Enhancing the role of occupational health services in the battle against Corona Virus Disease 2019.

Abstract: Occupational risk assessment is the core of any practice in occupational health and safety at the workplace. In Italy, the implementation of the preventive measures required by law (DPCM of April 26, 2020 and subsequent modifications and integrations) can exempt the employers from legal disputes in case of COVID-19 infection among employees. However, these laws have made meaningless the risk assessment process, which is the ideal setting where the preven-tive and protective measures must be identified and enhanced by individual employers, in collaboration with health and safety managers and occupational physicians, in the true exposure conditions. In this commentary, the authors stressed the role of workplace risk assessment and occupational health services for the valuable contribution that they may give to the battle against COVID-19, in terms of prevention, contact-tracing activity and COVID-19 rates of vaccinal coverage.

Remodeling the neck and the lower jaw with dehoxycholate injections.

Nonsurgical cosmetic facial procedures have gained popularity in recent decades. These procedures are commonly referred to as facial rejuvenation, and only a few are performed in the neck region. Herein, the authors describe their experience with off-label use of deoxycholic acid (DC) injections on 18 patients for remodeling of the neck and lower jaw. The injection protocol was personalized for each patient, and lidocaine was always premixed with the DC. After the initial injection visit, at least 3 months passed before further injections were considered. All documented side effects, including swelling and dysesthesia, resolved spontaneously. All patients received follow-up for at least 3 months, and only 2 patients required a second session of injections. By personalizing the injection protocol for each patient, good outcomes were achieved, including aesthetic enhancement of the shape and contour of the jaw and neck. Although the study is limited by the relatively small sample size, the results are promising and warrant additional investigations.

Pedicled palatal flap for surgical repair of oro-nasal fistula.

Oronasal fistula can occur secondary to various pathologies, but cleft surgery is the most common. The authors propose a pedicled palatal flap technique for surgical repair of small oronasal fistula (0.5-0.8 cm), derived from their experience in the treatment of 7 patients between March 2003 and December 2007. In one case, the fistula was induced by prolonged snorting of cocaine. In the other cases, the fistulas developed after excision of a benign tumor of the palate. For the cocaine-induced fistula, failure of the repair attempt was apparent within 7 days of surgery. In all other cases, complete fistula closure was obtained, and no complications occurred.

The new Italian mandatory vaccine Law as a health policy instrument against the anti-vaccination movement.

In Italy, the Parliament granted recently the final approval to a law introducing a long list of childhood vaccinations mandatory for preschool and school-age children. Before the approval, a vibrant public debate took place on the traditional media, in the social networks and among policymakers because of the so called "anti-vaccination movement". In this paper, we discuss about ethical aspects and relationship between individual rights and public health. The role of social networks and the Internet is also essential to disseminate correct informations, influencing health behaviours and contributing to educating people about this major public health issue in a right way. Finally, new and specific educational programmes are needed in order to transmit the young generation the means to correctly understand scientific research about this controversial issue.

A pilot study for development of a novel tool for clinical decision making to identify fallers among ophthalmic patients.

BACKGROUND: Falls in the elderly is a major problem. Although falls have a multifactorial etiology, a commonly cited cause of falls in older people is poor vision. This study proposes a method to discriminate fallers and non-fallers among ophthalmic patients, based on data-mining algorithms applied to health and socio-demographic information. METHODS: A group of 150 subjects aged 55 years and older, recruited at the Eye Clinic of the Second University of Naples, underwent a baseline ophthalmic examination and a standardized questionnaire, including lifestyles, general health, social engagement and eyesight problems. A subject who reported at least one fall within one year was considered as faller, otherwise as non-faller. Different tree-based data-mining algorithms (i.e., C4.5, Adaboost and Random Forest) were used to develop automatic classifiers and their performances were evaluated by assessing the receiver-operator characteristics curve estimated with the 10-fold-crossvalidation approach. RESULTS: The best predictive model, based on Random Forest, enabled to identify fallers with a sensitivity and specificity rate of 72.6% and 77.9%, respectively. The most informative variables were: intraocular pressure, best corrected visual acuity and the answers to the total difficulty score of the Activities of Daily Vision Scale (a questionnaire for the measurement of visual disability). CONCLUSIONS: The current study confirmed that some ophthalmic features (i.e. cataract surgery, lower intraocular pressure values) could be associated with a lower fall risk among visually impaired subjects. Finally, automatic analysis of a combination of visual function parameters (either self-evaluated either by ophthalmological tests) and other health information, by data-mining algorithms, could be a feasible tool for identifying fallers among ophthalmic patients.

Surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion: current concepts of minimally invasive approaches.

Studies have consistently shown an association of the Le Fort I osteotomy with undesirable adverse events in the nasolabial region, including lengthening and thinning of the upper lip, a reduction in upper vermilion exposure, and nasal base enlargement. Various minimally invasive techniques have been developed based on knowledge collected over recent decades on the aetiopathogenesis of these aesthetic impairments. The common scope of these techniques is to reduce the damage to the facial soft tissues and achieve a sound and spontaneous healing process, avoiding those procedures that are commonly used to counteract undesirable aesthetic changes. This paper provides a summary of the aetiopathogenesis of these adverse events, as well as an overview of current concepts in minimally invasive surgically assisted rapid maxillary expansion (miSARME).

Occupational Health Services Have a Relevant Role in Protecting the Health and Safety of Paramedics.

In this Letter to the Editor, the authors point out occupational health and safety risks for paramedics, and highlight the relevant role carried out by multidisciplinary occupational health services in the prevention of occupational risks and the promotion of physical and mental well-being of these workers.

Dans cette lettre à l'éditeur, nous insistons sur les risques de sécurité et de santé encourrus par les personnels non médicaux ainsi que sur le rôle des services de santé au travail dans la prévention de ces risques et dans la promotion de leur santé physique et mentale.