Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Cataract is one of the most common eye diseases especially in children and adolescents in two age ranges, and many of these patients need to surgery throughout life. The purpose of this study was to compare the efficacy and side effects of midazolam-ketamine and midazolam-fentanyl for sedation in adult cataract surgery.
Methods: In this study, which was a case-control study, 80 patients were referred to Farabi Hospital in Tehran from November to December 2018 for cataract surgery and underwent surgery. The patients were divided into two groups (n=40). In this study the method of using midazolam-ketamine (ketamine group) was compared with the combination of midazolam-fentanyl (fentanyl group). The hemodynamic variables such as blood pressure and heart rate before surgery were measured and then measured every 5 minutes during operation and were recorded. In addition to hemodynamic variables, other variables such as agitation, surgeon satisfaction, recovery nurse satisfaction, degree of oxygen saturation during surgery, and nausea and vomiting were compared between the two groups.
Results: In this study, 18 patients (45%) of fentanyl group and 17 patients (42.5%) of ketamine group were female. Patients in the two groups had similar demographic distribution before surgery. In this study about blood pressure after surgery, from 80 patients, 22 cases had blood pressure below 119.79 mmHg, of which 3 (13.6%) cases were in ketamine group and 19 cases (86.4%) in fentanyl group. In general, 7.5% of ketamine group and 47.5% of fentanyl group had a blood pressure lower than 119.79 mmHg. Hemodynamic changes and hypotension after sedation was more in fentanyl group. Two groups did not differ in terms of heart rate, arterial oxygen saturation during surgery, surgeon satisfaction during surgery, and postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Conclusion: Administration of ketamine-midazolam versus fentanyl-midazolam in patients who underwent cataract surgery by sedation led to more stable hemodynamic variables intraoperatively and other side effects such as heart rate, oxygen saturation, surgeon satisfaction, nausea and vomiting were similar between two groups.

Background: Nausea and vomiting is one of the most common complications after the strabismus surgery. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of atropine versus ondansetron administration on the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and duration of recovery stay in patients undergoing this procedure.
Methods: In this case-control study, 90 patients between 3 to 30 years old who were candidates for elective strabismus surgery in Farabi Eye Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, from February to April 2019, were randomly divided into three groups (placebo, ondansetron and atropine group). Patients who had taken hypnotic drugs while entering the operating room were excluded. In all patients, after arriving into the operating room and installation of standard monitoring equipment and peripheral vein implantation, anesthesia was induced by receiving 0.05 mg/kg midazolam, fentanyl 1 μg/kg and propofol 2.5 mg/kg. After induction of anesthesia, placebo group was compared with ondansetron group and atropine group that received 0.1 mg/kg ondansetron and 30 µg/kg atropine, respectively. The rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting, duration of recovery stay and satisfaction of recovery nurses were recorded and compared between groups.
Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the three groups in terms of mean age, weight, and gender. It seems that group matching is appropriate and there are no confounding factors for demographic variables. Administration of atropine and ondansetron significantly reduces the incidence of nausea and vomiting postoperatively and in recovery. There was no significant difference in the incidence of nausea and vomiting between the atropine and ondansetron groups. Duration of recovery stay was decreased after ondansetron and atropine administration versus control group. Postoperative laryngospasm and bronchospasm were not observed in any of the three groups after surgery and at the time of recovery. The satisfaction of recovery nurses in both atropine and ondansetron groups were higher than control group.
Conclusion: It seems that the administration of atropine as much as ondansetron can be effective in reducing the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting and the length of recovery stay in patients who undergoing strabismus surgery.

Background: Long after the implementation of the “Health System Transformation Project”, no comprehensive assessment of patient and nurse satisfaction rate has been carried out in Iran based on available databases. Thus, this review study was designed and performed to answer this question: “How is the evaluation of the Health System Transformation Project in nurse and patient satisfaction dimensions.”
Methods: A systematic review of related studies based on preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was performed via keywords such as “Health System Transformation Project”, “Transformation Project”, “health”, “Iran”, “challenges”, “physician”, “nurse”, “patient”, and “satisfaction” to search Iranian (Magiran and Scientific Information Database, SID) and international databases (PubMed, ISI web of knowledge, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ProQuest) with OR and AND operators from March 2014 to April 2019. Also the quality of studies was assessed using STROB checklist (special for cross-sectional studies). Then required information (for example type of studies, sample size, mean age of participants and satisfaction score) were gathered from studies.
Results: From 43 articles that were gathered from primary stages, 18 articles were selected after passing different screening levels. On average, the level of patiaent satisfaction with the Health System Transformation Project was acceptable. Ghazvin province was seems more successful in satisfaction of patients against of other provinces. However, various positive and negative reports were found about the satisfaction of nursing groups. Generally, it seems that Tehran province (at the center of Iran) was more successful in performing the Health System Transformation Project (from the aspect of satisfaction of different groups).
Conclusion: Based on obtained results, patient’s satisfaction was appropriate in most of studies and also in nursing group was under average level.

Background: Cataract is one of the most common eye diseases especially in elderly patients and most of these patients require surgery. In the process of sedation, different drugs are used, each with its advantages and disadvantages. Dexmedetomidine is one of the drugs that has recently received special attention for sedation. In this study, we compared the drug combination of dexmedetomidine-fentanyl with midazolam-fentanyl in cataract surgery.
Methods: In a case-control study, the patients who underwent cataract surgery by a surgeon with topical anesthesia and sedation techniques were included in the target group. Seventy patients were divided into two groups of 35 according to a random number table. One group received dexmedetomidine-fentanyl (dexmedetomidine group) and the other received midazolam-fentanyl (midazolam group). Age, sex, weight, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, patient sedation, surgeon satisfaction, recovery nurse satisfaction, and postoperative nausea and vomiting were compared between the two groups. The study was performed in the Farabi Hospital, Tehran, Iran, from October to November 2019.
Results: Patients in the two groups were similar in age, sex, weight, and preoperative hemodynamic variables. There was no significant difference in preoperative systolic and diastolic blood pressure between the two groups (P=0.150). However, those who received dexmedetomidine had significantly lower intraoperative heart rate (P<0.001). The difference in postoperative systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as postoperative heart rate was significantly lower in the dexmedetomidine group (P<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in postoperative sedation (P=0.93). The surgeon’s satisfaction was no significant difference between the two groups (P=0.17). Also, the rate of recovery nurse satisfaction was not significantly different between the two groups (P=0.21). The incidence of nausea and vomiting was similar in both groups (P=1.00).
Conclusion: Sedation with dexmedetomidine decreases blood pressure and heart rate. Therefore, it is recommended to use dexmedetomidine more cautiously in patients with unstable hemodynamics and especially in short surgical procedures.

Background: Cataract surgery is one of the most common surgeries in the world, especially in elderly patients, and often performed topically with sedative agents. Ketamine is one of the most commonly used agents and the effect of different doses on intraocular pressure is in dispute. The present study investigates the effect of a low dose of ketamine on intraocular pressure in patients undergoing cataract surgery.
Methods: This case-control study was performed in Farabi Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences from January 2020 to February 2020. In this study 92 patients undergoing cataract surgery were randomly divided into two groups of 46 patients. Patients' intraocular pressure and blood pressure were measured at baseline, and then all patients received 1 mg midazolam and 1 μg/kg fentanyl before initiation of the study. In the case group, 0.15 mg/kg ketamine was injected intravenously. Intraocular pressure and blood pressure of all subjects were measured three minutes after injection of sedation. Also, postoperative pain, need for opioids and, postoperative nausea and vomiting were compared between the two groups.

Background: Currently many hospitals around the country face increasing demands of their patients and readmission.The rate of readmission is a useful indicator for determining the performance of healthcare system and it shows the quality of services in the medical institutions. Readmissions have high economic, social and financial impact and studying the related factors seems to be high priority for healthcare systems.
Methods: This qualitative study performed by phenomenological method in three educational hospitals in Kerman from April to September of 2017. Data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews using targeted sampling among all patients who were hospitalized at internal medicine wards, nurses who were working in those wards, and in charge physicians. In total twenty patients, fifteen nurses, and five physicians were selected for interviews. The including criteria were for patients, the history of hospitalization at least once, during one month after the initial hospitalization, and for service providers, familiarity with the subject, work experience in the relevant department of at least three years for nurses and five years for physicians. A seven-step clustering method was used to analyze the data.
Results: The analysis of the interviews led to the identification of three main themes and 11 sub-themes. The main themes included patients' characteristics, manpower and clinical factors, hospital, and environmental factors. Some of the sub-codes included economic and living conditions, marriage status, insurance coverage, patients' beliefs and expectations, the presence or absence of underlying disease, education, lifestyle habits, dietary beliefs of hospitalized patients, lack of trust in medical staff, communication and cultural barriers, ignorance of service providers in treatment, lack of facilities, lack of motivation in medical staff, stressors and finally lack of hospital equipment.

Background: Sore throat after endotracheal intubation during general anesthesia is a common complaint of patients especially in children. Strabismus surgery in one of the common procedures in child patients. The present study investigates the use of intratracheal ketamine administration in reducing sore throat after strabismus surgery.
Methods: This study was performed on 60 patients undergoing elective strabismus surgery under general anesthesia from December 2019 to February 2020 in Farabi eye hospital, Tehran University of medical sciences, Tehran, Iran. These cases were referred to our center for strabismus operation from other centers of our country. Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups. After sufficient depth of anesthesia with sevoflurane and injection of fentanyl, endotracheal intubation was performed. In the control group, the endotracheal tube was inserted and 2 ml of ketamine solution at a concentration of 5 mg/ml were administered in endotracheal tube. The severity of sore throat, length of stay in recovery, incidence of delirium in recovery, satisfaction of recovery nurses and their parents and other complications were compared between the two groups.

Background: Age is a strong risk factor for increasing the risk of severity and death from Covid-19. The risk of hospitalization for Covid-19 disease increases with age. Since the elderly constitute a large proportion of Covid-19 patients, the present study was performed to evaluate the severity of the disease in the hospitalized elderly due to Covid-19 and the delay in hospitalization and death resulting from it, for better disease management.
Methods: The present retrospective cohort study was performed on 444 elderly patients with Covid-19 admitted from 1 April until late October 2020 in Baharloo Hospital in Tehran, Iran. After being diagnosed using the results of RT-PCR and CT scan, patients, were divided into 3 groups: moderate, severe and very severe based on the severity of the disease. Analysis of variance was used to compare quantitative data and a chi-square test was used to examine qualitative variables in disease groups.
Results: From 444 elderly participants in the study, 73% were infected moderately, 15% severely, and 12% had a very severe form. The mean age was 72.90±8.42 and patients with a very severe form of the disease (75.68±8.28) were older. The average time from the onset of symptoms to hospitalization was 7 days. In the elderly with a very severe form of the disease, respiratory dyspnea (P=0.002) and decreased level of consciousness (P<0.0001) were higher. The average hospital stay was 7 days. In very severe form it lasted up to 11 days. ICU mortality and hospitalization were higher in patients with very severe forms of the disease. With the increasing delay in the days of hospitalization, the severity of the disease and mortality has increased.
Conclusion: The study showed that prolonging the onset of symptoms till hospitalization worsens prognosis and also exacerbates the disease and increases mortality in the elderly.

Methods: In this retrospective and descriptive-analytical study, men with isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism based on the normality of other pituitary axes who had a tendency to be fertile were studied. From November 2017 to February 2020, these patients had been referred to the doctor at the endocrinology and urology clinics of Ahvaz for fertility purposes. The initial test was based on clinical examinations and testosterone measurement and sperm count for the patients was recorded after the treatment. The treated patients simultaneously received HMG 75 units every other day (three times a week) and HCG 5000 units every other day. Hormonal evaluation and clinical examinations were assessed again. Results: This research showed that the size of the testicles increased in 54.8% of these patients. Secondary characteristics (secondary hair growth) were developed in 88.9% of the patients. Spermatogenesis induction occurred in 36 patients, 29 of whom became fathers. Meanwhile, in 67.3% of patients, sexual desire and in 69.4% of them hormonal activity increased. In addition, it was observed that the response time to replacement therapy is more than 12 months in 47.5% of the patients. Moreover, 6.6% of the study samples had used assisted reproductive methods. Conclusion: The results of this research indicate the timely initiation of treatment to improve infertility and treat hypogonadism among men.According to the results, it seems that the use of HMG and HCG in the treatment of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism disease is effective in creating secondary sexual characteristics and increasing hormonal activity and fertility.