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Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a common problem amongst diabetic foot syndrome (DFS) patients, associated with peripheral arterial disease. This analytic cross-sectional study investigates the diagnostic efficacy of the Toe Brachial Index (TBI) in the detection of CAD in 62 DFS patients. The presence of CAD was assessed by longitudinal strain echocardiography, a sensitive method that provides a more accurate measure of intrinsic left ventricular contractility than left ventricular ejection fraction, especially in diabetic patients. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression identified CAD-associated factors. Receiver operating characteristic curve evaluated TBI and toe pressure's diagnostic performance for CAD. p-Values < 0.05 were considered significant. There was a significant association between TBI and CAD, with each 0.01 increase in TBI associated with a 15% decrease in the odds of CAD development (odds ratio = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.72-0.99, p = 0.039). TBI demonstrated an area under the curve of 0.854, a sensitivity of 80.0% and a specificity of 66.7% at a cut-off of 0.69. Additionally, toe pressure exhibited an area under the curve of 0.845, sensitivity of 74.0% and specificity of 75.0% at a cut-off of 68.0 mmHg. Overall accuracy for TBI and toe pressure was 77.4% and 74.2%, respectively, indicating their potential for CAD risk stratification in the DFS population. This study highlights a significant association between low TBI and the presence of CAD in DFS patients. Consequently, TBI emerges as a valuable screening tool for identifying CAD within this population., (© 2024 The Author(s). International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) pose a significant clinical challenge, often leading to amputations and hospitalisation. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics and outcomes of DFUs treated with surgical debridement and standardised wound care. This descriptive cross-sectional study focused on diabetic patients with appropriate vascular conditions, as determined by an Ankle Brachial Index >0.9. Based on their infection status, participants were admitted to Poursina Hospital in Rasht, Iran, and subjected to initial supportive measures, antibiotic therapy and surgical debridement. The study incorporated primary treatment with wet bandages, silver spray and fibrinolysin ointment. Statistical analysis employed SPSS 22 software. Most patients were male (54.7%) and under 60 years old (50.7%). Overweight status was prevalent in 69.3% of diabetic ulcer patients, amongst whom 48% underwent wrist debridement. The 64% and 36% of the cases had grade III and grade II Texas index. Moreover, 96% of patients exhibited signs of infection and were classified as Stage Texas B. Reoperation was necessary for 34.7% of patients. The mean hospital stay was 8.5 ± 7.55 days, and the average recovery time was 15.2 ± 15.19 days. Out of 75 patients, 10 were unable to return to limb function due to disability. In this study, around one-third of patients required secondary repair with grafts and flaps. A small number of them were unable to recover because of underlying disability, and the mean recovery time in other cases was 24 days. Future studies should follow up with patients for longer periods to assess long-term therapeutic outcomes and quality of life., (© 2024 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Optimal management of burns begins with first aid from the first hours of injury. Adequate knowledge of how to perform first aid for burns can reduce the consequences of injury. Therefore, this study aims to determine the knowledge, attitude, and sources of information assessment towards burn First aid among people referred to a burn centre in the north of Iran. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to assess knowledge, attitude, and sources of information towards burn first aid among people referred to a burn centre in the north of Iran in 2023. In this survey, a convenience sampling method was adopted. The variables consisted of four items on socio-demographic information, 15 items on knowledge, ten items on attitude, and one item on sources of information related to burn First aid. A total of 371 individuals responded to the survey. The mean age of participants was 31.90 ± 8.49 years old. The mean score of the total knowledge of the participants in the research was 6.04 ± 3.05. There was a statistically significant relationship between the variables of age, sex, marital status, place of residence, level of education, and history of receiving first aid training with the participants' knowledge level. The average score of the total attitude of the participants was 44.08 ± 3.88. Out of 371 participants, 214 people (57.7%) had an average attitude, and 157 people (42.3%) had a good attitude towards burn first aid. There was a statistically significant relationship between place of residence, level of education, and history of receiving first aid training with the participants' attitudes in the research. In addition, the level of knowledge had a statistically significant relationship with the participants' attitude level in the research (p-value <0.001). The majority of participants have limited knowledge of burn first aid. This lack of knowledge could lead to severe consequences. Therefore, healthcare organizations should review and promote consistent guidelines for burn first aid to tackle and minimize the effect of this grave injury., (© 2023 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The goal of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to provide an overview of the prevalence of surgical wound infection and related factors in patients after long bone surgery. A comprehensive, systematic search was conducted in different international electronic databases, such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science and Persian electronic databases such as Iranmedex and Scientific Information Database using keywords extracted from Medical Subject Headings such as "Prevalence", "Surgical wound infection", "Surgical site infection" and "Orthopedics" from the earliest to the May 1, 2023. The appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies (AXIS tool) evaluates the quality of the included studies. A total of 71 854 patients undergoing long bone surgery participated in 12 studies. The pooled prevalence of surgical wound infection in patients who underwent long bone surgery reported in the 12 studies was 3.3% (95% CI: 1.5%-7.2%; I 2  = 99.39%; p < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of surgical wound infection in male and female patients who underwent long bone surgery was 4.6% (95% CI: 1.7%-11.7%; p < 0.001; I 2  = 99.34%) and 2.6% (95% CI: 1.0%-6.3%; I 2  = 98.84%; p < 0.001), respectively. The pooled prevalence of surgical wound infection in patients with femur surgery sites reported in nine studies was 3.7% (95% CI: 2.1-6.4%; I 2  = 93.43%; p < 0.001). The pooled prevalence of surgical wound infection in open and close fractures was 16.4% (95% CI: 8.2%-30.2%; I 2  = 95.83%; p < 0.001) and 2.9% (95% CI: 1.5%-5.5%; I 2  = 96.40%; p < 0.001), respectively. The pooled prevalence of surgical wound infection in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) was 4.6% (95% CI: 2.3%-8.9%; I 2  = 81.50%; p < 0.001), 2.7% (95% CI: 1.2%-6.0%; I 2  = 83.82%; p < 0.001) and 3.0% (95% CI: 1.4%-6.4%; I 2  = 69.12%; p = 0.006), respectively. In general, the different prevalence of surgical wound infection in patients undergoing surgical treatment after long bone fracture may be caused by underlying factors (gender and co-morbidity) and fracture-related factors (surgery site and type of fracture)., (© 2023 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are considered a major challenge in health care systems. One of the main HAIs, playing an important role in increased morbidity and mortality, is surgical wound infection. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the incidence rate and risk factors of surgical wound infection in general surgery patients. This cross-sectional study was performed on 506 patients undergoing general surgery at Razi hospital in Rasht from 2019 to 2020. Bacterial isolates, antibiotic susceptibility pattern, antibiotic administration, and its type, operation duration and shift, the urgency of surgery, people involved in changing dressings, length of hospitalisation, and levels of haemoglobin, albumin, and white blood cells after surgery were assessed. The frequency of surgical wound infection and its association with patient characteristics and laboratory results were evaluated. The SPSS software package (version 16.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used to analyse the data. Quantitative and qualitative variables were presented using mean (standard deviation) and number (percentage). The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to evaluate the normality of the data in this study. The data did not have a normal distribution. Hence, χ 2 and Fisher's exact tests were used to evaluate the relationship between variables. Surgical wound infection occurred in 4.7% (24 cases) of patients with a mean age of 59.34 (SD = 14.61) years. Preoperative (>3 days) and postoperative (>7 days) hospitalisation, history of immunodeficiency (P < 0.001), and interns responsible for changing dressings (P = 0.021) were associated with surgical wound infection incidence. About 9.5% and 4.4% of surgical wound infection cases were significantly associated with pre- and postoperative antibiotic use. Gram-positive cocci were the most prevalent strains isolated from 24 surgical wound infection cases (15/24, 62.5%). Among these, Staphylococcus aureus was the predominant species, followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci. In addition, the most common Gram-negative isolates identified were Escherichia coli bacteria. Overall, administration of antibiotics, emergency surgery, surgery duration, and levels of white blood cells and creatinine were identified as surgical wound infection-associated risk factors. Identifying important risk factors could help control or prevent surgical wound infections., (© 2023 The Authors. International Wound Journal published by Medicalhelplines.com Inc and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)