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Background: Necrotizing fasciitis (NF) is a rare but potentially life-threatening soft tissue infection. The objective of this study was to assess the association between timely surgery within 6 h and hospital mortality in patients with limb NF, and to describe the trends in patients with NF, time to surgery and standardized mortality ratio (SMR) over 11 years., Methods: This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study of all intensive care unit patients who had emergency surgery within 24 h of hospitalization for limb NF between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2019 in Hong Kong. Timely surgery was defined as the first surgical treatment within 6 h of initial hospitalization. Appropriate antibiotics were achieved if the patient was given antibiotic(s) for all documented pathogens prior to or on day of culture results. The primary outcome was hospital mortality., Results: There were 495 patients (median age 62 years, 349 (70.5%) males) with limb NF treated by surgery within 24 h of hospitalization over the 11 years. Appropriate antibiotic(s) were used in 392 (79.2%) patients. There were 181 (36.5%) deaths. Timely surgery was not associated with hospital mortality (Relative Risk 0.89, 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.07) but admission year, advanced age, higher severity of illness, comorbidities, renal replacement therapy, vasopressor use, and type of surgery were significant predictors in the multivariable model. There was an upward trend in NF diagnosis (1.9 cases/year, 95% CI: 0.7 to 3.1; P < 0.01; R 2  = 0.60) but there was no downward trend in median time to surgery (-0.2 h/year, 95% CI: -0.4 to 0.1; P = 0.16) or SMR (-0.02/year, 95% CI: -0.06 to 0.01; P = 0.22; R 2  = 0.16)., Conclusions: Among patients operated within 24 h, very early surgery within 6-12 h was not associated with survival. Increasing limb NF cases were reported each year but mortality remained high despite a high rate of appropriate antibiotic use and timely surgical intervention., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Competing Interests: All authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Introduction: The utilisation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) has been rapidly increasing in Hong Kong. This study examined 10-year trends in the utilisation and clinical outcomes of ECMO in Hong Kong., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of all adult patients receiving ECMO who were admitted to the intensive care units (ICUs) of public hospitals in Hong Kong between 2010 and 2019. Temporal trends across years were assessed using the Mann-Kendall test. Observed hospital mortality was compared with the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) IV-predicted mortality., Results: The annual number of patients receiving ECMO increased from 18 to 171 over 10 years. In total, 911 patients received ECMO during the study period: 297 (32.6%) received veno-arterial ECMO, 450 (49.4%) received veno-venous ECMO, and 164 (18.0%) received extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The annual number of patients aged ≥65 years increased from 0 to 47 (27.5%) [P for trend=0.001]. The median (interquartile range) Charlson Comorbidity Index increased from 1 (0-1) to 2 (1-3) [P for trend<0.001] while the median (interquartile range) APACHE IV score increased from 90 (57-112) to 105 (77-137) [P for trend=0.003]. The overall standardised mortality ratio comparing hospital mortality with APACHE IV-predicted mortality was 1.11 (95% confidence interval=1.01-1.22). Hospital and ICU length of stay both significantly decreased (P for trend=0.011 and <0.001, respectively)., Conclusion: As ECMO utilisation increased in Hong Kong, patients put on ECMO were older, more critically ill, and had more co-morbidities. It is important to combine service expansion with adequate resource allocation and training to maintain quality of care., Competing Interests: All authors have disclosed no conflicts of interest.

Background: Interprofessional education (IPE) has been promoted as a breakthrough in healthcare because of the impact when professionals work as a team. However, despite its inception dating back to the 1960s, its science has taken a long time to advance. There is a need to theorize IPE to cultivate creative insights for a nuanced understanding of IPE. This study aims to propose a research agenda on social interaction by understanding the measurement scales used and guiding researchers to contribute to the discussion of social processes in IPE., Method: This quantitative research was undertaken in a cross-institutional IPE involving 925 healthcare students (Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Chinese Medicine, Pharmacy, Speech Language Pathology, Clinical Psychology, Food and Nutritional Science and Physiotherapy) from two institutions in Hong Kong. Participants completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6). We applied a construct validation approach: within-network and between-network validation. We performed confirmatory factors analysis, t-test, analysis of variance and regression analysis., Results: CFA results indicated that current data fit the a priori model providing support to within-network validity [RMSEA=.08, NFI=.959, CFI=.965, IFI=.965, TLI=.955]. The criteria for acceptable fit were met. The scales were invariant between genders, across year levels and disciplines. Results indicated that social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted behavioural engagement ( F  = 25.093, p <.001, R 2 =.065) and positively predicted behavioural disaffection ( F  = 22.169, p <.001, R 2 =.057) to IPE, suggesting between-network validity., Conclusions: Our data provided support for the validity of the scales when used among healthcare students in Hong Kong. SIAS-6 and SPS-6 have sound psychometric properties based on students' data in Hong Kong. We identified quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs to guide researchers in getting involved in the discussion of students' social interactions in IPE.Key MessagesThe Social Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6) scales have sound psychometric properties based on the large-scale healthcare students' data in IPE in Hong Kong.Social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted students' behavioural engagement with IPE and positively predicted behavioural disaffection. The scales are invariant in terms of gender, year level and discipline.Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies are proposed to aid researchers to contribute in healthcare education literature using the SIAS-6 and SPS-6.

Background: The choice of antithrombotic therapy after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is heavily dependent on the relative trade-off between major bleeding (MB) and myocardial infarction (MI). However, the mortality trade-off was mostly described in Western populations and remained unknown in East Asians., Method: This was a retrospective cohort study from 14 hospitals under the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong between 2004 and 2017. Participants were patients undergoing first-time PCI and survived for the first year. Patients were stratified by the presence of MB and MI during the first year. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality between 1 and 5 years after PCI. The secondary endpoint was cardiovascular mortality., Results: A total of 32 180 patients were analysed. After adjustment for baseline characteristics and using patients with neither events as reference, the risks of all-cause mortality were increased in patients with MI only (HR, 1.63; 95% CI 1.45 to 1.84; p<0.001), further increased in those with MB only (HR, 2.11, 95% CI 1.86 to 2.39; p<0.001) and highest in those with both (HR, 2.92; 95% CI 2.39 to 3.56; p<0.001). In both Cox regression and propensity score analyses, MB had a stronger impact on all-cause mortality than MI, but similar impact on cardiovascular mortality., Conclusions: Both MB and MI within the first year after PCI were associated with increase in all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in Chinese patients, but the impact was stronger with MB., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background Percutaneous coronary intervention with radial arterial access has been associated with fewer occurrences of major bleeding. However, published data on the long-term mortality and major adverse cardiac events after percutaneous coronary intervention with radial or femoral arterial access are inconclusive. Method and Results This was a territory-wide retrospective cohort study including 26 022 patients who underwent first-ever percutaneous coronary intervention between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2017 in Hong Kong. Among the 14 614 patients matched by propensity score (7307 patients in each group), 558 (7.6%) and 787 (10.8%) patients died during the observation period in the radial group and femoral group, respectively, resulting in annualized all-cause mortality rates of 2.69% and 3.87%, respectively. The radial group had a lower risk of all-cause mortality compared with the femoral group up to 3 years after percutaneous coronary intervention (hazard ratio [HR], 0.70; 95% CI, 0.63-0.78; P <0.001). Radial access was associated with a lower risk of major adverse cardiac events (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.73-0.83, P <0.001), myocardial infarction after hospital discharge (HR, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.70-0.87, P <0.001), and unplanned revascularization (HR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.68-0.85, P <0.001). The risks of stroke were similar across the 2 groups (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.82-1.13, P =0.655). Conclusions Radial access was associated with a significant reduction in all-cause mortality at 3 years compared with femoral access. Radial access was associated with reduced risks of myocardial infarction and unplanned revascularization, but not stroke. The benefits were sustained beyond the early postoperative period.

Competing Interests: CS Lau is Immediate Past President of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine. Other co-authors report no conflicts of interest.

Background: Although self-stigma is found to have adverse effects on the lives of persons with mental illness, little is known on the self-stigma of these individuals in Chinese societies., Objective: This research study explores the prevalence rate and predicting factors of self-stigma of consumers in two Chinese cities, Hong Kong and Guangzhou., Methods: A cross-sectional research design is adopted which involves a random sample of 266 consumers from Hong Kong and a convenient sample of 208 consumers from Guangzhou. These individuals have been assessed in terms of their self-stigma, recovery, self-esteem and quality of life by using standardized assessment scales., Results: In all, 38.3% of the Hong Kong participants and 49.5% of the Guangzhou participants report to have self-stigma. Also, self-stigma is found to be negatively related to self-esteem and quality of life. A logistic regression analysis shows that hope and well-being are predicting factors of self-stigma., Conclusion: Self-stigma is found to be higher in Guangzhou, probably due to the influence of traditional cultural values. Also, as hope and well-being are found to be predicting factors of self-stigma, suitable recovery-orientated interventions that facilitate hope and well-being should be developed so as to reduce self-stigma of consumers in Chinese societies., (© The Author(s) 2015.)