Latest Articles
- Should community hospitals perform angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction?
A debate about the advantages and disadvantages of community hospitals performing angioplasty for myocardial infarction, even if they have no facilities for heart surgery.
- Postoperative confusion in a 42-year-old man
Recognizing the cause of postoperative confusion and treating the problem: a self-test
- The preoperative bleeding time test: assessing its clinical usefulness
Because of the bleeding time test's low value in predicting perioperative bleeding, it should be abandoned as a routine screening test.
- Postoperative pulmonary complications: risk assessment, prevention, and treatment
Preoperative pulmonary function testing is needed only in high-risk patients; proper management can decrease the risk.
- A 55-year-old man with chronic liver disease and coagulation abnormalities
Assessing the effect of cirrhosis on coagulation and preventing perioperative bleeding: a self-test
- The internist as consultant
Ways internists can improve their effectiveness in evaluating patients, managing surgical complications and communicating with referring physicians.
- Evaluating cardiac risk in noncardiac surgery patients
The history, examination, and resting EKG are the cornerstone of cardiac risk assessment, but new techniques are available for questionable cases.
- Acute dissection of the aorta: options for diagnostic imaging
Although medical therapy should be started as soon as dissection of the aorta is suspected, new imaging methods help confirm the diagnosis.
- Deep venous thrombosis: low-molecular-weight heparins in perioperative prophylaxis
Although low-molecular weight heparins have theoretical advantages over standard heparin in preventing DVT, the differences in outcome have not been dramatic. The important issue is to give some form of prophylactic therapy.