To evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted intervention in improving emergency department (ED) patient privacy and satisfaction in the crowded ED setting.

Methylation levels of long interspersed nucleotide elements (LINE-1) are representative of genome-wide methylation status and crucial in maintaining genomic stability and expression. Their prognostic impact on colon cancer patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy has not been well established. We evaluated the association between LINE-1 methylation status and clinicopathologic features and postoperative oncological outcomes in stage III colon cancer patients. 129 UICC stage III colon cancer patients who had received radical resection and FOLFOX adjuvant chemotherapy were enrolled. Global methylation was estimated by analyzing tumor LINE-1 methylation status using bisulfite-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and pyrosequencing assay. Demographics, clinicopathological data, and postoperative outcomes were recorded by trained abstractors. Outcome measurements included postoperative recurrence and disease-free survival. Univariate, multivariate, and survival analyses were conducted to identify prognostic factors of oncological outcomes. The LINE-1 methylation of all 129 patients was measured on a 0–100 scale (mean 63.3; median 63.7, standard deviation 7.1), LINE-1 hypomethylation was more common in patients aged 65 years and above (61.7%±7.6% vs. 64.6±6.4, p=0.019) and those with post-therapeutic recurrence (61.7±7.4 vs 64.3±6.7, p=0.041). Considering risk adjustment, LINE-1 hypomethylation was found to be an independent risk factor of post-therapeutic recurrence (Adjusted OR=14.1, p=0.012). Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients in the low methylation group had shorter period of disease free survival (p=0.01). In a stratified analysis that included 48 patients with post-therapeutic recurrence, it was found that those who experienced shorter period of disease free survival (≦6 months) appeared to have lower LINE-1 methylation levels than patients who reported of recurrence after 6 months (56.68±15.75 vs. 63.55±7.57, p=0.041) There was a significantly greater risk of early postoperative recurrence and a shorter period of disease-free survival in Stage III colon cancer patients exhibiting LINE-1 hypomethylation status after being treated with radical resection and FOLFOX chemotherapy.

A lipid emulsion composed of soybean oil (long-chain triglycerides, LCT), medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) and n-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) was evaluated for immune-modulation efficacy, safety, and tolerance in patients undergoing major surgery for gastric and colorectal cancer.

Obtaining adequate informed consent from trauma patients is challenging and time-consuming. Healthcare providers must communicate complicated medical information to enable patients to make informed decisions. This study aimed to explore the challenges of obtaining valid consent and methods of improving the quality of the informed consent process for surgical procedures in trauma patients. We conducted a systematic review of relevant English-language full-text original articles retrieved from PubMed (1961–August 2018) that had experimental or observational study design and involved adult trauma patients. Studies involving informed consent in clinical or research trials were excluded. Titles and abstracts of searched articles were reviewed and relevant data were extracted with a structured form. Results were synthesized with a narrative approach. A total of 2044 articles were identified in the initial search. Only eight studies were included in the review for narrative synthesis. Six studies involved orthopedic surgeries, one involved nasal bone surgeries, and one involved trauma-related limb debridement. Only one study was conducted in an emergency department. Information recall was poor for trauma patients. Risk recall and comprehension were greater when written or video information was provided than when information was provided only verbally. Patient satisfaction was also greater when both written and verbal information were provided than when verbal information alone was provided; patients who received video information were more satisfied than patients who received written or verbal information. Many articles have been published on the subject of informed consent, but very few of these have focused on trauma patients. More empirical evidence is needed to support the success of informed consent for trauma patients in the emergency department, especially within the necessarily very limited time frame. To improve the informed consent process for trauma patients, developing a structured and standardized informed consent process may be necessary and achievable; its effectiveness would require evaluation. Adequately educating and training healthcare providers to deliver structured, comprehensive information to trauma patients is crucial. Institutions should give top priority to ensuring patient-centered health care and improved quality of care for trauma patients.

To identify factors affecting the harvest of lymph nodes (LNs) and to investigate the association between examining a minimum of 12 LNs and clinical outcomes in stage I-III colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. The clinicopathologic features and the number of examined LNs for 1167 stage I-III CRC patients were analyzed to identify factors affecting the number of LNs harvested and the correlations between clinical outcomes and high harvests (≧12 LNs) and low harvests (<12 LNs). A multivariate analysis showed that age (P = 0.007), tumor size (P = 0.030), and higher T stage (P = 0.001) were independent factors affecting the examinations of LNs in colon cancer and that tumor size (P = 0.015) was the only independent factor in rectal cancer. Patients with low harvests had poorer overall survival with stage II and stage III CRC (stage II: P < 0.0001; III: P = 0.001) and poorer disease-free survival for stages I-III (stage I: P = 0.023; II: P < 0.0001; III: P = 0.001). The factors influencing nodal harvest are multifactorial, and an adequate number of examined LNs (≧12) is associated with a survival benefit. Removal of at least 12 LNs will determine the lymph node status reliably.

The occurrence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a critical life-threatening event which frequently warrants early defibrillation with an automated external defibrillator (AED). The optimization of allocating a limited number of AEDs in various types of communities is challenging. We aimed to propose a two-stage modeling framework including spatial accessibility evaluation and priority ranking to identify the highest gaps between demand and supply for allocating AEDs. In this study, a total of 6135 OHCA patients were defined as demand, and the existing 476 publicly available AEDs locations and 51 emergency medical service (EMS) stations were defined as supply. To identify the demand for AEDs, Bayesian spatial analysis with the integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) method is applied to estimate the composite spatial risks from multiple factors. The population density, proportion of elderly people, and land use classifications are identified as risk factors. Then, the multi-criterion two-step floating catchment area (MC2SFCA) method is used to measure spatial accessibility of AEDs between the spatial risks and the supply of AEDs. Priority ranking is utilized for prioritizing deployment of AEDs among communities because of limited resources. Among 6135 OHCA patients, 56.85 % were older than 65 years old, and 79.04 % were in a residential area. The spatial distribution of OHCA incidents was found to be concentrated in the metropolitan area of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. According to the posterior mean estimated by INLA, the spatial effects including population density and proportion of elderly people, and land use classifications are positively associated with the OHCA incidence. Utilizing the MC2SFCA for spatial accessibility, we found that supply of AEDs is less than demand in most areas, especially in rural areas. Under limited resources, we identify priority places for deploying AEDs based on transportation time to the nearest hospital and population size of the communities. The proposed method will be beneficial for optimizing resource allocation while considering multiple local risks. The optimized deployment of AEDs can broaden EMS coverage and minimize the problems of the disparity in urban areas and the deficiency in rural areas.