MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of all cases of radiologically proven acute PE over a 20-month period.
RESULTS: Sixty-two patients were identified. The mean age was 61.5 +/- 18.0 years with a female to male ratio of 1.8:1. There were more Malays compared to other races. There were also more Caucasians, given the proximity of the hospital to the airport and the inclusion of tourists. The commonest symptoms were dyspnoea and chest pain, while the commonest signs were tachycardia and tachypnoea. Prolonged immobilisation was the commonest risk factor. Electrocardiographic S1Q3T3 pattern was seen in more patients compared to Western studies. Cardiomegaly was the commonest chest X-ray finding. Thirty-two patients were identified to have a source of embolisation. Overall mortality rate was 21%. The ED diagnosed 36% of the cases. Alternative admitting diagnoses were predominantly ischaemic heart disease and pneumonia. The group diagnosed in the ED were notably female (P = 0.044), Caucasian (P = 0.002) and had prolonged immobilisation (P = 0.025) prior to the onset of PE.
CONCLUSION: Acute PE is not as rare here as previously thought. Clinical features reveal more similarities than differences compared to other studies in the literature. We advocate a high index of suspicion for earlier diagnosis in the ED.
METHODS: Incidence of thigh pain was lower in 2008 compared to 2006 and 2007 (p < 0.0001). The percentage of patients requiring blood transfusions (p = 0.09), duration of IDC ≥ 7 days (p = 0.27), wound dehiscence and re-operation rate were lower in 2008 in contrast to 2006 and 2007 (p = 0.43). Only 209 patients (82.3%) were available for review at 1 year. There were two (1.0%) cases of recurrent vault prolapse.
RESULTS: The subjective and objective cure rates at 1 year after this mesh implant surgery in 2006, 2007 and 2008 were 92.1% and 92.1%; 97.0% and 92.4% and 100% and 97%, respectively. The mesh erosion rate was remarkably lower in 2008 as compared to 2007 and 2006 (p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: This synthetic mesh-augmented implant surgery is effective and safe, and surgical outcome appears related to the learning curve of the surgeon.
METHODS: A total of 141 patients (77 HD and 64 CAPD) from 1 federal and four state hospitals participated in this cross-sectional study. Patients were randomly selected from the National Renal Registry (NRR) using a stratified random sampling. The EQ-5D-3 L questionnaire was used to measure HRQOL. Variables investigated include dialysis modalities, sociodemographic characteristics, co-morbidities and biochemical markers. Utilities are measured on an ordinal scale of 0-1, where 1 indicates full health and 0 indicates death.
RESULTS: The mean utility scores were 0.854 ± 0.181 and 0.905 ± 0.124 (p > 0.05) and the mean Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores were 76.2 ± 12.90 and 77.1 ± 10.26 (p > 0.05) for HD and CAPD patients respectively. There was a significant difference in problems reported between HD (35.1%) and CAPD (15.6%) on usual activities dimension (p = 0.009). The proportion of patients having problems in the pain/discomfort domain in both modalities was high (34.0%). Haemoglobin (