STOPP/START Criteria and Their Role as a Clinical Tool in Routine Practice

Screening Tool of Older Persons’ Prescriptions (STOPP)/Screening Tool to Alert to Right Treatment (START) criteria was first published in 2008, primarily as an alternative set of explicit criteria for potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) to Beers criteria.

Sternal wound dehiscence from intense coughing in a cardiac surgery patient: could it be prevented?

This case report is on a obese patient who underwent a coronary artery bypass. The immediate postoperative phase, on the 8th day, was characterized by sternal dehiscence with diastasis, from intense coughing. At present, for obese patients there are not any guidelines aimed to prevent the sternal diastasis. The use of a sternum support vest after median sternotomy could be a valuable tool in the postoperative care of our patients, in order to avoid chest wall hyperexpansion and to prevent sternal wound dehiscence and diastasis.