Hospital Medicine Alert – August 1, 2015
August 1, 2015
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Inferior Vena Cava Filters and Recurrent Pulmonary Embolism
Placement of retrievable inferior vena cava filters in individuals with concurrent DVT does not reduce the risk of recurrent pulmonary embolism.
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VTE Occurs Frequently in Patients with Sepsis
The purpose of this multicenter study was to prospectively determine the incidence of VTE among ICU patients with sepsis and septic shock, and to identify independent risk factors for VTE in these patients.
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Duration of Antibiotic Treatment for Vertebral Osteomyelitis
Three hundred fifty-nine patients with pyogenic vertebral osteomyelitis were randomized to 6 weeks vs. 12 weeks of antibiotic treatment in an open-label controlled trial. Six weeks of antibiotics was found to be not inferior to 12 weeks of treatment.
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Antibiotics for Intra-abdominal Infections: Less Is More
Complicated intra-abdominal infections cause significant morbidity and mortality, especially in the elderly. Often these infections are treated with antibiotics until all the signs and symptoms of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome resolve, typically for 7 to 14 days.
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Cryptogenic Stroke and Atrial Fibrillation
In large prospective databases of ischemic stroke, cryptogenic stroke occurs in as many as 30% of all ischemic stroke patients. Many of these patients have the characteristics of cardioembolic stroke, and there has always been a strong suspicion that some of these patients have atrial fibrillation.