Impact of intra-abdominal absorbable sutures on surgical site infection in gastrointestinal and hepato-biliary-pancreatic surgery: results of a multicenter, randomized, prospective, phase II clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: The use of absorbable sutures in wound closure has been shown to reduce the incidence of surgical site infection (SSI); however, there is no evidence that the intra-abdominal use of absorbable rather than silk sutures reduces the incidence of SSI after gastrointestinal surgery. We report the findings of a phase II trial, designed to evaluate the impact of the intra-abdominal use of absorbable sutures on the incidence of SSI. METHODS: At 19 Japanese hospitals, 1147 patients undergoing elective gastrectomy, colorectal surgery, hepatectomy, or pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) were randomly assigned to absorbable or silk intra-abdominal suture groups. The primary efficacy endpoint was the incidence of SSI. The secondary efficacy endpoints were the locations of SSI, time to resolution of SSI, length of hospital stay, and the incidence of bile leakage in hepatectomy and pancreatic fistula. RESULTS: The incidence of SSI was 11.3%, 15.5%, 11.3%, and 36.9% after gastrectomy, colorectal surgery, hepatectomy, and PD, respectively. The incidence of SSI was higher in the absorbable suture group than in the silk suture group for all the surgical procedures, but the difference was not significant. CONCLUSION: The intra-abdominal use of absorbable sutures did not have enough of an effect on the reduction of SSI in this phase II trial to justify the planning of a large-scale phase III trial.

Effects of an educational intervention on oral hygiene and self-care among people with mental illness in Japan: a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: The oral hygiene of patients with a mental illness is an important concern in psychiatric care, and it is necessary to increase the level of self-care among these patients. In this study, we administered an oral care questionnaire to people with mental illness in Japan and compared their answers before (baseline) and at 1 week and 1, 3 and 6 months after they participated in an educational program. METHODS: The questionnaire was distributed to 390 patients. It included questions about age, education, income, between-meal snacks, number of teeth, frequency of tooth brushing, and other items. The educational program was developed for the purposes of improving self-care. RESULTS: Before the program, the proportion of male patients who had had a mental illness for ≥ 10 years was significantly higher among those patients who did not brush their teeth before bed. In addition, such patients did not have primary care dentists, and a significantly higher proportion of male patients, compared with female patients, did not undergo routine dental checkups more than once per year. The educational program resulted in an improvement in the use of fluoride toothpaste from baseline to 6 months after the intervention (p = 0.001). The daily use of interdental brushes or floss was significantly different 6 months after the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Male and long-term inpatients need oral hygiene instructions. Our educational program showed the effects of using oral hygiene tools. Future studies should include a control group to measure the impact of the educational program.

The cost-effectiveness of the new protocol reflecting rapid virologic response to peginterferon alpha-2b and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C.

OBJECTIVE: Recent studies have reported the effectiveness of shorter courses of treatment with peginterferon alpha-2b plus ribavirin for patients with chronic hepatitis C, who achieved a rapid virologic response (RVR), defined as undetectable hepatitis C virus (HCV-) RNA at week 4. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the new protocol for treatment, from the perspective of RVR. METHODS: A cost-effectiveness analysis based on the rate of sustained virologic response was performed. A Markov cohort model of hepatitis C was constructed to demonstrate the clinical states on the basis of the assigned transition probabilities over 30 years. The treatment strategies were classified into five subgroups taking into consideration the viral genotypes, viral load, and RVR. The lifetime costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were compared between the new and standard protocols for treatment. RESULTS: Genotype 1-infected patients in the new protocol for treatment compared with the standard one could prolong QALYs by 0.33 and reduce lifetime cost by euro 5993. Genotype 2 or 3-infected patients in the new protocol for treatment compared with the standard one could prolong QALYs by 0.02 and reduce lifetime cost by euro2851. CONCLUSION: Treatment strategies that consider viral load and RVR for patients with a low viral load infected with genotype 1 and those infected with genotype 2 or 3 are more cost-effective compared with the standard protocol for treatment.