This study analysed the clinical outcomes and healthcare costs associated with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) within a tertiary healthcare centre in Singapore.

This is a retrospective, single-centre study. Patient data were extracted from the hospital’s electronic health system, including demographic, clinical and hospitalisation information. Hospitalisation costs were categorised into DFU-related and other hospitalisation costs. A one-way sensitivity analysis was performed to estimate the total healthcare costs associated with DFU.

Tertiary centre within a population suffering from a diabetic epidemic.

All patients aged 18 years or older who received DFU treatment between January 2019 and December 2023 at the Singapore General Hospital were included.

A total of 2857 DFU patients were included in the study. In-hospital mortality remained stable at 5%–6% annually. Among the cohort, 39.1% underwent minor amputations, 19.6% had major amputations and 9.0% experienced both minor and major amputations. The median length of stay for surgical patients ranged from 10 (IQR 4–24) to 13 days (IQR 6–31), compared with 4 (IQR 2–8) to 5 (IQR 3–9.5) days for non-surgical patients. Total costs per admission for patients with DFU-related surgery ranged from US$28 588.96 to US$34 204.77, while for those without surgery, costs ranged from US$6637.59 to US$7955.23. Total hospitalisation costs for DFU during the study period ranged from US$65.87 million to US$72.16 million. All figures were inflation adjusted to 2023 US dollars.

DFU poses a significant clinical and economic burden in Singapore. Understanding the costs associated with DFU is essential for resource allocation and planning in DFU management.

To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the substitution of surgical procedures in benign gynaecology in the Netherlands.

Quantitative longitudinal study evaluating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nationwide healthcare delivery was analysed across six benign gynaecological pathways from 2016 to 2022 using Vektis and Dutch Hospital Data (DHD), accessed via Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek).

The study focused on six benign gynaecological pathways classified using Dutch Diagnosis Treatment Combinations (DTCs): heavy menstrual blood loss (G11), uterine fibroids (G15), endometriosis (G17), prolapse (G25), infertility treatment (F11) and first trimester pregnancy complications (Z12). All patients receiving care within these pathways between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2022 were included. Exclusions applied to all patients under 18 years old and, only within the menstrual disorder pathway, patients over 51 years old to exclude most postmenopausal blood loss cases where no alternative treatment applies.

Cohorts from the initial pandemic year (2020) were compared with four prepandemic cohorts (2016–2019) and late-pandemic (2021) and postpandemic (2022) cohorts.

The primary outcome was the trend in the total number of patients in surgical and non-surgical procedure groups across cohort periods. Secondary outcomes included trends within individual pathways.

The analysis identified a significant reduction in benign gynaecological care during 2020, with an 18.3% (p

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted both surgical and non-surgical procedures within benign gynaecological pathways. Reduced care uptake during the pandemic waves was not recovered but instead forgone. The reduction in surgical procedures did not correspond with increased use of non-surgical alternatives. Future research should prioritise evaluating the long-term impacts of this disruption on patients and society.

Body contouring surgery (BCS) can be applied to reduce the physical and mental burden of excess skin after massive weight loss. Self-reported outcomes of patients are used to assess this burden and to evaluate the effectiveness of BCS. The aim of this study is to clarify what is reflected in self-reports of excess skin after bariatric surgery. We hypothesise that the self-reported burden of excess skin is associated with both objectively assessed excess skin and the disposition to experience negative emotions.

This cross-sectional study will include 68 outpatients presenting at a plastic surgery clinic with a request for BCS. Patients fill out two questionnaires (the BODY-Q and the Sahlgrenska Excess Skin Questionnaire (SESQ)) to measure the size and burden of excess skin as well as the Big Five Inventory (BFI) to measure the disposition towards negative emotionality. Anonymised photographs of excess skin will be rated independently by four plastic surgeons using the Pittsburgh Rating Scale (PRS) Rainbow Classification to establish the objective amount of excess skin. Multiple linear regression analyses will be performed to identify the association of BODY-Q and SESQ scores with objective appraisals of excess skin by plastic surgeons, negative emotionality and demographics. Interobserver agreement for PRS Rainbow Classification will be established by Fleiss’ kappa.

Ethical approval was obtained from the regional medical ethics committee (METC; W20.258) and the institutional review board (Lokale Toetsing, St. Antonius Hospital in Nieuwegein, no. Z23.035). Informed consent of participants will be obtained. The results of this study will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

This review aimed to map the concept of patient safety culture in emergency departments (EDs), describe the availability of evidence related to patient safety culture as assessed by healthcare workers, identify the key focus areas of existing studies and pinpoint gaps in the current literature.

A scoping review followed a comprehensive methodological process that included five steps based on the framework developed by Arksey and O’Malley and updated by Peters et al.

Studies encompassing original research and all pertinent published and grey literature within the last 15 years (2010–2024) that aligned with the population (healthcare workers), concept (patient safety culture) and context (emergency department) framework for this study were included.

PubMed, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), WOS, Embase, MEDLINE (Ovid), and KISS databases were searched for original studies published between 2010 and 2024 that aligned with the topic of this study.

Two researchers independently extracted data from 28 eligible articles using a predetermined data extraction tool. A third researcher reviewed the data to ensure accuracy.

A total of 28 articles were included in the review. The findings indicated an increase in research on patient safety culture in emergency departments since 2021. However, no eligible studies have assessed it within North America. Teamwork within units was the most positively perceived dimension, whereas the reporting of patient safety incidents was the least positively perceived dimension.

Although research on patient safety culture in eergency departments has increased, the findings remain limited in their generalisability due to a lack of diverse methodologies. Qualitative studies are needed to deepen the understanding of patient safety culture in multifaceted contexts. This review contributes to the academic field by bringing us closer to developing tailored interventions that can foster a positive patient safety culture in emergency departments.

The protocol for this scoping review was registered in the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/9f7qc).

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a multifactorial disease in which low-grade inflammation is considered to play a pivotal role. Although colchicine is a widely used anti-inflammatory drug in the treatment of gout, its effect in OA is still disputed due to inconsistent results of short-term clinical trials. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the effect of long-term colchicine 0.5 mg once daily on the incidence of knee or hip replacements in patients with knee or hip OA.

The ECHO trial is a prospective, multicentre, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase III trial in which 1200 participants with knee or hip OA tolerant to colchicine during a 30-day run-in period will be 1:1 randomised to colchicine 0.5 mg once daily or matching placebo using concealed allocation. The primary endpoint is the time from randomisation to the first knee or hip replacement assessed up to 4.5 years. Secondary endpoints include course of pain, physical function, joint space narrowing, low-grade inflammation, quality of life, clinical or radiological onset of OA in a new joint group other than present at baseline, number of participants using pain medication during the study, onset of new cardiovascular events (ie, myocardial infarction, ischaemia-driven coronary revascularisation, ischaemic stroke, peripheral artery disease or cardiovascular death) and direct and indirect costs related to treatment and disease burden due to OA. Harm-related endpoints include the number of (serious) adverse events, the number of withdrawals due to (serious) adverse events and changes in laboratory data (ie, serum creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate and alanine transferase) throughout the study. The primary analysis will be performed according to the intention-to-treat principle.

This trial has been approved by the Medical Ethics Review Committee East-Netherlands. Findings will be presented at scientific meetings and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

NCT06578182.