Given a passage, construct a question on the basis of the information present in the passage. Construct the question in such a way that (i) it is unambiguous, (ii) it is answerable from the passage, (iii) its answer is unique (iv) it answer uses text phrases from the passage. Avoid creating questions that (i) can't be answered correctly without actually understanding the passage and (ii) uses the same words or phrases given in the passage.

Hostile neck anatomy is assumed to be associated with increased surgical risk for patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and is often considered a reason to choose carotid stenting or medical management. This retrospective case-control study evaluated whether, and how much, anatomically hostile necks represent a condition of higher surgical risk of early and late mortality and major or minor morbidity.', 'The data for 966 homogeneous CEA patients was prospectively entered in a computer database. Seventy-seven had a hostile neck anatomy due to previous oncologic surgery or neck irradiation, restenoses after CEA, high carotid bifurcation, or bull-like and inextensible neck. A case-control matched-pair cohort study considered sex, age (5-year intervals), and year of operation. Regional anesthesia was used for all operations for atherosclerotic stenosis >or=70%, conforming to the European Carotid Surgery Trial (ECST) in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients, at a single center and by one surgeon or under his direct supervision.', 'The hostile neck patients and the control group were matched for age, sex, carotid-related symptoms, degree of stenoses, and main risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Intraoperative variables were substantially equivalent in the two groups; however, procedure length and clamping time were, respectively, about 22 minutes (P = .0001) and 7 minutes longer (P = .01) in the hostile neck group. Rates of postoperative mortality and neurologic events were equivalent. Peripheral nerve lesions were multiple and significantly more frequent in the hostile neck patients (21% with >or=1 cranial nerve lesion vs 7% of controls, P = .03), yet all were transient and limited to a few months. The subgroups of patients with hostile neck, restenoses, and bull-like inextensible necks required the longest operative and clamping time, and those with bull-like and high bifurcation had the most frequent cranial nerve dysfunctions. At the respective follow-up of 47 and 45 months, survival curves (P = .48) and the incidence of restenoses and fatal and nonfatal strokes were similar (5 and 4, respectively).
Does the hostile neck increase the risk of carotid endarterectomy?

Reports on outcome after posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) reconstruction often contain both isolated PCL and combined knee ligament injuries. This makes it difficult to conclude on the outcome after reconstruction of isolated PCL injuries.', 'To investigate the outcome after PCL reconstruction in patients with an isolated PCL injury and to compare this with the outcome of patients treated with reconstruction after isolated anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries.', 'Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.', 'Seventy-one patients with an isolated PCL injury that was reconstructed surgically and who had registered in the Norwegian Knee Ligament Registry between 2004 and 2010 were included in this study. Patients with isolated ACL reconstructions (n = 9661) who had registered in the same period were included for comparison. Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) was used as the patient-reported outcome measure. Preoperative and 2-year postoperative KOOS scores were compared. Changes in KOOS score reported by the PCL patients were compared with changes reported by the ACL patients.', 'At the 2-year postoperative follow-up of the PCL-reconstructed patients, the patient-reported outcome was improved, measured by KOOS as follows: pain, 15.1 (95% CI, 8.5-21.8; P < .001); symptoms, 0.9 (95% CI, -6.6 to 8.3; P = .82); activities of daily living, 13.2 (95% CI, 6.6-13.9; P < .001); sports, 20.7 (95% CI, 11.8-29.4; P < .001); and quality of life, 26.6 (95% CI, 18.9-34.2; P < .001). According to the KOOS, the incremental improvements were similar for PCL and ACL patients. Time from injury to surgery was longer for the PCL patients compared with ACL patients (median, 21.5 vs 8.0 months; P < .001).
Do patients With Isolated PCL Injuries Improve From Surgery as Much as Patients With ACL Injuries After 2 Years?

Most patients are admitted to the hospital through the emergency department (ED), and ED waiting times partly reflect the availability of inpatient beds. We test whether the balance between daily hospital admissions and discharges affects next-day ED length of stay.', 'We conducted a cross-sectional study of hospitals in metropolitan Toronto, served by a single emergency medical services provider in a publicly funded system. During a 3-year period, we evaluated the daily ratio of admissions to discharges at each hospital and the next-day median ED length of stay in the same hospital by using linear regression.', 'Across hospitals, the daily mean (SD) 50th percentile ED length of stay averaged 218 (51) minutes. As the inpatient admission-discharge ratio increased or decreased, next-day ED length of stay changed accordingly. Compared with ratios of 1.0, those less than 0.6 were associated with an 11-minute (95% confidence interval [CI] 5 to 16 minutes) shorter next-day median ED length of stay; at admission-discharge ratios of 1.3 to 1.4, ED length of stay was significantly prolonged by 5 minutes (95% CI 3 to 6 minutes). Admission-discharge ratios on weekends and among medical inpatients had a stronger influence on next-day ED length of stay; effects were also greater among higher-acuity and admitted ED patients.
Does disequilibrium between admitted and discharged hospitalized patients affect emergency department length of stay?