Cardiac arrest
Study finds rapid response teams don't prevent cardiac arrest
A new study has found that rapid response teams, which are created to prevent cardiac arrest and deaths in ICU patients, don't work. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study looked at the association between interventions by rapid response teams and changes in cardiac arrests and deaths in a Kansas City hospital. After 20 months and 376 responses by the rapid response team, there was a slight reduction in the cardiac arrest rate, but not enough to be statistically significant. Also, the overall death rate didn't change after the team was in place-before the team, in-hospital deaths were 3.22 per 100 patients, and after the team was implemented the death rate was 3.09 per 100.
The authors of the study suggest that there may be other programs that might reduce cardiac arrest, and hospitals should take a closer look at the financial and personnel resources they're currently investing in rapid response teams.
Ovarian cancer
Obesity linked to increased risk
New research published in the journal Cancer indicates that among women who have never used menopausal hormone replacement therapy, obese women are at an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer compared with women of normal weight. Ovarian cancer is the deadliest of gynecologic cancers, with a 5-year survival rate of only 37%.
The study looked at 94,523 women in the United States aged 50 to 71 over a period of 7 years. After identifying 303 ovarian cancer cases, the researchers noted that among women who had never taken hormones after menopause, obesity was associated with an almost 80% higher risk of ovarian cancer. No link between body weight and ovarian cancer was evident for women who had used menopausal hormone replacement therapy. The study indicated that obesity may enhance ovarian cancer risk through its hormonal effects. Excess body weight in postmenopausal women leads to an increased production of estrogen that may stimulate the growth of ovarian cells and play a role in the development of ovarian cancer.
Heart disease
Some good news-heart and stroke death rates are down
According to the latest data in the American Heart Association's (AHA) Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2009 Update, death rates for coronary heart disease and strokes have decreased. Since 1999, there has been a 30% reduction, marking the early achievement of a milestone set by the AHA to reduce coronary heart disease and stroke by 25% by 2010.
Even though this is good news, there's still a lot of work to be done. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and the major risk factors for the disease (high cholesterol level, low physical activity, and obesity) are on the rise. The authors of the report, published in the journal Circulation, suggest that emphasis be placed on figuring out how the disease process begins in order to help people take action earlier in life to prevent future problems.
Did you know?
A simple checklist for surgical teams can significantly lower the number of deaths and complications from surgery. Researchers looking into surgical complications have found that providing surgical teams with a 19-item checklist that includes steps as basic as having surgeons and nurses introduce themselves to each other can reduce patient death rates.
The study, published in the online edition of The New England Journal of Medicine, found that the average patient death rate fell more than 40% when surgical teams at eight hospitals adopted a 19-item patient checklist. The items on the checklist included:
* requiring the nursing staff to confirm that everything's been sterilized and all necessary equipment is present
* confirming there's enough blood available if needed
* verifying the identity of the patient and the nature of the procedure
* after the procedure, confirming that no equipment has been left in the patient.
Taking these simple steps help improve communication in the OR and encourages junior staff members to speak up in case they have a concern during the operation.