Educational barriers of nurses caring for sick and at-risk infants in India.

AIM: To gain ideas and information from healthcare providers to optimize the education and clinical practices of nurses caring for sick or at-risk newborns in India. BACKGROUND: Improving infant survival has been identified as a Millennium Development Goals; however, India still faces many challenges with 3.1 million neonatal deaths and 2.6 million stillbirths annually. Skilled nursing care has been associated with decreased morbidity and mortality in newborns. However, core competencies in newborn care education and training are lacking for nurses. METHODS: Qualitative data were collected from 12 focus groups with 101 newborn care providers from three areas of India as well as from a 2-day stakeholders' meeting. Data analysis was undertaken using descriptive and thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Perceived challenges included limited manpower and high nurse turnover, lack of access to evidence-based orientation to newborn care and problems with access to appropriate learner-based, neonatal training. Relevant, ongoing education opportunities, led by nursing leaders were identified to be important solutions. CONCLUSION: Findings provide insight into the current healthcare system in India with specific reference to the nursing care of at-risk newborns. There is a lack of existing resources to provide standardized and specific orientation curricula for nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: Policy makers in health and education need to: support and enact learner-based orientation and continuing educational opportunities as well as ongoing competency-based education programmes; encourage nurse leader involvement and support; and provide sustainable system-related supports. Nurses and other health providers need to work together to influence government policy.

[Quality and safety policy implementation for a new radiotherapy device]. / Mise en place d'une politique de qualité et de sécurité lors de l'installation d'un nouvel équipement dans un service de radiothérapie.

Modern radiotherapy techniques (intensity-modulated radiotherapy, volumetric-modulated arctherapy, image-guided radiotherapy) or stereotactic radiotherapy are in expansion in most French cancer centres. The arrival of such techniques requires updates of existing equipment or implementation of new radiotherapy devices with adapted options. With the arrival of these new devices, there is a need to develop a quality and safety policy. This is necessary to ease the process from the setup to the first treated patient. The quality and safety policy is maintained to ensure the quality assurance of the radiotherapy equipment. We conducted a review of the literature on the quality and safety policy in the French legal framework that can be proposed when implementing a new radiotherapy device.

Performance of 18F-FDG PET/contrast-enhanced CT in the staging of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity and oropharynx.

The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of integrated whole body positron emission tomography/contrast-enhanced CT (PET/CECT) as a one step examination in the initial staging of oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC). Seventy three consecutive OOSCC patients who underwent PET/CECT for initial staging and tumour resection and neck dissection as primary treatment, were included. For each PET/CECT result, the contribution of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG)-uptake and radiologic criteria was assessed. PET/CECT results were correlated to histological specimens obtained with tumour resection and neck dissection. For detecting the primary tumour PET/CECT showed a sensitivity of 96% and for detecting cervical metastases a sensitivity and specificity of 89% and 81%, respectively. In the clinically N0 subgroup (n=37), PET/CECT showed a sensitivity and specificity of 64% and 81%, respectively. In five of six patients PET/CECT detected a second primary tumour. The results show that the use of diagnostic PET/CECT as a one step examination is a reliable alternative for PET/CT in combination with a separate diagnostic CT in patients with OOSC for initial staging. The need for treatment of the neck in the clinically negative neck should not be based on PET/CECT results only, due to the risk of missing a small metastasis.

Trigeminal neuropathy: evaluation with MR imaging.

Neuropathy of the trigeminal nerve can involve its full course, from its nuclei in the brain stem to its peripheral branches. The nerve can be divided into four segments--brain stem, cistern, the Meckel cave and cavernous sinus, and extracranial--and consideration of the pathologic entities by these locations simplifies the differential diagnosis. Multiple sclerosis, infarct, and glioma are the most common abnormalities in the brain stem leading to trigeminal neuropathy. The most common cisternal cause is neurovascular compression, followed by acoustic and trigeminal schwannomas, meningiomas, epidermoid cysts, lipomas, and metastases. Trigeminal neuropathy arising from the Meckel cave and cavernous sinus is frequently due to meningiomas, trigeminal schwannomas, epidermoid cysts, metastases, pituitary adenomas, and aneurysms. Malignant tumors, which may demonstrate perineural tumor spread, are the most common extracranial cause. Because the clinical findings do not permit accurate lesion localization, magnetic resonance imaging must be used to visualize the entire course of the fifth cranial nerve. The standard study should include T2-weighted images of the whole brain and high-resolution axial and coronal T1-weighted images of the skull base obtained with and without contrast material enhancement.

Internal mammary artery and vein supercharge in TRAM flap breast reconstruction.

To improve the blood supply of the pedicled flap we have performed an additional microvascular augmentation to this type of breast reconstruction procedure since 1991. The ipsilateral deep inferior epigastric pedicle is anastomosed to the internal mammary artery and vein (IMAV supercharge). In 19 of 20 patients this technique proved to be feasible. For the venous anastomoses the 3M microvascular anastomosis system facilitated the procedure. In one patient the venous anastomosis failed due to the small calibre of two internal mammary veins. In a majority of the cases rapid improvement of flap perfusion could be observed as the direct result of the supercharging. The IMAV supercharged flap is quite comparable with the free flap as regards to the operative procedure. Disadvantages are a slightly more extensive dissection and less freedom in positioning the flap due to the presence of the superior muscular pedicle. The main advantage is that the supercharge procedure minimises the risk of total flap loss. Further technical improvement may be obtained by the use of a contralateral vascular pedicle dissected with muscle-sparing techniques.