Ten-year trends of the characteristics in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease at the time of intestinal gel therapy introduction / Az intestinalis gél bevezetésekor rögzített jellemzok tízéves változásai elorehaladott Parkinson-kóros betegekben

Introduction: Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease, the symptoms of which can be treated reasonably well; however, therapeutic recommendations need to be refined based on the observations from everyday practice. Objective: We aimed to analyze the extent by which published expert recommendations were reflected in the manage-ment of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease, prior to the introduction of the intestinal gel. Method: Data from patients treated with levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel were retrospectively examined. The period from 2011 to 2021 was divided into two five-year periods, prior and after the usage of the 5-2-1 rule in clinical decision-making. Results: Levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel treatment was initiated in 150 patients during the study period. In the second five-year period, the mean age of the patients was lower and the time from diagnosis was shorter. Also, there were significantly fewer patients with peak-dose dyskinesias (p = 0.02), biphasic dyskinesias (p<0.001), and early morning akinesias (p = 0.02). Furthermore, in the last five years of the study, fewer patients were affected by delayed on (p = 0.03), no on (p = 0.02), and freezing (p = 0.01). The mean score measured on the Hoehn-Yahr scale was also lower in the second period, while the mean MMSE score was higher (p<0.001). Daily doses of levodopa were higher (p<0.01) in the second period, but with similar dosing frequency. Conclusion: Our retrospective analysis of trends during a ten-year period revealed that, in the second five-year period, levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel was started in advanced Parkinson's disease patients with a significantly better physical and cognitive state. Compared to expert recommendations, our patients still had a more severe clinical pic -ture at the start of device-aided therapy, but acceptance of this invasive method has improved both for patients and for general practitioners and neurologists.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Colorectal Cancer Patients in a Tertiary Center in Romania. Single Center Retrospective Study.

Background: The novel coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, was first reported in Wuhan, China in the end of 2019. To curb its spread, social distancing measures and new safety regulations were implemented which led to major disruptions in colorectal cancer care. It is however unknown how it influenced the Romanian colorectal cancer care. Methods and Material: We assessed the demographical, clinical, intraoperative and pathological data of our colorectal cancer patients, 302 in total, between 15.03.2019-14.03.2021. The first year's data was considered as the control group and the second one, the study (pandemic) group. Results: We observed a 12% decrease in colorectal cancer hospitalizations in the first year, 38,6% in the first six months. The rate of emergency admissions, colo/ileostomy formatting procedures, palliative resections, clinical metastasis was higher in the pandemic group. More advanced locoregional invasion, a higher tumor stage, higher rate of vascular, perineural invasion, positive resection margin, and a higher lymph node yield was seen after the restrictions were implemented. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and the response against it had a major effect on the colorectal cancer care in our country. The outcomes of these worse clinical and pathological findings are unknown, but it is important to do further research in this field. We think colorectal cancer care should have an absolute priority in future pandemics.

Influence of Mesh Fixation on the Development of Postoperative Pain after Laparoscopic Inguinal Hernia Repair: A Single Surgeon Experience.

OBJECTIVE: Primary aim of the present article was to determine the relationship between mesh fixation methods and the occurrence of postoperative pain after laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair. Materials and Methods: 101 patients diagnosed with inguinal hernia benefited from elective laparoscopic treatment of the abdominal wall defect. Follow up was realized at one and three months after surgical intervention. The followed details contained clinical, surgical and pain-related data. Results: Multivariable analysis resulted young adults (OR=4.226; p=0.0467), recurrent hernia (OR=4.862; p=0.0415) and use of fixation requiring surgical mesh (OR=4.226; p=0.0467) as significant risk factors in the development of chronic postoperative pain. During the follow up period, patients who benefitted of mesh fixation complained about significantly higher pain sensation (pain index at one month: SG=10.27; CG=5.07; p=0.0080; pain index at three months: SG=5.02; CG=1.42; p=0.0406). Concerning chronic postoperative pain syndrome, six patients from SG (12.76%) and only a single patient from CG complained after three months about pain index greater than 18.5 points, concluding that mesh fixation significantly increases the possibility of chronic postoperative pain syndrome (p=0.0455). Conclusions: Mesh fixation methods during laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair seem to contribute to the development of chronic postoperative pain. Avoiding traumatizing mesh fixation methods could be a suitable option for surgeons.

Elderly Patients with Colorectal Cancer - A Predisposed Category for Postoperative Complications.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths around the world. Elderly patients are often considered as a high-risk category of patients, predisposed for postoperative complications. Materials and methods: 138 patients aged over 75 years and diagnosed with colorectal cancer were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided in two groups, as follows: Study Group including patients who developed postoperative complications, and Control Group including patients without problems in the postoperative period. There were compared clinical, preoperative, surgical, postoperative and oncological data. The aim of study was to determine possible risk factors for short-term postoperative complications and analyze of the influence of postoperative complications on survival. Results: Risk factors as male gender, obesity, heart failure, diabetes type II, severe anemia, low total protein level, ASA III-IV classification, emergency surgery, prolonged surgical intervention, increased intraoperative blood loss, prolonged hospital stay, distal localization of tumors, TNM stages III-IV, surgery for digestive cancer and non-cancerous major abdominal surgery in the medical history were identified. Conclusion: The surgical treatment of colorectal cancer in the aging population still remains a challenge, these category of patients should benefit of special attention in order to ensure a chance to minimize or avoid these complications.

Sepsis in Acute Mediastinitis - A Severe Complication after Oesophageal Perforations. A Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND: Despite recent advancements in antibiotic therapy and the progress made in critical care and modern diagnostic methods, acute mediastinitis continues to be a severe condition. DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT: Acute mediastinitis can occur in the context of cardio-thoracic surgery, oesophageal perforations and oropharyngeal infections condition. Forty-five percent of oesophageal perforations occurs during simple endoscopy. Spontaneous perforation (Boerhaave syndrome) accounts for 15% of perforations, and twelve percent are due to the ingestion of foreign bodies. Other causes include blind or penetrating trauma, and circa 9% to intraoperative lesions. CT scan is the standard investigation that reveals direct signs of mediastinitis.The oral administration of contrast substances can underscore the level of oesophageal perforation. Conservative treatment is the first-choice treatment and surgical treatment is reserved only for specific situations.The principles of surgical treatment consist of drainage, primary suture, oesophageal exclusion with or without the application of oesophagectomy, endoscopic vacuum wound assisted therapy of the perforation and associated paraoesophageal mediastinal drainage and endoscopic stenting associated with drainage. CONCLUSIONS: The lowest mortality rate is recorded in patients with perforations diagnosed less than twenty-four hours after the onset of symptoms. Surgical treatment remains the gold standard especially in cases of thoracic and abdominal perforations while further investigations are mandatory before endoscopic stenting is carried out.

Safety of Anastomoses in Right Hemicolectomy for Colon Cancer.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumor of the digestive system, the incidence of this cruel disease has been increasing at a constant rate. Materials and methods: 236 patients diagnosed with right colon cancer were retrospectively reviewed. For all patients included in this study, right hemicolectomy or extended right hemicolectomy with ileo-colonic anastomosis was performed. Patients were divided in two groups, as follows: study group including patients which developed anastomotic leakage, and control group including patients without anastomotic leak. There were compared clinical, surgical, postoperative and anastomotic leakage (AL) related data within the two groups.The study investigates possible risk and protective factors for developing anastomotic leakage, furthermore the relationship between anastomotic leakage and mortality was analyzed. Results: risk factors for AL as advanced age, tumors of the right 1/3 of transvers colon, emergencysurgery, mechanical suture, S-E anastomosis, late start of bowel motility were identified during the current research. S-S anastomotic technique were identified as protective factor in the development of fistula. Conclusion: According to the results of the present research, in right colon tumors S-S anastomotic technique should be used, being linked with the lowest chances of anastomotic leakage.

A comparative analysis of black spot identification methods and road accident segmentation methods.

Indicating road safety-related aspects in the phase of planning and operating is always a challenging task for experts. The success of any method applied in identifying a high-risk location or black spot (BS) on the road should depend fundamentally on how data is organized into specific homogeneous segments. The appropriate combination of black spot identification (BSID) method and segmentation method contributes significantly to the reduction in false positive (a site involved in safety investigation while it is not needed) and false negative (not involving a site in safety investigation while it is needed) cases in identifying BS segments. The purpose of this research is to study and compare the effect of methodological diversity of road network segmentation on the performance of different BSID methods. To do this, four commonly applied BS methods (empirical Bayesian (EB), excess EB, accident frequency, and accident ratio) have been evaluated against four different segmentation methods (spatial clustering, constant length, constant traffic volume, and the standard Highway Safety Manual segmentation method). Two evaluations have been used to compare the performance of the methods. The approach first evaluates the segmentation methods based on the accuracy of the developed safety performance function (SPF). The second evaluation applies consistency tests to compare the joint performances of the BS methods and segmentation methods. In conclusion, BSID methods showed a significant change in their performance depending on the different segmentation method applied. In general, the EB method has surpassed the other BSID methods in case of all segmentation approaches.