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We developed a predictive index for 30-day risk of healthcare-associated CDI using readily available and clinically useful variables. This simple predictive risk index may be used to improve clinical decision making and resource allocation for CDI stewardship initiatives, and guide research design.

ObjectiveTo describe the characteristics of patients who underwent a cranial operation and postoperatively suffered an intracranial hemorrhage significant enough to require evacuation.Materials & methods 3,109 cranial operations were performed at Houston Methodist Hospital (Texas Medical Center campus) between January 2009 and December 2013. Of these, 59 cases required a second operation for evacuation of an intracranial hemorrhage. The information gathered included the patients’ age, gender, past medical history, medications and laboratory data, initial diagnosis, date/type of first and second operations, duration of hospitalization, discharge condition, and discharge destination.ResultsThe study found a 1.90% rate of a postoperative hemorrhage significant enough to require evacuation after a cranial operation. The average age in the cohort requiring reoperation was 63 +/- 14 years with 42 male and 17 female. Hematoma evacuations were performed at various time intervals depending on the pathology treated at the initial operation. The time to second operation was 2.7 days after intraparenchymal hematoma evacuation, 6.0 days after cerebrovascular surgery, 6.2 days after tumor surgery and 9.7 days after subdural hematoma evacuation. The rate of postoperative hematoma development was 9.1% after a subdural hematoma evacuation, while it was only 1.1% in all other operations. Overall, those requiring hematoma evacuation had a 15% mortality rate, 64% were non-ambulatory, and 54% were discharged to long-term acute care facility, skilled nursing facility, rehabilitation facility or hospice.Conclusions Neurological outcomes were poor in patients who underwent a cranial operation and required a second operation to remove a hematoma. This study suggests close observation of elderly males after a cranial operation, especially after subdural hematoma evacuation, and longer observation time for patients undergoing subdural hematoma evacuation than intraparenchymal hematoma evacuation, tumor surgery or cerebrovascular surgery.

Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) acute kidney injury (AKI) definitions were evaluated for cases detected and their respective outcomes using expanded time windows to 168 h. AKI incidence and outcomes with expanded time intervals were identified in the electronic health records (EHRs) from 126,367 unique adult hospital admissions (2012–2014) and evaluated using multivariable logistic regression with bootstrap sampling. The incidence of AKI detected was 7.4% (n = 9357) using a 24-h time window for both serum creatinine (SCr) criterion 1a (≥0.30 mg/dL) and 1b (≥50%) increases from index SCr, with additional cases of AKI identified: 6963 from 24–48 h.; 2509 for criterion 1b from 48 h to 7 days; 3004 cases (expansion of criterion 1a and 1b from 48 to 168 h). Compared to patients without AKI, adjusted hospital days increased if AKI (criterion 1a and 1b) was observed using a 24-h observation window (5.5 days), 48-h expansion (3.4 days), 48-h to 7-day expansion (6.5 days), and 168-h expansion (3.9 days); all are p < 0.001. Similarly, the adjusted risk of in-hospital death increased if AKI was detected using a 24-h observation window (odds ratio (OR) = 16.9), 48-h expansion (OR = 5.5), 48-h to 7-day expansion (OR = 4.2), and 168-h expansion (OR = 1.6); all are p ≤ 0.01. Expanding the time windows for both AKI SCr criteria 1a and 1b standardizes and facilitates EHR AKI detection, while identifying additional clinically relevant cases of in-hospital AKI.