Patients exposed to a surgical safety checklist experience better postoperative outcomes, but this could simply reflect wider quality of care in hospitals where checklist use is routine.

No abstract

Female gender, sevoflurane, smoking and intraoperative hypotension were documented as independent risk factors for postoperative headache. In patients with no previous history of headache, caffeine consumption was an additional independent factor for postoperative headache, while smoking revealed no association.

Fungal infections represent a major burden in the critical care setting with increasing morbidity and mortality. Candidiasis is the leading cause of such infections, with C. albicans being the most common causative agent, followed by Aspergillosis and Mucormycosis. The diagnosis of such infections is cumbersome requiring increased clinical vigilance and extensive laboratory testing, including radiology, cultures, biopsies and other indirect methods. However, it is not uncommon for definitive evidence to be unavailable. Risk and host factors indicating the probability of infections may greatly help in the diagnostic approach. Timely and adequate intervention is important for their successful treatment. The available therapeutic armamentarium, although not very extensive, is effective with low resistance rates for the newer antifungal agents. However, timely and prudent use is necessary to maximize favorable outcomes.