Background The VTEPS Network is a consortium of five tertiary referral centers established to examine venous thromboembolism in plastic surgery patients. We report our mid-term analyses of the study’s control group to 1) evaluate the incidence of VTE in patients who receive no chemoprophylaxis and 2) validate the Caprini Risk Assessment Model (RAM) in plastic surgery patients. Study Design Medical record review was performed at VTEPS centers for all eligible plastic surgery patients between March 2006 and June 2009. Inclusion criteria were Caprini score ≥ 3, surgery under general anesthesia, and post-operative hospital admission. Patients who received chemoprophylaxis were excluded. Dependent variables included symptomatic DVT or PE within the first 60 post-operative days and time to DVT or PE. Results We identified 1126 historic control patients. The overall VTE incidence was 1.69%. Approximately one in nine (11.3%) patients with Caprini score >8 had a VTE event. Patients with Caprini score >8 were significantly more likely to develop VTE when compared to patients with Caprini score of 3–4 (OR 20.9, p<0.001), 5–6 (OR 9.9, p<0.001), or 7–8 (OR 4.6, p=0.015). Among patients with Caprini score 7–8 or Caprini score >8, VTE risk was not limited to the immediate post-operative period. Conclusions The Caprini RAM effectively risk-stratifies plastic and reconstructive surgery patients for VTE risk. Among patients with Caprini score >8, 11.3% have a post-operative VTE when chemoprophylaxis is not provided. In higher risk patients, there was no evidence that VTE risk is limited to the immediate post-operative period.

The most significant conclusion of our study is that faculty members, medical students and the 'public' have different thresholds of what is acceptable on a social networking site. Our findings will prove useful for students to consider the perspectives of patients and faculty members when considering what type of content to post on their social media sites. In this way, we hope that our findings provide insight for discussions, awareness and the development of guidelines related to online professionalism for medical students.

There has been limited research that has examined the prevalence of depression and attitudes towards depression and mental health treatment in Arab-American adolescents; we sought to assess these in a predominantly Arab-American community in metro Detroit. A health survey of adolescents aged 12–17 years was conducted (n=98). Participants were recruited from two local community organizations in Dearborn, MI. Depression was assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) Depression Scale, and attitude towards depression and willingness to seek help for mental health conditions were assessed by the Self-Stigma of Depression Scale (SSDS). To assess whether attitudes might be affected by information about mental health treatment, adolescents were randomized to view either an educational video about mental health, or a control video before responding to questions about their willingness to seek help for mental health conditions. Overall, 14% of Arab-American adolescents in this study endorsed moderate or moderately severe depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 11), suggesting a need to increase awareness of and access to mental health services and screening for Arab-American youth.

Background-Using the National Burn Repository (NBR), we sought to identify markers for injury severity and deep venous thrombosis (DVT) risk after electrical injury.

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