Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, JAMA, Pulmonary Disease / 15.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hayley B. Gershengorn, MD Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida Division of Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Beginning in December, 2011, professional guidelines have recommended against the practice of daily chest radiography (CXRs) for mechanically ventilated patients.  However, we hypothesized that this practice was still commonplace in the US and varied from hospital to hospital. To address this question, we performed a retrospective cohort study of >500,000 mechanically ventilated adults across 416 US hospitals. We found that 63% of these patients received daily CXRs and that, while use has been decreasing, this decrease is small (a 3% relative reduction in the odds of daily CXR receipt per discharge quarter starting in 2012). Moreover, the hospital at which a patient received care greatly impacted the likelihood of daily CXR receipt. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Disease / 15.04.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gustavo Nino, M.D. Children’s National Health System pulmonologist Study senior autho MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The epidemiology of respiratory disorders is largely influenced by the individual’s sex resulting in overall higher risk for males than females, particularly during early life. Hormonal, anatomical and behavioral differences are postulated to play a role, but these sex-based respiratory differences are already present at birth, suggesting a strong genetic component. However, the genetic differences in the airways of males and females during early life have been remarkably understudied and are largely unknown. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Pulmonary Disease, Surgical Research / 25.01.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ianthe Boden Titled Cardiorespiratory APAM, PhD Candidate, MSc, BAppSc Manager Abdominal Surgery Research Group Clinical Lead – Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy, Physiotherapy Department Allied Health Services Tasmanian Health Services – North | Launceston General Hospital Launceston TA  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Major upper abdominal surgery involves opening up the abdomen - mainly to remove cancer or damaged bowel, liver, stomach, pancreas, or kidney.  It is, by far, the most common major surgical procedure performed in developed countries with millions of procedures performed per annum. Unfortunately a respiratory complication following these operations occurs relatively frequently with between 1 in 10 to almost a half of all patients getting some type of respiratory complication after surgery. Respiratory complications included problems such as pneumonia, lung collapse, respiratory failure, and an acute asthma attack. These complications, especially pneumonia and respiratory failure, are strongly associated with significant morbidity, mortality, increased antibiotic usage and longer hospital stay. These breathing problems occur quite quickly after surgery, becoming evident usually within the first two to three days after surgery. In an effort to ameliorate these complications in developed countries it is common for physiotherapists/respiratory therapists to see a patient for the first time on the day after surgery and start patients doing breathing exercises. However as respiratory dysfunction starts occurring immediately following surgery it is debated that these breathing exercises are being provided too late. Initiating prophylactic treatment more than 24 hours after the end of surgery may not be as effective as starting prophylaxis immediately. Unfortunately, immediately after surgery patients are either very sleepy, in pain, feeling sick, or delirious. It may not be possible to effectively teach patients at this point on the importance of breathing exercises and get good performance. One method to overcome this would be to meet patients before the operation to educate them about their risk of a postoperative chest infection and to motivate and train them to perform breathing exercises to do immediately on waking from surgery. Previous trials have indicated that this may help prevent postoperative respiratory complications, although evidence is inconclusive and weak. We set out to robustly and conclusively see if respiratory complications could be prevented after major upper abdominal surgery if patients were taught breathing exercises to do as soon as they woke up after the operation. We ran this trial in two countries (Australia and New Zealand) and three different types of hospitals.  All patients were met by a physiotherapist at our hospitals’ scheduled pre-admission clinic appointment and either provided with an information booklet (control) or provided with an additional 30 minute education and training session with the physiotherapist. At this preoperative session the patient was educated about respiratory complications, their risk, and how to prevent them with breathing exercises. These exercises were then taught and practiced for just three repetitions. Patients were instructed to do these breathing exercises for 20 repetitions as soon as they woke from surgery and then 20 times every hour after surgery until they were up and out of bed frequently. Following surgery each patient had a standardised rehabilitation program and no respiratory therapy of any type was provided to the patients after surgery. For the first two weeks after surgery patients were assessed daily for a respiratory complication by research assistants unaware of what treatment the patient had received before surgery. (more…)
Author Interviews, Beth Israel Deaconess, CHEST, Education, Pulmonary Disease / 23.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. George Cheng MD Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Cheng: Since the introduction of flexible bronchoscope in late 1960s, flexible bronchoscopy has gained wide popularity and with over 500,000 procedures being performed in the USA annually.  Bronchoscopy training has been undergoing rapid advancement in recent years.  Virtual bronchoscopy, either web-based training or VR bronchoscopic simulators, were used to teach and to improve performance in bronchoscopy.  However, virtual reality simulators often cost over $100,000 dollars.  Given the prohibitive high cost, recent CHEST expert panel recommended that high fidelity simulators be offered only in regional simulation centers.  Therefore, low cost realistic bronchoscopy training models are an area of need. Recent development in 3D printing and 3D medical modeling has allowed clinicians to utilize CT scans to create physical models.  This approach can be used to create affordable 3D printed, anatomically accurate bronchoscopy training models.  However, the 3D printed tracheobronchial model has never been evaluated as a bronchoscopy simulation tool.  We aimed to address this question with our study. The 3D printed bronchoscopy model was generated from flexible nylon material and stained to match the airway mucosa coloration.  Participants of varies training levels performed bronchoscopy on both standard and 3D printed bronchoscopy model, graded each on a sliding scale from 0-100.  Overall, clinicians preferred the 3D printed model regardless of their level of training. (more…)