Surgeon volume and hospital volume in endocrine neck surgery: how many procedures are needed for reaching a safety level and acceptable costs? A systematic narrative review.

The relationship between quality of care and provider's experience is well known in all fields of surgery. Even in thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies, the emphasis on positive volume-outcome relationships is believed. It led us to an evaluation of volume activity's impact in terms of quality of care. A systematic narrative review was performed. According to the PRISMA criteria, we selected 87 paper and, after the study selection was performed, 22 studies were finally included in this review. All articles included were unanimous in attributing to activity volume of surgeons as well as centers a substantial importance. Some differences in outcomes between these investigated categories have been found: best results of the high volume surgeon is evident expecially in terms of complications, on the contrary best outcomes of a high volume center are mainly economics, such as hospital stay and general costs of the procedures. A cut-off of 35-40 thyroidectomies per year for single surgeon, and 90-100 thyroidectomies for single center appears reasonable for identifying an adequate activity. Concerning parathyroidectomy, we can consider reasonable a cut off at 10-12 operations/year. More studies are needed in a European or more circumscribed perspective.

Deep SSI after mesh-mediated groin hernia repair: management and outcome in an Emergency Surgery Department.

AIM: Mesh-mediated groin hernia repair is considered the goldstandard procedure. It has low recurrence rate. Rarely a deep Surgical Site Infection (SSI) is seen when a synthetic prosthesis is used. CASE REPORT: We describe a rare case of bilateral deep SSI after mesh-mediated groin hernia repair. Diagnosis was performed through the physical examination and radiological exams. Microbiological samples identified a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus responsible of the infection. Target therapy was performed and re-operation performed in order to remove the infected prosthesis and to apply a biological one to create the fibrous scaffold. During follow-up time, right side recurrence was observed. Tru-cut biopsy of fascia was obtained in order to identify the responsible of the recurrence. CONCLUSION: Combination of antibiotic therapy and surgical reoperation seems to be the correct way to approach the deep SSI after mesh-mediated groin hernia repair. The use of biological mesh after synthetic removal seems to improve the final outcome.

Large retroperitoneal abscess extended to the inferior right limb secondary to a perforated ileal Crohn's disease: the importance of the multidisciplinary approach.

The typical complications of Crohn's disease concerns small and large bowel. The full thickness inflammation of the intestinal wall develops in strictures, fistulas and abdominal abscesses. Nowadays the most accepted therapeutic for intra-abdominal abscess option is antibiotic therapy and, in case of need, percutaneous drainage of the abscess. If the abscess passes through the pelvic foramen the abscess can involve the inferior limbs. We report a case a perforation of terminal ileum in Crohn's disease complicated by a large abscess of the right iliac fossa reaching the spaces between the anterior lateral muscles of the right thigh as far as the anterior lateral pre-tibial region. We discuss the diagnostic and therapeutic options in a multidisciplinary context.

Laparoscopic treatment of a large pedunculated hemangioma of the liver: a case report.

Hepatic hemangiomas are the most common benign tumors of the liver, often asymptomatic and discovered incidentally. A 62-year-old woman was referred to our Institution under the suspicion of having an 8 cm-sized GIST. Due to the atypical features of the lesion on TC scan, a biopsy was performed. We report the case of pedunculated hepatic hemangioma with the aim to discuss the diagnostic approach, the possible causes of misdiagnosis and the opportunity of the laparoscopic approach.

Uncommon localizations of hydatid cyst. Review of the literature.

INTRODUCTION: Hydatid disease is an endemic anthropozoonosis with usual localization in liver and lungs. Rarely it localizes in uncommon sites as spleen, skeleton, kidney, brain, cardiac muscle, peritoneum, sub cutis. Complications of uncommon localizations are the same that for usual ones. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Review of the literature on rare and atypical localization of hydatid cysts in soft tissues. Key-words used on Pub-Med [(echinococ OR hydatid) AND (soft tissue OR subcutaneous OR cutaneous)] without time limit. There were found 282 articles; 242 were excluded because of muscular or bone localizations. 40 were coherent. RESULTS: Different variables are taken into account: age, sex, geographic area, anatomic localization of the cyst, dimension, symptoms, signs, mobility, blood exams and specific serological tests, imaging techniques for diagnosis, existing of septa in the structure, treatment, anaesthesia, spillage, neo-adjuvant and adjuvant treatment, follow-up period, recurrent lesions. CONCLUSION: It would be useful create an homogeneous and standardized collection of data of these rare and potentially life-threatening conditions in order to create guide-line of diagnostic and therapeutic process and create (or adopt) unique classification of the lesions.

Circulating progenitor cells in rheumatoid arthritis: association with inflammation and oxidative stress.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the association between inflammation, oxidative stress, and circulating progenitor cell (CPC) number and redox equilibrium, vascular lesions and accelerated atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHOD: Circulating CD34+ cells were isolated from 33 RA patients and 33 controls. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and mRNA expression of manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase type 1 (GPx-1) antioxidant enzymes, and the gp91phox-containing nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase NOX2 were measured in CD34+ cells. C-reactive protein (CRP), fibrinogen, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), and arterial stiffness (AS) were also evaluated. We investigated the relationships between inflammatory markers, vascular parameters, cell number, and antioxidant enzymes. RESULTS: CD34+ cell number was lower in RA patients than in controls. In CD34+ cells from RA patients, ROS levels, MnSOD mRNA, and NOX2 mRNA were higher, while mRNA expression of GPx-1 and CAT was significantly lower. The AS, pulse wave velocity (PWV), and augmentation index (AIx) were higher, as was cIMT. CD34+ cell number was inversely correlated with CRP, ROS, PWV, and AIx, and with the CAT/MnSOD and GPx-1/MnSOD ratios. CRP was correlated with MnSOD mRNA, PWV, and AIx but not with CAT and GPx-1 mRNA. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show a link between inflammation, oxidative stress, and the impairment of the antioxidant system of CPCs and their number, and with arterial stiffness in RA subjects. This could suggest a perspective on the accelerated development of vascular damage and atherosclerosis in RA.

The Kagoshima consensus on esophageal achalasia.

Esophageal achalasia is a primary esophageal motility disorder characterized by lack of peristalsis and a lower esophageal sphincter that fails to relax appropriately in response to swallowing. This article summarizes the most salient issues in the diagnosis and management of achalasia as discussed in a symposium that took place in Kagoshima, Japan, in September 2010 under the auspices of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.

Postoperative complications, pain and quality of life after thoracoscopic or thoracotomic lobectomy for lung cancer.

AIM: Thoracoscopic lobectomy is superior to thoracotomy, but the evidence for this assumption is low. We present a comparison between thoracotomy and thoracoscopy in term of postoperative complications, mortality, postoperative pain, hospital stay and quality of life. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective analysis of 224 lobectomies in 24-months. 128 patients (57.1%) were operated by thoracotomy; 96 patients (42.9%) by videothoracoscopy. RESULTS: Major complications were observed in 4/128 (3.1%) in thoracotomy group and in 1/96 (1%) in thoracoscopy. Minor complications were observed in 38/128 patients (29.7%) in the thoracotomy, and in 16/96 (16.7%) thoracoscopy. Thoracoscopy patients had a shorter hospital stay. CONCLUSION: Our study shows an advantage of thoracoscopy over thoracotomy but further studies are needed.

Choroidal metastasis from lung adenocarcinoma: a rare case report.

The choroid is the most common site for intraocular metastatic di sease. Orbital metastasis as metastatic site of lung adenocarcinoma is very rare and in literature a very exiguous number of cases is present. This is a case report of a woman with history of lung adenocarcinoma and, after surgery, detection of a choroidal mass described as lung metastasis, responding to Gefinitib therapy. However a biopsy was not performed. After two years there was a great dimension decrement of the lung metastasis but she is still suffering from recurrent pleural effusion, with pleural thickenings biopsied and diagnosed as recurrences of disease.

Outpatient management of proctologic disease. Which techniques for local anesthesia? The experience of a single center.

INTRODUCTION: Since 1899 outpatient management of surgical patients had been increasing, becoming the best option when possible. In 1988 was described the first experience of outpatient management of proctologic disease. Advances in local anesthesia techniques have improved the outpatient approach to surgical disease, particularly in patients with proctological diseases. METHODS: From 2010 to 2016, 1160 patients who needed surgery for proctologic disease have been recruited: 239 hemorrhoidectomies using the variant of Milligan Morgan technique described by Phillips, 45 trans-anal hemorrhoidal DE-arterialization (THD), 315 sphincterotomies, 12 anal polypectomies, 230 loop seton positions, 65 cone-like fistulectomies and 254 fistulotomies for perianal fistulas. In 329 cases, we used the posterior perineal block, 603 local perineal blocks, and 228 tumescent anesthesia. RESULTS: On a total of 1160 procedure failure rate was of 4.7% (55 cases). Urinary retention (69% 38 cases); bleeding 18% (10 cases), uncontrolled pain 12% of cases (7 cases). The chi-square test demonstrates (p<0.01) that the failure rate of the three types of anesthesia is very different with high statistical significance. The failure rate in patient underwent Posterior Perineal Block was 27/329 cases (8.2%), 8/228 (3.5%) in patients who underwent Tumescent Anesthesia and 20/603 (3.3%) in who underwent Local Perineal Block. CONCLUSIONS: Outpatient protocols represent the most common approach to minor proctologic disease that needs a good local block, with a good analgesic and sedative assistance, the different local block seems to be the same concerning the pain control, but presents some little, not relevant difference concerning urinary retention rate.

Routinary use of fibrin sealants to prevent prolonged air leak in thoracic surgery: our experience.

INTRODUCTION: Prolonged air leak (PAL) is one of the most common postoperative complications after lung surgery. It is associated with increased significant morbidity, lower quality of life, longer hospital stay and higher hospital costs. Since its great clinical and economic burden, it is important to establish the feasibility and the effectiveness of the routinary preventive use of a fibrin sealant in order to reduce the incidence of prolonged air leaks. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This is a randomized study on 189 adult patients - 118 men (62.4%) and 71 women (37.6%) aged from 39 to 87 y.o. (mean age 68.3 y.o.) - who underwent lung surgery (lobectomy or bilobectomy) with intraoperatory detection of air leakage, from January 2013 to December 2017, at Department of Thoracic Surgery in "Ospedale Maggiore Carlo Alberto Pizzardi" (Bologna, Italy) and Department of Thoracic Surgery in "Paolo Giaccone" Teaching Hospital (Palermo, Italy). Patients were randomly assigned to the "Glue" arm (90 patients) or the "Control" group (99 patients). We only used stapler or manual suture to achieve aerostasis. In addition, we used a fibrin sealant ("glue") to cover the suture line on patients in the "Glue" arm. The primary endpoints were incidence of prolonged air leaks, days with chest tube and mean hospital stay. RESULTS: In the "Glue" arm we experienced only 1 prolonged air leak (1.1%), while in the "Control" group there were 8 leaks (8.1%). Patients kept chest tube for average 4.15 days in the "Glue" arm and 4.45 days in the "Control" group. The mean hospital stay was average 7.4 days for the "Glue" arm, while 9.1 days in the "Control" group. CONCLUSIONS: According to our experience it seems that the routinary preventive use of a fibrin sealant results in a lower incidence of prolonged air leaks, a shorter hospital stay with lower hospital costs, representing a cost-effective, feasible and effective system to decrease morbility and mortality among surgical patients.

Resection of a giant mediastinal leiomyosarcoma.

Primary leiomyosarcomas of the lung are tumors. We report a case of 49-year old female with history of cough, breathless at rest, right sided chest pain. Chest CT showed a huge (16 cm) mediastinal mass located on the right mediastinum encasing the right main pulmonary artery and infiltrating the main right bronchus and pericardium. The tumor was resected with combined pericardiectomy and pnemonectomy via hemiclamshell incision. This surgical access provided an adequate exposure of the chest "blind zones" and it allowed a radical and safe surgical resection of lung, pleura, pericardium and diaphragm. The final diagnosis showed a low grade differentiation leiomyosarcoma.

Rapid Prototyping Method for 3D Printed Biomaterial Constructs with Vascular Structures.

This paper presents a fabrication method for rapid prototyping of 3D biomaterial constructs with vascular structures. The method relies on poloxamer fugitive ink, which is over casted with a custom-made alginate based model extracellular matrix (ECM). The presented method is simple to implement and compatible with standard cell culture workflows used in biomedical research and pharmaceutical development. We present the material preparation, gelation properties and printing methods in detail. First experiments demonstrate the suitability of the ECM constructs for 3D tissue culture.

Improving outcomes in tumour necrosis factor a treatment: comparison of the efficacy of the tumour necrosis factor a blocking agents etanercept and infliximab in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis.

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between infliximab and etanercept, in terms of clinical efficacy and rapidity of action. METHODS: We selected 32 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with an incomplete response to disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), and randomly assigned them to etanercept or infliximab. We evaluated the efficacy after 14, 22, 54 weeks of treatment, using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20, 50 and 70 criteria, and the improvement of quality of life using the Health Assessment Question-naire (HAQ). RESULTS: After 14 weeks, the 54.4% of patients was considered ACR-responders in the etanercept group, whereas, in the infliximab group, the percentage of responders was 74.4%: infliximab gave better results for the tender joint count and for physician's global assessment. After 22 weeks, no significant difference was present. After 54 weeks, etanercept resulted more effective than infliximab for tender joint count (TJC) value, for visual analogic scale (VAS) for pain score, for global disease assessment value, with 74.4% of patients considered ACR-responders in the group treated with etanercept and 60% in the group treated with infliximab. As regards HAQ, patients in the infliximab group presented higher scores at week 14, but in weeks 22 and 54, patients in the etanercept group showed better results. Therefore, both infliximab and etanercept are efficacious in RA, but infliximab is more efficacious than etanercept in week 14. Vice versa, in week 54 etanercept is the most efficacious drug. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians have 2 weapons in their armamentarium, with the same target but distinct clinical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties.

Rheumatic symptoms in patients with human immunodeficiency virus are related to levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha but not to viral load.

Infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can lead to osteoarticular involvement, usually in the late stages. The pathogenesis of these symptoms has usually been attributed to viral load or to dysregulated cytokine production. We evaluated the presence of rheumatic symptoms and levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha viral load and CD4 count in 46 patients with HIV from southern Italy. The prevalence of rheumatic symptoms was 23.9%; CD4 count and viral load presented no statistically significant differences between patients with rheumatic symptoms and patients without osteoarticular involvement, whereas TNF-alpha levels were increased in HIV patients with arthralgias compared with those in patients without arthralgias (p = 0.02). Evidence that TNF-alpha is increased in patients with osteoarticular or soft tissue involvement is a clear index of the pivotal role this cytokine plays in the pathogenesis of these manifestations.

Ultrasonography in the early diagnosis of psoriasis-associated enthesopathy.

The aim of the present study was to detect entheseal abnormalities by means of ultrasonography (US) in patients with psoriasis. We evaluated 24 patients with psoriasis who underwent clinical and ultrasonographic examination of both lower limbs at the calcaneal insertions of the Achilles tendons and at the flexor and extensor tendons of all fingers of the hand. Fourteen patients with psoriatic arthritis were used as controls. US was performed using a real-time scanner (ATL SDI 3000) with a 5-12 MHz linear array transducer. Longitudinal and transverse scans of the talocrural joints, Achilles tendons and both the flexor and extensor tendons of the fingers of both hands were obtained at rest and during active and passive movements. On clinical examination no entheseal site was abnormal, but on US examination 33% of patients showed abnormalities. In particular, six psoriasis patients (25%) who were asymptomatic showed effusion around the extensor tendon of the first digit of the left hand and around the extensor tendon of the third and fourth digits of both hands; two patients (8.3%) showed a hypoechoic nodular formation of the flexor tendon sheath of the left hand. We conclude that entheseal abnormalities not detected at clinical examination were present in 33% of patients with psoriasis who underwent US examination. Therefore, we suggest the routine use of ultrasonography in the early diagnosis and in treatment and follow-up of patients with tendon enthesopathy, since these factors may have implications for therapy.

Factors influencing pain, physical function and social functioning in patients with osteoarthritis in southern Italy.

The aim of this study was to assess factors influencing bodily pain (BP), physical function (PF) and social functioning (SF) in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) from southern Italy A total of 1,782 patients (mean age 66.08 years, 570 men and 1,212 women) with knee, hip, spine or hand OA underwent a structured assessment comprising demographic data and the Short Form 36 (SF-36) BP, PF and SF scales. Separate multiple linear regression models were employed for statistical analysis. The mean disease duration was 9.18 years and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 27.06. The mean BP, PF and SF scores of 34.93 (SD 19.37), 63.58 (SD 26.53) and 47.89 (SD 21.83) for the study subjects were substantially lower than those expected for the general Italian population. Subjects who were younger with a shorter disease duration and lower BMI had better PF and SF Younger subjects with a lower BMI and a longer disease duration had less BP. Female sex was associated with more BP, worse SF and better PF. In conclusion, demographic and disease-related factors influence BP, PF and SF in southern Italian patients with OA.

Clinical investigation on hyaluronic acid in the treatment of gonoarthrosis.

The clinical efficacy and tolerance of the sodium salt Hyaluronic acid (HA) 20 mg/2 ml administered through the intraarticulation every week, for a four week period in a group of 12 patients with gonoarthrosis were investigated. Such a treatment has brought about a bettering of the baseline clinical parameters considered, i.e., spontaneous, stiffness, walking time and analgesics consumption.

Gastro-intestinal permeability is increased in patients with limited systemic sclerosis.

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate gastro-intestinal (GI) permeability in patients with limited systemic sclerosis (LSS) at baseline and after oral acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). METHODS: 13 patients with LSS and 10 controls were studied. Baseline GI permeability was assessed with orally administered sucrose, mannitol, and lactulose. Gastric lesions and Helicobacter status were investigated by endoscopy. In 5 patients and 6 controls (with normal baseline permeability) the GI permeability response was assessed after oral ASA. RESULTS: compared with controls, gastric (p<0.05) and intestinal (p<0.02) permeability was higher in LSS patients, at baseline. After oral ASA gastric permeability (sucrose) increased in both groups (controls: 186%, LSS: 265%), whereas the lactulose/mannitol ratio raised significantly only in LSS (+31% and +148%; p<0.05 vs controls). CONCLUSIONS: baseline permeability is altered in LSS; the exaggerated response of the small intestine to ASA may represent a genetically determined or a disease-related dysfunction of the mucosal barrier.