, countries have successfully scaled-up PrEP to populations at risk of HIV acquisition, including key populations, serodiscordant couples and pregnant women. Between 2016 and 2023, there were over 5.6 million oral PrEP initiations globally.
