Search

Purpose: To investigate the long-term safety and efficacy of monovision surgery using implantable collamer lens V4c (ICL V4c) implantation in myopic patients with early presbyopia. Setting: Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Design: Prospective case series study. Methods: This study included 64 eyes of 32 patients with early presbyopia, who underwent bilateral ICL V4c implantation for myopia correction. Parameters, including mean spherical equivalent (SE), uncorrected distance visual acuity, corrected distance visual acuity, intraocular pressure, endothelial cell density, presbyopic add power, visual acuity (logMAR) of dominant eyes (D-eye), nondominant (nD-eye) eyes, and both eyes (Bi) at 0.4 m, 0.8 m, and 5 m were recorded at the last follow-up. Results: All surgeries were uneventful. At the last follow-up, the safety indices were 1.23 ± 0.18 (D-eyes) and 1.21 ± 0.18 (nD-eyes) (p > 0.05); the efficacy indices were 0.95 ± 0.27 (D-eyes) and 0.92 ± 0.28 (nD-eyes) (p < 0.05), the SE was -0.62 ± 0.47 D (D-eyes); and − 1.21 ± 0.78D (nD-eyes) (p < 0.05), presbyopic add power was 1.31 ± 0.58 D. The visual acuity (logMAR) of D-eyes, nD-eyes, and binocular (Bi) at 5.0 m were: 0.06 ± 0.15 (D-eye), 0.21 ± 0.18 (nD-eye), (p < 0.01), and 0.04 ± 0.13 (Bi); 0.8 m: 0.03 ± 0.18 (D-eye), 0.08 ± 0.16 (nD-eye), (p > 0.05), and − 0.02 ± 0.11 (Bi); 0.4 m: 0.08 ± 0.09 (D-eye), − 0.02 ± 0.08 (nD-eye), (p < 0.001), and − 0.03 ± 0.09 (Bi). Subjects were very satisfied or felt excellent with their visual acuity at near (81.25%) and far distances (87.50%), respectively (versus preoperative, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Monovision surgery using ICL V4c implantation is safe and practicable for correction of myopes with presbyopia, with long-term efficacy at near and far distances and patient satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Different countries have various decision-making practices, which are formalized according to laws, rules, traditions, religious beliefs, and ethical views of different cultural backgrounds. We investigated the characteristics and factors associated with the decision-making details in terminally ill cancer patients in a tertiary cancer center in Shanghai, China.Method: A single center, retrospective study was performed among advanced cancer patients who died between March 2007 and December 2013 in ward at Palliative Care Unit, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center.Results: Of 436 patients' end-of-life (EOL) discussions, 424 (97.2 %) occurred between family caregivers and physicians. The main decision-maker was in the following order: spouse (45.6 %), offsprings (44.3 %), parents (3.2 %), son-/daughter-in-law (1.8 %), and relatives (1.4 %). Two hundred twenty-one (47.3 %) patients received at least one of six life-sustaining treatments. One hundred eighty-four (40.4 %) patients continued artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) until death. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was performed in 26 patients (6.0 %). Two hundred fourteen (49.1 %) patients received vasopressors before death. Only two patients received mechanical ventilation and only one patient received tracheostomy. The median time interval since the decision made till death was 20.17 h (95 % CI = 18.94-21.40, range 4.3 to 70.2 h). Patients who were older than 65 years old were less likely to undergo an intensive procedure (AOR = 0.559, 95 % CI = 0.367-0.852, p = 0.007). Patients living in urban settings (AOR = 2.177, 95 % CI = 1.398-3.390, p = 0.001) were more likely to undergo an intensive procedure in the EOL period.Conclusions: This study reflected some Chinese characteristics for decision-making at the end of life among advanced cancer patients. More prospective studies focused on specific EOL issues are required to improve the quality of EOL care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Currently, the most popular hospital payment method in China is fee-for-service (FFS) with a global budget cap. As of December 2009, a policy change means that heart stents are covered by public health insurance, whereas previously they were not. This policy change provides us an opportunity to study how a change in insurance benefit affected the quantity and quality of hospital services. The new policy introduced incentives for both patients and providers: it encourages patient demand for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) services and stent use (moral hazard effect), and discourages hospital supply due to the financial pressures of the global cap (provider gaming effect). If the provider's gaming effect dominates the moral hazard effect, actual utilisation and costs might go down, and vice versa. Our hypothesis is that patients in the higher reimbursement groups will have fewer PCIs and lower inpatient costs. Objective: We aimed to examine the impact of health insurance benefit design on PCI and stent use, and on inpatient costs and out-of-pocket expenses for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in Shanghai. Methods: We included 720 patients with AMI (467 before the benefit change and 253 after) from a large teaching tertiary hospital in Shanghai. Data were collected via review of hospital medical charts, and from the hospital billing database. Patient information collected included demographic characteristics, medical history and procedure information. All patients were categorised into four groups according to their actual reimbursement ratio: high (90-100 %), moderate (80-90 %), low (0-80 %) and none (self-paid patients). Multiple regression and difference-in-difference (DID) models were used to investigate the impacts of the health insurance benefit design on PCI and stent use, and on total hospital costs and patients' out-of-pocket expenses. Results: After the change in insurance benefit policy, compared with the self-paid group, PCI rates for the moderate and low reimbursement groups increased by 22.2 and 20.3 %, respectively, and decreased by 48.7 % for the high reimbursement group. The change in insurance benefit policy had no impact on the number of stents used. The high reimbursement group had the lowest hospital costs, and the low reimbursement group had the highest hospital costs, regardless of benefit policy change. The general linear regression results showed that the high reimbursement group had higher total hospital costs than the self-paid group, but were the lowest among all reimbursement groups after the benefit policy change (DID = 1,202.21, P = 0.0096). There were no significant changes in the other two groups, and there were no differences in the out-of-pocket costs across any of the insured groups. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the benefit policy change did not impact life-saving procedures or reduce patients' burden of disease among AMI patients. The effect of 'provider gaming' was the strongest for the high reimbursement group as a result of the global budget cap pressure. The current FFS with a global budget cap is of low efficiency for cost containment and equity improvement. Payment method reforms with alignment of financial incentives to improve provider behaviour in practicing evidence-based medicine are needed in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]