Sternal Wound Infections In Children Reduced By 61 Percent Using Standardized Protocol
A two-year effort to prevent infections in children healing from cardiac surgery reduced sternum infections by 61 percent, a San Antonio researcher announced at the Cardiology 2012 conference in Orlando, Fla. Faculty from UT Medicine San Antonio carried out a new infection-control protocol for 308 children who underwent sternotomies at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children's Hospital between 2009 and 2011. UT Medicine is the clinical practice of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.
For Those At Risk Of Heart Disease, Irregular Heartbeat Found To Be A Strong Predictor Of Decline
An irregular heartbeat - atrial fibrillation - is a strong predictor of cognitive decline and the loss of independence in daily activities in older people at risk of cardiovascular disease, according to a study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Researchers sought to understand whether there was an association between an irregular heartbeat and the loss of mental and physical functions in people at risk of cardiovascular disease. They looked at data from two randomized controlled trials: the ONTARGET and TRANSCEND trials, which involved 31 506 patients from 733 centres in 40 countries.
A Million Chances To Save A Life
To celebrate February as American Heart Month, the News Blog is highlighting some of the latest heart-centric news and stories from all parts of Penn Medicine. Would you be able to find an automated external defibrillator if someone's life depended on it? Despite an estimated one million AEDs scattered around the United States, the answer, all too often when people suffer sudden cardiac arrests, is no. In a Perspective piece published online in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality Outcomes, Penn Medicine emergency physician Dr.