Biomedical subjects

Ari K Leppäniemi

Publications and source records attributed to Ari K Leppäniemi.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Treatment of abdominal compartment syndrome with subcutaneous anterior abdominal fasciotomy in severe acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: Managing the abdominal compartment syndrome associated with severe acute pancreatitis by the open abdomen method is associated with considerable morbidity and resource utilization. METHODS: A technique of subcutaneous anterior abdominal fasciotomy is described for the first time in two patients with severe acute pancreatitis. RESULTS: Following the procedure, the intra-abdominal pressure decreased from 30 mmHg immediately to 23 mmHg and to a sustained level of 12-14 mmHg in the first patient, and from 35 mmHg immediately to 23 mmHg and to a sustained level of 14-19 mmHg in the second patient. CONCLUSIONS: The subcutaneous anterior abdominal fasciotomy is a promising method for safe and effective abdominal decompression with sustained effect and avoiding the morbidity associated with the alternative open abdomen techniques.

Abdominal Wall↗

PubMed2005

Abdominal war wounds--experiences from Red Cross field hospitals.

The traditional approach to abdominal war wounds consists of triage, eche-loned care, and mandatory laparotomy for penetrating abdominal injuries, and it remains valid in modern conventional wars with well-organized evacuation and surgical services. Expectant management of abdominal casualties can be considered under difficult circumstances with a high influx of patients exhausting the available resources. This can occur in regional conflicts associated with mass movements of people and with collapsed infrastructure. While always combined with adequate fluid resuscitation, antibiotic treatment, and other supportive care, the expectant approach in patients with penetrating abdominal injuries could be indicated for asymptomatic patients with multiple fragment wounds or for patients presenting several days post-injury in good condition. The focus of surgical resources and competence should be on the majority of patients with intestinal perforation only, who need surgery to save life--but not necessarily on an urgent basis--and who have a good chance of survival. The limited availability of blood products to correct blood loss and coagulation factor deficiencies, and the lack of sophisticated monitoring of hemodynamic variables that call into question the value of a damage-control approach for the most severely injured. Even if the bleeding could be temporarily controlled, the subsequent need for adequate resuscitation before returning the patient to the operating room could be difficult to achieve and would result in incompletely resuscitated patients being reoperated while acidotic, coagulopathic, and even hypothermic. Perhaps, in mass casualty situations these patients should be recognized during triage or at least early during operation, and aggressive surgery should be replaced with adequate expectant management with sedation and analgesics.

Abdominal Injuries↗

PubMed2004

Trauma management in ancient Greece: value of surgical principles through the years.

This article surveys in an interdisciplinary fashion the evolution of ancient Greek medicine and traumatology in particular. In sounding out the key methods and themes of Greek medicine, we cite a range of medical treatises and correlate them to the rich evidence of ancient Greek art (iconography), which often is explicit in its depiction of the management of disease and of trauma in particular. The article begins its survey from Homer, our first source of medical information, and highlights the pioneering work of Hippocrates and the secularized professional guild of the "sons of Aesclepius."

Ceramics↗

PubMed2003

Long-term health-related quality of life in survivors of severe acute pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQL) and postdischarge outcome after severe acute pancreatitis. DESIGN AND SETTING: Observational study in a department of surgery (surgical and general intensive care unit) in a tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: Of 283 patients with severe acute pancreatitis 211 survived; during a follow-up period an additional 27 died. The Rand 36-item Health Survey with accessory question was mailed to 174 eligible patients. The final study population comprised 145 patients (83% response rate). Age- and sex-matched Finnish population scores were compared with the study population; accessory questions were analyzed separately. RESULTS: No clinically significant differences were found in long-term HRQL between study patients and the general population. Of the 145 patients 87% returned to work, 27% suffered recurrent pancreatitis, and 43% developed diabetes. Of 113 patients with alcohol-induced severe acute pancreatitis 30% were abstinent and 28% problem drinkers, alcohol-dependent, or alcoholics. CONCLUSIONS: Up to 13% of severe acute pancreatitis patients surviving initial hospitalization die within a few years. Among the survivors long-term HRQL is comparable to that of the normal population. The majority return to work and reduce their alcohol consumption markedly.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed2003

Predicting fatal outcome in the early phase of severe acute pancreatitis by using novel prognostic models.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Survival in acute pancreatitis and particularly in severe acute and necrotizing pancreatitis is a combination of therapy-associated and patient-related factors. There are only few relevant methods for predicting fatal outcome in acute pancreatitis. Scores such as Ranson, Imrie, Blamey, and APACHE II are practical in assessing the severity of the disease, but are not sufficiently validated for predicting fatal outcome among patients with severe acute pancreatitis. The aim of this study was to construct a novel prediction model for predicting fatal outcome in the early phase of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and to compare this model with previously reported predictive systems. METHODS: Hospital records of 253 patients with SAP were retrospectively analyzed. 234 patients with adequate data were included to the test set to construct five logistic regression and three artificial neural network (ANN) models. Two models were tested in an independent prospective validation set of 60 consecutive patients with SAP and compared with previously reported predictive systems. RESULTS: The prediction model considered optimal was a logistic model with four variables: age, highest serum creatinine value within 60-72 h from primary admission, need for mechanical ventilation, and chronic health status. In the validation set, the predictive accuracy, determined by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value, was 0.862 for the chosen model, 0.847 for the ANN model using eight variables, 0.817 for APACHE II, 0.781 for multiple organ dysfunction score, 0.655 for Ranson, and 0.536 for Imrie scores. CONCLUSIONS: Ranson and Imrie scores are inaccurate indicators of the mortality in SAP. A novel predictive model based on four variables can reach at least the same predictive performance as the APACHE II system with 14 variables.

APACHE↗

PubMed2002

The European experience with vascular injuries.

The rich and diverse heritage of the management of vascular injuries in the 45 independent European countries prevents the authors from revealing a uniform picture of the European experience, but some trends are clearly emerging. In countries with a low incidence of penetrating trauma and increasing use of interventional vascular procedures, the proportion of iatrogenic vascular trauma exceeds 40% of all vascular injuries, whereas on other parts of the continent, armed conflicts are still a major cause of vascular trauma. National vascular registries, mostly in the Scandinavian countries, produce useful, nationwide data about vascular trauma and its management but suffer still from inadequate data collection. Despite a relatively low incidence of vascular trauma in most European countries, the results are satisfactory, probably in most cases because of active and early management by surgeons on call, whether with vascular training or not, treating all kinds of vascular surgical emergencies. In some countries, attempts at developing a trauma and emergency surgical specialty, including expertise in the management of vascular injuries, are on their way.

Amputation, Surgical↗

PubMed2002

Laparoscopic preperitoneal mesh repair or tension-free mesh plug technique? A prospective study of 471 patients with 543 inguinal hernias.

OBJECTIVE: To compare two modem mesh-based "tension free" hernioplasties, laparoscopic repair and mesh plug technique. DESIGN: Prospective, non-randomised study. SETTING: Two major medical centres, Greece. SUBJECTS: 471 patients with 543 inguinal hernias. INTERVENTION: Patients entering the study were treated in two major medical centres either by laparoscopic repair under general anaesthesia (n = 237) in hospital A, or by insertion of a mesh plug under monitored local, epidural, or spinal anaesthesia (n = 234) in hospital B. Patients with known bilateral inguinal hernias, femoral hernias, and those with both inguinal hernias and cholelithiasis were encouraged to undergo laparoscopic repair. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Operative time, hospital mortality, morbidity and length of stay, costs, time to return to work, and recurrence rate. RESULTS: The median operative time for laparoscopic repair was significantly longer (57 compared with 33 minutes, p < 0.001). Laparoscopic repair was more costly (1,200 US dollars compared with 500), and technically more demanding than insertion of a mesh plug. The median postoperative hospital stay, consumption of narcotic analgesics, and return to full work and heavy activities were similar in the two groups, whereas light activities were started earlier after plug repair [5.4 (2.4) compared with 3.4 (1.5) hours, p < 0.0001]. There were 6 recurrences in the laparoscopic group and 1 in the plug group. CONCLUSIONS: Mesh plug insertion is faster, cheaper, technically easier, does not require general anaesthesia, and is suitable to be done by surgeons as part of their general practice without special instruments and by junior surgeons. Plug repair resulted in fewer short or long term complications and reduced the recurrence rate.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2002

Multiple organ dysfunction associated with severe acute pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVE: To compare three different multiple organ dysfunction scores in predicting hospital mortality rates and to discover which one best assesses organ dysfunction/failure in patients with severe acute pancreatitis in a general intensive care unit. DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study. SETTING: Surgical department and a ten-bed general intensive care unit in a tertiary care hospital. PATIENTS: Among the 178 consecutive patients admitted to the surgical department with severe acute pancreatitis from 1994 to 1998, 113 patients treated in the general intensive care unit underwent study. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS: Clinical and laboratory data were collected during a period of 35 days. Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, Multiple Organ Dysfunction (MOD) score, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score, and Logistic Organ Dysfunction (LOD) score were calculated and compared regarding hospital mortality rate. In addition, daily maximum score and a total maximum score (sum of the highest values for each organ dysfunction) were calculated for all three scores. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was used as a measure of accuracy of the scores. The highest accuracy was revealed with daily maximum scores with the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.847 for SOFA, 0.844 for MOD, and 0.836 for LOD. According to the maximum SOFA score, the highest mortality rate was associated with liver (83%, p <.001) and renal (63%, p <.001) failures. The mortality ratio with two organ failures ranged from 50% to 91%. The highest mortality rate (91%) was for a combination of hepatic and renal failure. In multiple logistic regression analysis, only hepatic, renal, and cardiovascular failure and previous cardiovascular medication were independent risk factors for hospital mortality. CONCLUSION: In patients with severe acute pancreatitis, organ dysfunction scores (MOD, SOFA, LOD) show good accuracy, comparable with APACHE II in predicting hospital mortality. The maximum daily organ dysfunction scores were simple and useful in assessing multiple organ dysfunction and in predicting hospital mortality rates of patients with severe acute pancreatitis.

APACHE↗