Many hospital rooms occupied by patients who suffer from Acinetobacter baumannii infections may continue to retain sources of contamination of the deadly drug-resistant organisms. This places hospital personnel and other patients at a risk of infection long after the patient has vacated the room.

According to a survey conducted by an infectious disease specialist at the University Of Maryland School of Medicine, nearly 50% of hospital rooms used by patients who had a an Acinetobacter baumannii infection, were found to be contaminated even after the patient left the room. Signs of contamination were found on surfaces like drawer handles, touch pads and bed rails.

Researchers analyzed rooms occupied by fifty ICU patients who were infected with the Acinetobacter baumannii, a drug-resistant germ that typically causes infections in critical care units. These organisms often cause deadly infections in veterans returning from combat. Researchers tested at least ten surfaces in each room, and found that at least one was contaminated with the bacteria. 40% of the rooms showed signs of such contamination.

The most commonly contaminated surfaces were supply cart handles, with a 20% contamination rate. These were followed by flooring, infusion pumps, touch pads and bed rails. Approximately 85% of the germs that were found on the surfaces were the ones that caused the infection.

What this indicates to Arizona medical malpractice lawyers is the importance of proper sterilization and sanitization procedures for rooms occupied by patients with deadly infections. Arizona medical malpractice lawyers are also aware of other surveys that have shown that rooms of patients who suffer from MRSA and Clostridium difficile infections also have such contaminated surfaces that increase infection risks. However, the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria is a special challenge, because these germs survive even on inanimate surfaces for days, and even months.

Researchers at Washington University have discovered a protein that can help limit the extent of brain injury that occurs when a baby is deprived of oxygen during delivery. Such deprivation of oxygen can cause a condition called cerebral palsy. The researchers found that the protective protein called Nmnat1 can help reduce critical brain damage and limit the extent of cerebral palsy.

Arizona medical malpractice lawyers find a number of causes for oxygen deprivation in a baby during the delivery process. There may be complications from a spike in maternal blood pressure, and this typically happens because doctors fail to monitor maternal health. Doctors may fail to perform an emergency cesarean section, leading to the baby being forced through the birth canal. In such cases, there is a disruption in the supply of oxygen to the baby, causing brain damage with possibly long-term consequences. One of these long-term consequences is cerebral palsy, a condition that affects an individual’s mobility, movement and mental development.

The researchers found that Nmnat1 helps protect brain cells from damage, probably by blocking the effects of the neurotransmitter glutamate, which kills off healthy brain cells. The researchers examined the effects of Nmnat1 on mice that that had suffered oxygen and blood flow deprivation. They found that mice that had genetically-engineered higher levels of Nmnat1 had much lower brain damage to critical areas of the brain that are responsible for causing cerebral palsy, than the mice that did not.

Follow-up studies further found that the mice with the higher levels of Nmnat1 suffered minimal or no brain damage at all. Researchers are now concluding that introducing Nmnat1 doses could help prevent the loss of brain cells in a baby suffering from oxygen deprivation, and thereby block or limit cerebral palsy.

A new study indicates that hospital ICUs can reduce the risk of infections in pediatric patients by following procedures that are tailored specifically for pediatric patients, including a focus on central line maintenance.

Pediatricians from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore studied pediatric infections as part of an ongoing effort by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions. They found that the rate of pediatric ICU infections fell to 2.3 infections per 1000 central line days from 5.2 infections, after they used pediatric-specific procedures.

The doctors recommend a bundle of instructions that Arizona medical malpractice lawyers believe would be easy for any ICU to follow. These include scrubs of chlorhexidine and proper hand washing procedures to reduce infections.

Before insertion, doctors and nurses must take special care to:

• Wash hands before insertion
• Wash the area with a mix of chlorhexidine for a minimum of 30 seconds,
• Use a special insertion checklist that will allow staff to stop insertion in non-emergency situations, when proper hygiene procedures are not being followed
• Use sterile barriers for both staff and patient
• Avoid using iodine at the insertion site
• For maintenance, doctors and nurses must
• Conduct a daily assessment of whether the line is really needed
• Use a chlorhexidine scrub to care for the catheter site
• Change gauze dressings every two days and clear dressings every seven days, unless these are soiled or loosened
• Replace tubing within twenty-four hours after starting an infusion
• Change caps within 72 hours, or according to manufacturer recommendations
• Use a prepackaged change kit

In adult ICUs, hospitals have experimented successfully with central line insertion safety procedures to reduce infection rates. However, the exact same procedures are not likely to benefit pediatric patients. For these patients, proper and daily maintenance of the ports can result in greater benefits in reducing infection rates.

Arizona medical malpractice lawyers and health groups will not be the only ones focusing on the risks from deadly methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infections this month. October is being marked as World MRSA Awareness Month, and the aim is to increase awareness about the need for preventing MRSA infections and finding new treatment options. Events have been planned across the country.

World MRSA Awareness Month is sponsored by the MRSA Survivors Network, and the group is demanding that the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention develop an MRSA surveillance and reporting system for all countries.

MRSA infections are caused by the MRSA organism, which is resistant to many types of antibiotics, including those that are effective against other types of staph infections. The infection can be picked up in both community and healthcare settings, and is frequently seen in hospitals.

Approximately 20,000 people in American hospitals die every year from invasive MRSA infections. There are several reasons why Arizona hospital negligence lawyers come across many infections caused by MRSA in hospitals. MRSA tends to attack people with a weakened immune system, and most people in a hospital are recovering an illness or have undergone surgery. Therefore, the risks of infection are always high. Additionally, MRSA infections can easily spread through the use of contaminated tubes and lines used in a hospital.

This month, Arizona medical error attorneys and doctors recommend proper handwashing and hand hygiene practices in order to prevent MRSA infections. These infections can also be prevented by better environmental cleaning, making use of the most advanced cleaning technologies. Patients who have contracted MRSA should be kept in isolation, and new hospital admissions must be screened for MRSA

Arizona medical malpractice lawyers find scant attention is being paid to the prevention of medical injuries caused by misdiagnoses in hospitals, in spite of the fact that these errors are surprisingly frequent occurrences. According to a new study by QuantiaMD, nearly 50% of physicians surveyed found diagnostic errors in their practice at least once every month.

The report, titled Physician Perspectives on Preventing Diagnostic Errors, focused on 6,400 clinicians who were asked about their experiences with diagnostic errors. Nearly half of them, or 47%, said that they found these errors every month in their practice. However, more than 90% believed that these errors were at least partly preventable.

Most diagnostic errors seemed to be the result of physicians’ failure to consider other types of diagnostic possibilities and atypical patient presentations. Additionally, the risk of diagnostic errors also increases under external pressures. Doctors who order too many diagnostic tests may also run the risk of making errors.

In the survey, 64% of clinicians said that at least 10% of the mistakes they made had directly contributed to patient injury. Diagnoses of some types of conditions are at a higher risk for errors than other conditions. For instance, 54% of the clinicians reported errors in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, followed by bipolar disorder with 51% of the clinicians reporting errors in the diagnosis of this condition. These conditions were followed by appendicitis, breast cancer, myocardial infection, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, heart failure, stroke, and other types of cancers.

Seventy-five percent of the doctors said that atypical patient representation was a factor in misdiagnoses, followed by a failure to consider other diagnoses, which accounted for 50% of errors. Other factors include inadequate patient history, insufficient follow-up on test results, and failure to account for a symptom, failure to order appropriate tests, inadequate physical examination, and failure to correctly interpret results.