No abstract

Objectives: To determine the proportion of patients who can be treated with early switch to oral antibiotics and early discharge, to evaluate clinical outcome and patient satisfaction for patients treated with early switch and early discharge, and to define the factors that interfere with early discharge for some of the patients who underwent early switch to oral antibiotic therapy.Design: Prospective study.Participants: Two hundred consecutive hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia.Main Outcome Measures: Number of days needed to switch to oral therapy and length of hospital stay. Clinical outcome and satisfaction with care were evaluated for those patients treated with early switch and early discharge.Results: Early switch to oral antibiotics (within the first 3 days of hospitalization) was performed in 133 patients (67%). Clinical failure was documented in 1 patient. Early switch and early discharge was performed in 88 patients (44%). The mean length of hospital stay for this group was 3.4 days. The most common reason for prolonged hospitalization after the switch to oral antibiotics was the need for diagnostic workup. More than 95% of patients were satisfied with the care they had received. Conclusions:Using simple clinical and laboratory criteria, a significant proportion of hospitalized patients with community-acquired pneumonia (44%) can be treated with early switch and early discharge. This model did not affect patient outcome, decreased the length of hospitalization, and was associated with a high level of patient satisfaction.

Fig. 1. Comparison of distinguished mortalities over time between the continentals advocating 'distancing and handwashing' vs 'masking and handwashing'. 3 COVID-19 Correspondence-e319

OBJECTIVEThe Management of Myelomeningocele Study (MOMS) established several important benefits of myelomeningocele fetal closure, including decreased need for shunting at 30 months. However, the effects of fetal closure on long-term quality of life (QOL) have not been studied. In this study, the authors aimed to analyze the differences in long-term QOL between children treated with intrauterine repair and those treated with postnatal repair.METHODSCaregivers of children treated with either intrauterine or postnatal closure at a tertiary acute care hospital between 1997 and 2003 were contacted to participate. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL 4.0) and a surgical history questionnaire were administered over the phone. Responses to the QOL survey were reverse scored and linearly transformed to a 0–100 scale, with a higher score indicating better QOL. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used to analyze differences in means.RESULTSSeventy-four children had MMC repair between 1997 and 2003. Twenty-three (31%) of the patients’ families responded to the PedsQL 4.0 questionnaire. Of these 23 children, 11 had intrauterine closure and 12 had postnatal closure. The intrauterine group did not differ in age (median [IQR] 17 years [14–17 years] vs 15 years [14–19 years], p = 0.926), sex (27.3% vs 41.7% male, p = 0.469), or lesion level (p = 0.199) from the postnatal group. Fewer patients in the intrauterine group underwent neurosurgical procedures than those in the postnatal group (55.6% vs 100%, p = 0.018). However, of the children receiving neurosurgical procedures, there was no difference in the number of procedures between the intrauterine and postnatal groups (median [IQR] 4 [2–10.5] vs 2.5 [1.75–6.25], p = 0.458). There was no difference in the percentage of children receiving nonneurosurgical procedures between the two groups (100% vs 100%, p > 0.99). Children who underwent intrauterine closure had significantly higher psychosocial health (median [IQR] 70.0 [56.7–83.3] vs 55.0 [42.1–60.0], p = 0.015) as well as total QOL (median [IQR] 56.5 [55.4–81.5] vs 49.5 [32.9–59.0], p = 0.019) than children with postnatal closure. Physical health was not significantly different between the two groups (median [IQR] 62.5 [37.5–78.1] vs 39.1 [18.8–59.4], p = 0.108).CONCLUSIONSRelative to postnatal closure, children who underwent intrauterine closure of MMC demonstrated better long-term QOL as measured by psychosocial and overall QOL metrics. Given that not all medical and socioeconomic confounders were adjusted for due to the low sample size, validation of these results in a larger population and across multiple centers is needed.