Browsing by Author "Marković, Dragan (7004487122)"

The treatment of severely injured extremities still presents a very difficult task for trauma orthopaedic surgeons. Despite improvements in technology and surgical/microsurgical techniques, sometimes a limb must be amputated, otherwise severe and potentially fatal complications may develop. There is a well-established belief that severe open fractures should be left open. However, Godina proved wound coverage in the first 72 h (after an injury) to be safe and to bring good final results. So early wound cover (no later than one week after an injury) with well vascularized free flaps became the gold standard. Yet for many patients (some of whom have serious health problems), operative treatment needs to be postponed when they arrive to specialized microsurgical departments for microsurgical reconstruction much later than one week after incurring an injury. As the definite wound cover period from one week to 3 months seems to be hazardous, especially due to the potential of infection, we developed a safe, original flap technique that prevents infection and covers important structures such as exposed bones, tendons, nerves and vessels. We named this technique the “close–open–close free flap technique”. It enables difficult wound cover in any biological phase of the wound, by combining complete flap cover first, with the removal of stitches from one side of the flap after 6–12 h. This technique works very well for borderline cases as well; where even after a complete debridement, dead tissue still remains in the wound - making wound cover very dangerous. Closing completely severe open fractures with free (or pedicled) flaps and removing the stitches on one side after 6–12 h, enables orthopaedic surgeons to safely cover any kind of wound in any biological phase of the wound. Additional debridements, lavages and reconstructions can easily be performed under the flap and after the danger of a serious infection has disappeared, definitive wound closure can be carried out. © 2019

In this study we aimed to define relevant prognostic predictors for the outcome of surgical treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. The study included 406 consecutive patients treated between January 1991 and December 2003. There were 337 (83%) male and 69 (17%) female patients aged 67 ± 7.5 years. Fourteen (3.5%) patients had aortocaval fistula whereas 4 (0.98%) had primary aortorenteric fistula caused by aneurysm rupture into the inferior vena cava or duodenum. Reconstruction included interposition of a tube graft (215-53%), aortobiiliac bypass (134-33%), and aortobifemoral bypass (58-14.3%). Findings on admission that significantly correlated with both intraoperative (13.5%) and total operative mortality (48.3%) were systolic blood pressure <95 mmHg, low diuresis, unconsciousness, cardiac arrest, leukocytes >14 × 109/L, hematocrit <0.29%, hemoglobin <100 g/L, urea> 11 mmol/L, and creatinine >180 μmol/L. Intraoperative determinants of increased mortality were aortic cross-clamping time >47 min, duration of surgery >200 min, intraoperative blood loss >3500 mL, diuresis <400 mL, arterial systolic pressure <97.5 mmHg, and the need for aortobifemoral bypass. Respiratory complications and multisystem organ failure were significantly associated with lethal outcome in the postoperative period. Surgical treatment of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm was life-saving in 51.7% of patients. Variables significantly associated with mortality were unconsciousness, low systolic blood pressure, cardiac arrest, low diuresis, high urea and creatinine levels, signs of blood loss, and the need for aortobifemoral reconstruction. Short aortic cross-clamping and the total operation time, low intraoperative blood loss, and well-controlled diuresis and arterial pressure during surgery have improved survival. Therapeutic efforts should concentrate on intraoperative factors that are possible to correct, leading to better survival of these patients. © Annals of Vascular Surgery Inc.

Introduction/Objective Untreated deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is associated with a high risk of pulmonary embolism (PE), and false diagnosis of DVT results in unnecessary anticoagulant therapy, with a risk of bleeding. Accurate diagnosis of DVT and prompt therapy are essential to reduce the risk of thromboembolic complications. The aim of our study was to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of three D-dimer tests (DD PLUS, HemosIL, and VIDAS) comparing to compression ultrasonography (CUS) examination. Methods We observed 350 patients, some with different risk factors. The patients underwent the same protocol (evaluation of the patient’s history, physical examination, and D-dimer testing), and CUS was used as a reference for all the patients. According to Wells score, the patients were divided into groups with low, moderate, and high pretest probability (PTP). Results Most of the examined patients were with moderate PTP. The CUS showed that there was the highest number of examined patients without DVT. Most of the examined patients with a positive CUS finding had proximal iliac and femoral DVT. VIDAS test was positive in the highest percentage in the group of patients with CUS-documented thrombosis. Conclusion All three D-dimer tests used in our study had similar sensitivity and specificity. However, VIDAS test had higher levels of positive and negative predictive values comparing to the others. The comparison of three D-dimer tests by an ROC curve showed that VIDAS test has the highest overall statistical accuracy of all three D-dimer tests. © 2018, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved.