Ochsner Medical Center

About: Ochsner Medical Center is a healthcare organization based out in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Medicine. The organization has 980 authors who have published 1159 publications receiving 49961 citations. The organization is also known as: Ochsner Hospital & Ochsner Foundation Hospital.

Prospective, multicenter, randomized, controlled trial evaluating the performance of a novel combination powder vs hemostatic matrix in cardiothoracic operations

Abstract: AIM This trial compared the hemostatic performance of a novel combination powder (CP) to a control hemostatic matrix (HM) in cardiothoracic operations. METHODS Patients meeting eligibility criteria were enrolled after providing informed consent. Subjects were randomized intraoperatively to receive CP (HEMOBLAST Bellows; Biom'up, France) or HM (FLOSEAL Hemostatic Matrix; Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Hayward, CA). Bleeding was assessed using a clinically validated, quantitative bleeding severity scale. The primary endpoint was total time to hemostasis (TTTH), from the start of device preparation, as an indicator of when a surgeon asks for a surgical hemostat until hemostasis was achieved. TTTH at 3 minutes was utilized for the primary analysis, while TTTH at 5 minutes was considered as a secondary endpoint. RESULTS A total of 105 subjects were enrolled across four institutions. The primary efficacy endpoint for the superiority of CP relative to HM for success at achieving hemostasis within 3 minutes was met, with 64.2% of the CP group achieving hemostasis compared with 9.6% of the HM group, a difference of 54.54% (37.4%-71.6%; P < .001 for superiority). The secondary efficacy endpoint was also met, with 92.5% of the CP group achieving hemostasis at 5 minutes versus 44.2% in the HM group, a difference of 48.2% (31.1%-65.4%; P < .001 for noninferiority). There were no device-related adverse events. CONCLUSIONS In this multicenter, randomized, controlled trial, comparison of CP to HM revealed CP superiority and noninferiority for TTTH at 3 and 5 minutes, respectively.

Association Between Compliance with Triage Directions from an Organized State Trauma System and Trauma Outcomes

Abstract: Background The Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LERN), a statewide trauma system, has a single communication center with real-time data on hospital capacity across the state. With these data, scene information, and a standardized triage protocol, prehospital providers are directed to the most appropriate hospital. The purpose of our study was to compare outcomes between those patients who complied with the LERN communication center direction and those who did not. Study Design Trauma patients directed by LERN from the field in 2014 were included. Patients who followed the LERN communication center direction were considered the compliant group. Patients brought to a hospital inconsistent with the LERN direction were considered the noncompliant group. Chi-square analysis was used to compare differences between groups and a p value of Results During the study period, LERN directed 14,071 patients to a destination hospital. Prehospital providers were compliant with the LERN direction in 13,037 (92.7%) patients and noncompliant in 1,034 (7.3%) patients. There were fewer patients in the compliant group (570 of 13,037 [4.3%]) requiring transfer to a second hospital than in the noncompliant group (312 of 1,034 [30.2%]) (p Conclusions Following direction from a central communication center with real-time hospital capacity data yielded a 6-fold decrease in secondary transfer and a 3-fold decrease in mortality. These data emphasize the value of an organized statewide trauma network that routes patients to the appropriate facilities.

Long-Term Denervated Rat Schwann Cells Retain Their Capacity to Proliferate and to Myelinate Axons in vitro

Abstract: Functional recovery is poor after peripheral nerve injury and delayed surgical repair or when nerves must regenerate over long distances to reinnervate distant targets. A reduced capacity of Schwann cells (SCs) in chronically denervated distal nerve stumps to support and interact with regenerating axons may account for the poor outcome. In an in vitro system, we examined the capacity of adult, long-term denervated rat SCs to proliferate and to myelinate neurites in co-cultures with fetal dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Non-neuronal cells were counted immediately after their isolation from the distal sciatic nerve stumps that were subjected to acute denervation of 7 days or chronic denervation of either 7 weeks or 17 months. Thereafter, equal numbers of the non-neural cells were co-cultured with purified dissociated DRG neurons for 5 days. The co-cultures were then treated with 3H-Thymidine for 24 h to quantitate SC proliferation with S100 immunostaining and autoradiography. After a 24-day period of co-culture, Sudan Black staining was used to visualize and count myelin segments that were elaborated around DRG neurites by the SCs. Isolated non-neural cells from 7-week chronically denervated nerve stumps increased 2.5-fold in number compared to ~2 million in 7 day acutely denervated stumps. There were only <0.2 million cells in the 17-week chronically denervated stumps. Nonetheless, these chronically denervated SCs maintained their proliferative capacity although the capacity was reduced to 30% in the 17-month chronically denervated distal nerve stumps. Moreover, the chronically denervated SCs retained their capacity to myelinate DRG neurites: there was extensive myelination of the neurites by the acutely and chronically denervated SCs after 24 days co-culture. There were no significant differences in the extent of myelination. We conclude that the low numbers of surviving SCs in chronically denervated distal nerve stumps retain their ability to respond to axonal signals to divide and to elaborate myelin. However, their low numbers consequent to their poor survival and their reduced capacity to proliferate account, at least in part, for the poor functional recovery after delayed surgical repair of injured nerve and/or the repair of injured nerves far from their target organs.

Clarithromycin for safe and cost-effective reduction of cyclosporine doses in lung allograft recipients.

Abstract: Background.This study was done to analyze the economic effect of clarithromycin on the daily dosing of cyclosporine in lung transplantation.Methods.Nine consecutive patients (mean age ± SEM, 34.6 ± 5.2 years) had transplantation from June 1995 to June 1996. Median follow-up time was 649 days