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James K Kuan

Publications and source records attributed to James K Kuan.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Organ Injury Scale for kidney injuries predicts nephrectomy, dialysis, and death in patients with blunt injury and nephrectomy for penetrating injuries.

BACKGROUND: Despite broad clinical use of the American Association of the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) injury scale for kidney, it has only been found to predict the need for renal surgery in single institution series. We sought to validate this scheme for morbidity and mortality in a national cohort of patients with renal injury. METHODS: A retrospective cohort design was used to determine the association between increasing AAST scores and nephrectomy, dialysis, and mortality. The cohort included all patients with a renal injury in the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) from 1994 and 2003. Univariate and multivariate prediction models were used for analysis of data. RESULTS: At the time of review, a total of 742,774 patient records were registered in the NTDB. Renal injury occurred in 8465 patients (1.2%). Increasing injury grade was associated with a greater nephrectomy (RR 12-127), dialysis (RR 1.3-4.7), and mortality (RR 1.3-1.9) rate for blunt kidney injury. For penetrating injury, nephrectomy was the only outcome that was associated with higher grades of renal injury with a RR of 7.7 to 31 for grades III to V injuries. CONCLUSION: The AAST injury scale for kidney predicts for morbidity in blunt and penetrating renal injury and for mortality in blunt injury. Thus, we continue to support its use as a clinical and research tool.

Abbreviated Injury Scale↗

Randomized prospective blinded study validating acquistion of ureteroscopy skills using computer based virtual reality endourological simulator.

PURPOSE: Surgical simulation has emerged in the last decade as a potential tool for aiding acquisition of technical skills, including anesthesia protocols, trauma management, cardiac catheterization and laparoscopy. We evaluate and validate the use of a computer based ureteroscopy simulator (URO Mentor, Simbionix Ltd., Lod, Israel) in the acquisition of basic ureteroscopic skills. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We assessed 20 novice trainees for the ability to perform basic ureteroscopic tasks on a computer based ureteroscopy simulator. Participants were randomized to receive individualized mentored instruction or no additional training, and subsequently underwent post-testing. Pre-training and post-training improvement in performance was assessed by objective simulator based measurements. Subjective overall performance was rated using a validated endourological global rating scale by an observer blinded to subject training status. RESULTS: Demographics and pre-test scores were similar between groups. Post-testing revealed a significant effect of training on objective and subjective measurements. Spearman rank correlation demonstrated a significant association between objective simulator based measurements and the endourological global rating scale. CONCLUSIONS: Use of a computer based ureteroscopy simulator resulted in rapid acquisition of ureteroscopic skills in trainees with no prior surgical training. Results of this study demonstrate the use of a virtual reality ureteroscopy simulator in endourological training. Correlation of simulator based measurements with a previously validated endourological global rating scale provides initial validation of the ureteroscopy simulator for the assessment of ureteroscopic skills.

Adult↗