DVT Research Papers

Very severe outbreaks may have symptoms that include swollen and tender lymph glands in the groin, throat, or under the arms, and even flu-like feelings such as fever, chills, headache, and a general run down feeling.

- wounds and breaks in the skin (pathogens enter the body through mucus membranes, nose, mouth, gut, genital urinary track - catheters, or wounds like surgical incisions which can cause e.g. MRSA).

Fever, swelling around initial infection site, parasites in blood, sometimes asymptomatic, rarely debilitating or life threatening problems can occur.

I think you have a great capstone project idea Katrina. I didn’t realize there was such deviation in treatment either. When I researched the library I found a review by Flierl, Messina, Mitchell and Da (2015) that acknowledges the fact that orthopedic surgeons vary greatly in their treatment regimen in the prevention of DVT’s in post-operative patients (p. 253). Maybe the article will interest you Katrina as supportive literature on the subject.

Antibiotic use, particularly with clindamycin and linezolid, may be useful in treating GAS-associated necrotizing fasciitis, as they target both M-proteins and exotoxins (5). Some cases have been treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, with recent data suggesting prompt surgical therapy instead is vital for preventing amputations (18). Even after treatment, however, necrotizing fasciitis mortality has been estimated to range from 24%-60% (10).

Necrotizing Fasciitis is a bacterial infection which causes the tissue under the skin to be destroyed. This flesh-eating infection is caused by more than one type of bacteria making it rare in many cases. Once the bacteria enter the body, it can quickly spread causing it to be deadly. The fascia, which is the connective tissue surrounding the blood vessels, nerves, fat, and muscles is infected making the body weak and lack support. In order to acquire this infection the skin needs to be broken such as getting a cut, scrape, or wound. With small injuries

DVTs usually occur within the deep veins of the lower leg. The DVTs that remain in the lower leg and calf tend to be asymptomatic and do not become clinically significant. A DVT is most likely to present symptoms when the proximal leg veins are involved and also when the DVT obstructs venous outflow resulting in inflammation of the vein wall (Bonner and Johnson, 2014). Warmth, redness, pain and swelling in the affected limb are common symptoms of a DVT. If a patient presents with these symptoms, a physical examination of the whole limb should be undertaken by a nurse or physician to observe for signs suggestive of a DVT. Suggestive symptoms of DVTs include superficial venous dilation, tenderness along the course of the vein, unilateral leg oedema, cyanosis, warmth and erythema (Bonner and Johnson, 2014). On examination of the limb, these are the symptoms that the nurse or physician should be looking out for, however, diagnosis on clinical presentation alone is extremely difficult as these symptoms are not specific to DVT and can be present in numerous other conditions. To improve accuracy when determining the probability of a DVT, nurses are advised to use the two level DVT Wells score. Each clinical feature is accompanied with a score. If a patient presents with a score that is two points or higher, it is likely that a DVT is present and

An individual can get a septic infection from many sources, such as surgery, burns, injury, etc. The infectious source can be bacterial, parasitic, viral, or fungal. According to Bernstein& Lynn (2013), Systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) is a clinical syndrome that manifests itself as an acute, nonspecific illness. Sepsis is the first stage of the infection and it manifest itself in many ways, such as an 100.4F or below 96.8F body temperature, white cell count below 4,000 cells/mm3 or, or greater than 12 cell/mm3. If sepsis is not stopped early in its tracks it can lead to sever sepsis which causes acute organ dysfunction, organs such as the kidneys, lungs and heart. If the severe septic infection gets worse, it can lead to the life threating infection, septic shock. Septic shock will reduce the blood

Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection that attacks the soft tissue and the fascia. It is commonly known as the “flesh-eating bacteria”. The term flesh- eating bacteria is not really the word for the disease, as the bacteria does not actually eat the tissue. It also progresses very quickly, greater risk of developing in immunocompromised patients due to conditions such as diabetes and cancer. As the bacterial can be developed in many ways, after abdominal surgery, tiny scratch, C-section, simple cut, or rash, to even a simple blood draw. To get the bacteria it must be introduced into the body, by either direct contact with a person carrying the bacteria or because that person is carrying the bacteria

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a disorder that occurs when a blood clot forms in a vein that is deep inside the body. It is mainly associated with veins in the legs, usually in the lower leg and thigh, but may occur in other parts of the body. About half of the people who have DVT show no symptoms, but people who sit for long periods, are over 60 and smoke are at higher risk, and should be aware of possible signs of a problem.

Cellulitis is a common skin and soft tissue infection with 2.2% of ambulatory visits and an incident rate of 24.6 per 1000 persons (Khawcharoenporn & Tice, 2010). Cellulitis is potentially serious and is one of the common reasons people go to the emergency room and require admission to the hospital (Aboltins, 2015).

CLL is diagnosed with a physical exam, including a complete history, and blood & bone marrow tests. Many types of blood and bone marrow tests can be performed including:

The precursor to thrombin is prothrombin, an inactivated protein produced in the liver. Upon injury prothrombin converts to thrombin with the purpose of catalyzing the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. The process changes the blood plasma soluble fibrinogen to fibrin, which is not plasma soluble. In order to do this the interaction removes two peptide chains from the ends of fibrinogen. Once this reaction is complete fibrin will begin to form a blood clot around the site of injury. While the interaction between fibrinogen is important it is not the only major

Virulence Factors: The most important virulence factor of S. aureus is the specific surface proteins that allow the organism to attach to host proteins. The surface proteins of this bacterium allow it to attach to host proteins such as laminin and fibronectin, which form the extracellular matrix of epithelial and endothelial cells. S. aureus also produces a number of membrane damaging toxins that allow the organism to further invade and harm the host, of which the alpha- toxin is the most well studied and is the protein responsible for septic shock. The alpha- toxin is a protein that binds to a specific receptor in platelets and monocytes in humans, forming pores that eventually destroy the cell.

People who develop gangrene due to a bacterial infection have a higher incidence of death than those who develop it due to other factors, such as cardiovascular diseases, this is down to the fact that bacteria is able to reproduce very rapidly in the individuals body, leading to gangrene developing until enough of the body is compromised for it to become fatal. This difference in mortality is highlighted by the fact that gas gangrene has a 100% mortality if not treated.