University of Limerick
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Patient Judgement of Change with Elective Surgery Correlates with Patient Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life.Obtaining pre-surgery PROM measures is not always feasible. The aim of this study was to examine if self-reports of change following elective surgery correlate with change scores from a validated PROM (15-item Quality of Recovery (QoR-15)). This cross-sectional study across 29 hospitals enrolled elective surgery patients. PROMs were collected one-week pre-surgery, as well as one- and four-weeks post-surgery via an electronic survey. We examined associations between patient "judgement of change" at one and four-weeks after surgery and the actual pre-to post-surgery PROM change scores. A total of 4177 surveys were received. The correlation between patient judgement of change, and the actual change score was moderately strong at one-week (n = 247, rs = 0.512, p < 0.001), yet low at four-weeks (n = 241, rs = 0.340, p < 0.001). Patient judgement was aligned to the direction of the PROM change score from pre- to post-surgery. We also examined the correlation between the QoR-15 (quality of recovery) and the EQ-5D-5L (QOL). There was a moderately strong positive correlation between the two PROMs (n = 356, rs = 0.666, p < 0.001), indicating that change in quality of recovery was related to change in QOL. These findings support the use of a single "judgement of change" recall question post-surgery.
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Microbial epidemiology and clinical risk factors of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales amongst Irish patients from first detection in 2009 until 2020.Among CPE strains isolated from 460 patients, Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) was the carbapenemase most frequently detected, accounting for 87.4% (459) of all CPE enzymes. Citrobacter species 177 (33.7%) were the most common species harbouring this enzyme. 428 CPE positive patients (93%) were identified in the acute hospital setting; the most common risk factor for CPE acquisition was history of hospitalisation, observed in 305 (66%) cases. Thirty patients (6.5%) had confirmed infections post-acquisition, of which four were bloodstream infections. There were 19 subsequent episodes of non CPE-related bacteraemia in this cohort. All causal mortality at 30 days was 41 patients (8.9%). However, clinical review determined that CPE was an indirect associative factor in 8 patient deaths.
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Association between tocilizumab treatment of hyperinflammatory patients with COVID-19 in a critical care setting and elevated incidence of hospital-acquired bacterial and invasive fungal infections.Retrospective review of data related to patients with COVID-19 who received tocilizumab in a critical care setting from 1st January to 31st December 2021.