New reports published this month – December 2022
Published: 08 Dec 2022
New resources have been published on our website this month. These include:
- Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infancy and Childhood (National Child Mortality Database, NCMD)
- Disordered Activity? A review of the quality of epilepsy care provided to adult patients presenting to hospital with a seizure epilepsy care for adults (National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, NCEPOD)
- Use of implantable medical devices in aortic aneurysm repair (National Vascular Registry, NVR)
Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infancy and Childhood
National Child Mortality Database (NCMD)
This report covers the two-year period from 2019 to 2021 and is unique in two ways. It is the first national report to have investigated all unexpected deaths of infants and children – not just those that remained unexplained. It is also the first national review of the “multi-agency investigation process” into unexpected deaths.
The report found that, of all infant and child deaths occurring between April 2019 and March 2021 in England, 30% occurred suddenly and unexpectedly, and of these 64% had no immediately apparent cause.
Other key findings relating to sudden and unexpected infant deaths (under 1 year) include:
- 70% were aged between 28 and 364 days, and 57% were male
- Infant death rates were higher in urban areas and the most deprived neighbourhoods
- For sudden and unexpected infant deaths that occurred during 2020 and had been fully reviewed, 52% were classified as unexplained (ie Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and 48% went on to be explained by other causes eg metabolic or cardiac conditions.
Disordered Activity? A review of the quality of epilepsy care provided to adult patients presenting to hospital with a seizure epilepsy care for adults
National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD)
Data from 610 clinical questionnaires, 264 sets of case notes and 158 organisational questionnaires were used to assess the quality of care provided to adult patients with a pre-existing epilepsy disorder or who were subsequently diagnosed with epilepsy and presented to hospital following a seizure, between 1st January and 31st December 2020.
Key findings include:
- It was identified that action could be taken at all points of the patient pathway to improve the quality of care, with a particular call to alert patients’ ‘usual’ epilepsy team when they present with a seizure
- There is a need to improve documentation as, for example, 26.1% patients did not have their anti-seizure medication (ASM) written in their notes
- In 38.5% hospitals, specific information or education regarding epilepsy was not routinely provided to patients until their first clinic appointment, which may be many weeks after discharge.
Use of implantable medical devices in aortic aneurysm repair
National Vascular Registry (NVR)
This short report provides information on medical devices implanted during primary and revision abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair procedures during the past three years.
In response to the Cumberlege review in 2020, the NVR has enabled information on implantable devices used in aortic aneurysm repairs to be entered in its datasets from July 2020. This was accompanied by the launch of the revision aortic datasets, which capture revision procedures both after open repair and endovascular stent grafting for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA).
In total, there were 10,678 AAA procedures in the NVR performed from 1st January 2020 to 31st July 2022 and 5,383 (50%) contained information on implanted devices.
This report also contains information on the:
- patterns for elective and non-elective procedures
- type of repair for elective and non-elective surgery, e.g. open procedures
- type of device and components used during the procedures.
The reports are available to view and download, along with all other reports, on our dedicated reports webpage.
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