OBJECTIVES After participating in the CME activity, primary care physicians should be able to: 1. Discuss the efficacy and safety of low-molecularweight heparin (LMWH) and unfractionated heparin for treatment of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) 2. Evaluate the benefits of outpatient versus inpatient therapy 3. Describe components of an outpatient treatment program for DVT 4. Discuss economic aspect...

BACKGROUND The roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Africa will have significant resource implications arising from its impact on demand for healthcare services. Existing studies of healthcare utilization on HAART have been conducted in the developed world, where HAART is commenced when HIV illness is less advanced. METHODS This paper describes healthcare utilization from program entry...

this study was conducted to monitor the rate of inpatient mortality and its associated factors following open reconstruction of abdominal aortic aneurysm (aaa) in a tertiary hospital in tehran, iran. this retrospective study was a chart review of 112 patients undergoing open in­frarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery in one of the main tertiary hospitals in tehran, iran. baseline data (demog...

BACKGROUND Acute deep vein thrombosis has traditionally been treated with unfractionated heparin (UFH), administered intravenously, but low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWH), administered subcutaneously, have recently become available. The authors sought to determine which therapy was more cost-effective for inpatient and outpatient treatment of deep vein thrombosis. METHODS An incremental cos...

We investigated the racial and ethnic variation in health service use among stroke survivors with informal caregivers in a number of Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in one Veterans Integrated Service Network in the southeastern United States. We focused on the role of caregivers as an enabling factor in the use of health services. One hundred twenty-five veterans who had been hos...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES The most cost-effective periprocedural management of patients with mechanical heart valves (MHV) is uncertain. The objective was to compare the effectiveness, safety and costs for inpatient intravenous unfractionated heparin (IVUH) vs. outpatient low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) "bridging" as periprocedural anticoagulation management for MHV patients. METHODS In a cas...

BACKGROUND Disease-specific, multimodal inpatient rehabilitation programmes are designed to improve the physical, emotional, and social functioning of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). This study investigates the effects of a 4-week inpatient rehabilitation program on health-related quality of life (QL). METHODS 84 German patients with CF (16-62 years of age, FEV1 mean 52.9% of the predicte...

OBJECTIVE This paper reviews the findings from 26 international studies that report on the effectiveness of smoking bans in inpatient psychiatric settings. The main aim is to identify which processes contribute to successful implementation of smoking bans and which processes create problems for implementation in these settings. METHOD After performing an electronic search of the literature, t...

INTRODUCTION This study was intended to assess the effectiveness and predictors factors of inpatient blood glucose control in diabetic patients admitted to medical departments. MATERIAL AND METHODS A retrospective, analytical cohort study was conducted on patients discharged from internal medicine with a diagnosis related to diabetes. Variables collected included demographic characteristics, ...