Background Maternal infections are an important cause of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity. We report the main findings of the WHO Global Maternal Sepsis Study, which aimed to assess the frequency of maternal infections in health facilities, according to maternal characteristics and outcomes, and coverage of core practices for early identification and management.Methods We did a facility-based, prospective, 1-week inception cohort study in 713 health facilities providing obstetric, midwifery, or abortion care, or where women could be admitted because of complications of pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum, or post-abortion, in 52 low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs). We obtained data from hospital records for all pregnant or recently pregnant women hospitalised with suspected or confirmed infection. We calculated ratios of infection and infection-related severe maternal outcomes (ie, death or near-miss) per 1000 livebirths and the proportion of intrahospital fatalities across country income groups, as well as the distribution of demographic, obstetric, clinical characteristics and outcomes, and coverage of a set of core practices for identification and management across infection severity groups.

Background and objectives: Post-operative airway symptoms can be troublesome to patients following an uneventful general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. In this study, we compared the effectiveness of lubricating an endotracheal tube with betamethasone gel or lidocaine jelly with using an unlubricated tube in reducing the incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat, hoarseness and cough.Methods: This was a prospective, randomized, single-blind comparative study carried out among 120 ASA I and II patients aged 18-65 years undergoing elective surgery under general anesthesia with endotracheal intubation. Patients were randomly divided into three groups of 40 patients each. Endotracheal tube used for patients in group C was unlubricated, while that for group B and group L were lubricated up to 15 cm mark with 2.5 ml of 0.05% betamethasone gel or 2% lidocaine jelly respectively. Incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat, hoarseness and cough were observed at 1, 6 and 24 h following extubation. Results:At 24 h following extubation, group B had the lowest incidence of postoperative sore throat among the three groups (group B: 12.5% vs group L: 37.5% vs group C: 25%; p = 0.036). Severity of postoperative sore throat at 24 h was less with betamethasone (score 0: 87.5%, 1: 10%) compared with lidocaine (score 0: 62.5%, 1: 37.5%) and control (score 0:75%, 1: 20%) (p = 0.006). Observations at other times and of other variables were comparable. Conclusion:Wide spread application of 0.05% betamethasone gel to lubricate the endotracheal tube significantly reduces the incidence and severity of sore throat at 24 h of extubation but not of hoarseness or cough.

Summary Background Infections are among the leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity. The Global Maternal Sepsis and Neonatal Initiative, launched in 2016 by WHO and partners, sought to reduce the burden of maternal infections and sepsis and was the basis upon which the Global Maternal Sepsis Study (GLOSS) was implemented in 2017. In this Article, we aimed to describe the availability of facility resources and services and to analyse their association with maternal outcomes. Methods GLOSS was a facility-based, prospective, 1-week inception cohort study implemented in 713 health-care facilities in 52 countries and included 2850 hospitalised pregnant or recently pregnant women with suspected or confirmed infections. All women admitted for or in hospital with suspected or confirmed infections during pregnancy, childbirth, post partum, or post abortion at any of the participating facilities between Nov 28 and Dec 4 were eligible for inclusion. In this study, we included all GLOSS participating facilities that collected facility-level data (446 of 713 facilities). We used data obtained from individual forms completed for each enrolled woman and their newborn babies by trained researchers who checked the medical records and from facility forms completed by hospital administrators for each participating facility. We described facilities according to country income level, compliance with providing core clinical interventions and services according to women's needs and reported availability, and severity of infection-related maternal outcomes. We used a logistic multilevel mixed model for assessing the association between facility characteristics and infection-related maternal outcomes. Findings We included 446 facilities from 46 countries that enrolled 2560 women. We found a high availability of most services and resources needed for obstetric care and infection prevention. We found increased odds for severe maternal outcomes among women enrolled during the post-partum or post-abortion period from facilities located in low-income countries (adjusted odds ratio 1·84 [95% CI 1·05–3·22]) and among women enrolled during pregnancy or childbirth from non-urban facilities (adjusted odds ratio 2·44 [1·02–5·85]). Despite compliance being high overall, it was low with regards to measuring respiratory rate (85 [24%] of 355 facilities) and measuring pulse oximetry (184 [57%] of 325 facilities). Interpretation While health-care facilities caring for pregnant and recently pregnant women with suspected or confirmed infections have access to a wide range of resources and interventions, worse maternal outcomes are seen among recently pregnant women located in low-income countries than among those in higher-income countries; this trend is similar for pregnant women. Compliance with cost-effective clinical practices and timely care of women with particular individual characteristics can potentially improve infection...

BackgroundTo determine the influence of spectral domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) changes on visual outcome and persistence of subretinal fluid (SRF) in patients with idiopathic central serous chorioretinopathy (CSCR).Materials and methodsIn a retrospective study done in 48 eyes of 45 patients diagnosed as CSCR, all eyes were subjected to fundus photography, spectral domain OCT, and fluorescein angiography (FA) in selected cases.ResultsRetinal pigment epithelium detachment was present in 22.91% of the cases at presentation. The logMar best corrected visual acuity improved from 0.46±0.29 at presentation to 0.18±0.22 at 3 months (P-value<0.01). The mean foveal thickness was 486.81±146.06 µm at presentation and 259±94.5 µm at 3 months (P-value<0.01) (paired T-test). OCT factors that were associated with poor visual outcome (BCVA>0.3 logMar) were disruption in the inner segment (IS)/outer segment (OS) junction or external limiting membrane (ELM) line and hyper-reflective dots in the intra/subretinal layer (P-value<0.05) (Fischer’s Exact test). Out of the total 48 eyes, 26 had persistent SRF at 3 months. The presence of discontinuation in IS/OS junction and hyper-reflective dots in the intra/subretinal layer were the only two OCT factors that were associated with the persistence of SRF (P-value<0.01) (Pearson’s Chi-square test).ConclusionVisual outcome and persistence of subretinal fluid at 3 months can be predicted on the basis of early morphologic changes in OCT. This will aid in counseling patients regarding its course and may guide us in its management.

Chronic otitis media although rare in developed countries is still a major problem in the developing countries. If untreated, it can lead to life-threatening intracranial complications. In the available literature the incidence and risk factors for cerebellar abscess following mastoidectomy is not known. In this case we would like to emphasize that CT scan before mastoidectomy is not possible in all the cases particularly in developing countries. There is a need to find the factors that will make one suspect the possibility of concurrent intracranial lesions and which will identify the patients prone to intracranial complications.