Cervical spine trauma associated with moderate and severe head injury: incidence, risk factors, and injury characteristics.

Object: Diagnosing and managing cervical spine trauma in head-injured patients is problematic due to an altered level of consciousness in such individuals. The reported incidence of cervical spine trauma in head-injured patients has generally ranged from 4 to 8%. In this retrospective study the authors sought to define the incidence of cervical injury in association with moderate or severe brain injury, emphasizing the identification of high-risk patients.

Improving pain management in critical care.

Background: In April 1994 at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center the Surgical Intensive Care Unit's (SICU's) Quality Improvement Council unanimously agreed on pain management as one of the major factors that negatively affect outcomes for their patient population. Using the FOCUS-PDCA (plan-do-check-act) model for quality improvement (QI), the council chartered a subcommittee to improve the pain management in their ICUs.

Methodology: The subcommittee first measured the pain assessment scores of patients at transfer from the ICU.

Transvaginal probe ultrasonography. Diagnostic or outcome advantages in women with molar pregnancies.

This study attempted to determine whether patients with molar pregnancy initially evaluated by transvaginal ultrasound had earlier diagnoses and superior outcomes than did similar patients initially evaluated by only transabdominal scans. The medical records of 71 patients with molar pregnancy evacuated at the University of California at Los Angeles and affiliate hospital Olive View Medical Center between 1975 and 1988 were reviewed. Eight patients did not have ultrasound imaging prior to evacuation, and three had missing films.