Impact of a pulsed xenon disinfection system on hospital onset Clostridioides difficile infections in 48 hospitals over a 5-year period.

BACKGROUND: The role of the environment in hospital acquired infections is well established. We examined the impact on the infection rate for hospital onset Clostridioides difficile (HO-CDI) of an environmental hygiene intervention in 48 hospitals over a 5 year period using a pulsed xenon ultraviolet (PX-UV) disinfection system. METHODS: Utilization data was collected directly from the automated PX-UV system and uploaded in real time to a database. HO-CDI data was provided by each facility. Data was analyzed at the unit level to determine compliance to disinfection protocols. Final data set included 5 years of data aggregated to the facility level, resulting in a dataset of 48 hospitals and a date range of January 2015-December 2019. Negative binomial regression was used with an offset on patient days to convert infection count data and assess HO-CDI rates vs. intervention compliance rate, total successful disinfection cycles, and total rooms disinfected. The K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) machine learning algorithm was used to compare intervention compliance and total intervention cycles to presence of infection. RESULTS: All regression models depict a statistically significant inverse association between the intervention and HO-CDI rates. The KNN model predicts the presence of infection (or whether an infection will be present or not) with greater than 98% accuracy when considering both intervention compliance and total intervention cycles. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate a strong inverse relationship between the utilization of the pulsed xenon intervention and HO-CDI rates.

Lessons Learned from the Transoral Endoscopic Thyroidectomy with Vestibular Approach (TOETVA) for the Treatment of Thyroid Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Early detection of thyroid carcinoma has become commonplace. Consequently, the endoscopic approach has become a widely used method. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to report our experience with the transoral endoscopic thyroidectomy vestibular approach (TOETVA). METHODS: We reviewed the records of 46 patients who underwent TOETVA. Only patients with no regional lymph node metastases (N0) and fine needle aspiration biopsy-confirmed thyroid cancer were included. The surgical technique used was as described by Angkoon Anuwong. RESULTS: Forty-six patients with a mean age of 43.6 years (range 17-71) were included (37 women and 9 men). The mean time of surgery was 207 min (range 95-345), and the conversion to open thyroidectomy rate was 13% (six cases). CONCLUSION: TOETVA is an acceptable approach for thyroid carcinoma. Poorly differentiated cancer, as well as extrathyroidal extension, result in patients being unsuitable for TOETVA. It is imperative to identify the circumstances under which conversion to open thyroidectomy must take place.

Maxillofacial Rehabilitation With Zygomatic Implants in an Oncologic Patient: A Case Report.

Tumor ablation results in significant sequelae in the appearance, function, and esthetics of a patient with cancer, especially resection for head and neck cancer. Reconstruction with local and microvascular flaps is a workable option; however, the esthetic results will occasionally be unfulfilling and inadequate for the rehabilitation of lost structures. Prosthetic rehabilitation with conventional and zygomatic implants can provide favorable and predictable long-term results. We report the clinical case of a 53-year-old female patient with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). The treatment protocol included radical surgery, radiotherapy, and maxillofacial rehabilitation with conventional and zygomatic implants. Management of an ACC case requires a timely, radical, and multidisciplinary approach. In our patient, rehabilitation of masticatory function was accomplished in the immediate postoperative period and before radiotherapy. The rehabilitation of masticatory function improved the patient's systemic and nutritional status and her speech, with coverage of the esthetic defect. These outcomes reduced the psychological and emotional effects of tumor ablation.

Data-Driven Multiresolution Camera Using the Foveal Adaptive Pyramid.

There exist image processing applications, such as tracking or pattern recognition, that are not necessarily precise enough to maintain the same resolution across the whole image sensor. In fact, they must only keep it as high as possible in a relatively small region, but covering a wide field of view. This is the aim of foveal vision systems. Briefly, they propose to sense a large field of view at a spatially-variant resolution: one relatively small region, the fovea, is mapped at a high resolution, while the rest of the image is captured at a lower resolution. In these systems, this fovea must be moved, from one region of interest to another one, to scan a visual scene. It is interesting that the part of the scene that is covered by the fovea should not be merely spatial, but closely related to perceptual objects. Segmentation and attention are then intimately tied together: while the segmentation process is responsible for extracting perceptively-coherent entities from the scene (proto-objects), attention can guide segmentation. From this loop, the concept of foveal attention arises. This work proposes a hardware system for mapping a uniformly-sampled sensor to a space-variant one. Furthermore, this mapping is tied with a software-based, foveal attention mechanism that takes as input the stream of generated foveal images. The whole hardware/software architecture has been designed to be embedded within an all programmable system on chip (AP SoC). Our results show the flexibility of the data port for exchanging information between the mapping and attention parts of the architecture and the good performance rates of the mapping procedure. Experimental evaluation also demonstrates that the segmentation method and the attention model provide results comparable to other more computationally-expensive algorithms.

Pancreatic hemolymphangioma.

CONTEXT: Hemolymphangioma of pancreas is a tumor has its origins on vascular and lymphatic vessels malformation. At this time, only eight cases have been reported (PubMed). CASE REPORT: A 52-year-old woman with history of abdominal pain and early satiety was admitted to our external consultation. Laboratory data were normal. CT initially showed a high vascularized solid tumor, apparently arising from the right hepatic lobe, and it was considered to be a hemangioma. Two sessions of CT guided embolizations were performed. Control CT scan revealed a reduction in tumor´s size and location confined to pancreatic head. With this diagnosis studies and suspicion of neoplastic tumor, it was performed a pylorus preserving pancreatoduodenectomy. Pathology report was to be a pancreatic head hemolymphangioma. CONCLUSION: Diagnosis and management of cystic pancreatic tumors can be challenging. Cystectomy or even surgical procedures as pancreatoduodenectomy should be performed when is possible. We report a case of pancreatic hemolymphangioma, a benign cystic tumor with a rare incidence.

Soft palate preservation after tumor resection with transoral laser microsurgery.

BACKGROUND: Management and preservation of the soft palate is dependent on clinical stage and tumor histology. However, available literature is scarce regarding the palate preservation with the use of laser CO2. OBJECTIVES: We report the results obtained after management with laser surgery and soft palate preservation in three patients with salivary gland neoplasms. METHOD: Three patients with minor salivary gland tumors were treated by means of transoral laser microsurgery. All tumors were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. All tumors were >3 cm. Soft palate function was preserved and reconstruction was performed with primary closure. Patients began oral feeding the same day and were discharged after 24 h. CONCLUSIONS: Transoral laser microsurgery is recommended for treatment of soft palate tumors. This treatment can be considered a better option when compared with other modalities such as radio- or chemoradiotherapy which require a longer time of treatment, are more expensive and tend to produce significant toxicity.

[Prevalence and associated risk factors of arterial hypertension in Sobremonte and Ojo de Agua Departments in Cordoba State]. / Prevalencia de hipertensión arterial y factores de riesgo asociados en el Dpto. Sobremonte y sur del Dpto. Ojo de Agua.

Arterial Hypertension (AH) is a disease with multiple risk factors (RF), and it is one of the most important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of AH in Sobremonte area and its correlation to other risk factors. The study was done in an special programme called "Solidarity in Health" (SIH) supported by the College of Medicine at the National University of Córdoba, which provided primary care to residents of Cachi Yaco (Sobremonte Department). It is an small village near Santiago del Estero province located in 226 km from Córdoba city. They went to the city and they examined the patients at the the "French and Berutti" school for nine consecutive years (2000-2008). Sobremonte area is the poorest deparment in the province of Córdoba and it has the highest rate of lowest socio-economic development, and a very deficient health care system.. The only hospital providing primary care is in San Francisco del Chañar, and the access is not free. The study involved the determination of the arterial pressure (AP) according to the seventh "JNC"criteria, body mass index (BMI), levels of alcohol consumption, exercise, salt consumption, diabetes and smoking in all the patients. Additionally, three water samples from different representative zones were collected and tested for sodium concentration. 471 patients were included. The incidence of AH was 43.5% of the patients. (51% men and 36% women). Higher incidence of AH was found in patients between 50 and 59 years old. There was a stadistical difference in the BMI, diabetes, and alcohol consumption between healthy patients and patients with AH. There was not any correlation between AH and exercise. We found higher levels of sodium in the water of this area and it was between 13-35 higher than in C6rdoba city and it was correlated with AH. We conclude that the increased sodium consumption is one of the most important risk factor of AH in this population.

Parapharyngeal Space Tumor: Submandibular Approach Without Mandibulotomy.

INTRODUCTION: Among all head and neck tumors, only 0.5% occur in the parapharyngeal space and 80% are benign tumors. Surgery is the cornerstone of treatment. The deep location of this space and surrounding structures has given rise to a large number of surgical approaches for resection of parapharyngeal neoplasms. Our experience using the submandibular transcervical approach on 14 patients who had surgery upfront for treatment of these lesions is described. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a retrospective, descriptive case-series analysis of patients with parapharyngeal space tumors treated from January 2009 to July 2016, in whom carotid body tumors were excluded. Fourteen patients were included, 11 females (76.9%) and 3 males (23.1%), with a mean age of 46.9 years (SD 14.85). RESULTS: The most common symptom reported at patient's presentation to our clinic was a foreign body sensation in the oropharynx and pain. Navigation-guided surgery was used in two cases. Mean tumor size was 4.7 cm (SD 1.785). Complete resection of lesions was performed in all cases, and the major complication was massive bleeding in one case (7.1%). CONCLUSION: According to the present analysis, the submandibular transcervical approach is an effective and safe technique that allows resection of large parapharyngeal tumors, even those close to the skull base. It has minimal complication rate, prevents morbidity associated mandibulotomy and allows extension to a transparotid, transmandibular and even to an infratemporal fossa approach. Navigation is indicated in tumors < 2 cm. The submandibular transcervical approach should be considered upfront for neoplasms ≤ 7 cm, preferentially ≥ 0.5 cm distant from skull base.

Parapharyngeal space lipomatosis with secondary dyspnea, disphagia and disphonia.

INTRODUCTION: Parapharyngeal space tumors are a small percentage of all head and neck neoplasms. Due to their anatomic location, they represent a therapeutic challenge. To our knowledge, 11 cases of parapharyngeal lipomatous tumors have been reported in the literature. CASE: A 48 year old male with chief complaints of dyspnea, dysphagia and dysphonia was found to have a parapharyngeal space tumor. He was scheduled to undergo lumpectomy and neck exploration. DISCUSSION: Benign tumors represented 70% of all cases. Open neck surgery is considered the gold-standard of treatment. CONCLUSION: It is important to bear in mind the lipomas of the parapharyngeal space to establish an accurate diagnosis and implement timely, appropriate treatment in order to avoid future complications and reduce morbidity and mortality.

Anaplastic thyroid cancer: multimodal treatment results.

BACKGROUND: Anaplastic thyroid cancer is a rare and lethal disease. It accounts for 1-2% of thyroid malignancies, but specific mortality is higher than 90%. It is an aggressive locoregional disease with a high metastatic capacity. There is no agreement with regards to the best treatment. We analysed the results of treatment in a mestizo population treated in the National Cancer Institute (Mexico). METHODS: We reviewed 1,581 files of thyroid carcinomas; of these, 29 (1.83%) had anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Demographic variables, clinical manifestations, tumour characteristics, and treatments were analysed. RESULTS: The median age was 64.5 ± 13.2 years. Females were more affected (female/male ratio: 2.6:1); 21 cases occurred in women (72.4%), and eight in males (27.6%). The most common manifestations were neck enlargement (93.10%) and hoarseness (71.31%). The median tumour size was 8 cm (range: 4-20 cm). The percentage of cases which presented in clinical stage IVA was 10.3%, with 62.1% presenting in clinical stage IVb and 27.6% presenting in clinical stage VIc. Complete resection (R0) (p = 0.05), radiation doses of higher than 33.1 Gy (p = 0.04), and multimodal therapy were associated with better survival. Surgery plus radiotherapy with or without systemic treatment (p = 0.006). The median overall survival was 119 days (IC 95%, 36.3-201.6). Six-month, one-year and two-year survival was 37.9%, 21% and 13%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Complete surgical resection is associated with better survival but is very difficult to achieve due to aggressive biological behaviour. Multimodal therapy is associated with better survival and a better quality of life. There is a need for more effective systemic treatments as extensive surgical resections have little overall benefit in highly invasive and metastatic disease.

Two cases of sternectomy for bone metastasis due to aggressive variants of thyroid papillary carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: There are only few cases reported about the role of surgery in the presence of single or multiple bulky bone metastases. The literature about treatment for bulky sternal metastases is scarce. PRESENTATION OF CASE: We present two patients treated surgically for metastatic thyroid lesions. Case 1 is a female with tumor of the thyroid right lobe, mediastinal extension and multiple pulmonary metastases. Bony infiltration was observed in the sternum and ribs. Case 2 is a female with a lesion in the cervical region of the thyroid left lobe and increase in volume on the upper sternal manubrium. DISCUSSION: Patients with well-differentiated thyroid cancer may present with extracervical metastasis in 5-10% of cases at diagnosis. Bone metastases occur in 0.4% of cases of papillary carcinoma. Management remains controversial. There are only isolated cases reported in the literature of the role surgery plays in the presence of single or multiple bulky bone metastases. The basis for initial surgical approach is keeping in mind that the surgical procedure is palliative in order to achieve optimal hypothetical ablation as a result of reduced tumor volume. CONCLUSION: Surgery is the elective treatment and can be performed safely and with adequate results, allowing proper optimization of the dose of (131)I for ablative therapy.

Use of glutaraldehyde-preserved bovine pericardium patch in vascular repair of portal vein in a patient with pancreatic cancer.

Advanced-stage gastrointestinal tumors are aggressive and frequently invade blood vessels. Advances in endovascular surgery can repair blood vessels that may be infiltrated by a tumor. Currently there are many materials to do this, as the use of prostheses or implants and patches. In Mexico, the bovine pericardium preserved with glutaraldehyde has been used to treat incisional, inguinal, and diaphragmatic hernias and repair vascular defects with good results, low cost, and no allergic reaction from the patient. We report the case of a 47-year-old man, with a history of smoking and alcoholism, diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The tumor, with the use of endoscopic ultrasound, showed direct contact with the portal vein without invading the confluence of the mesenteric vein. During exploratory laparotomy, a tumor attached to the head of the pancreas of 4 cm × 4 cm was found, with tumor invasion of 1 cm × 2 cm on the outer sidewall of the portal vein. We performed pylorus-preserving pancreatoduodenectomy and tumor resection of the portal vein wall with placement of glutaraldehyde-preserved bovine pericardium patch to repair it. The intraoperative and immediate postoperative period arose without complications. The patient was discharged with good result and is currently under surveillance. We report this case to show a successful result using glutaraldehyde-preserved bovine pericardium to close vascular defects after resection of the tumor secondary to vascular invasion.

Reparación de vena yugular interna única después de recurrencia por cáncer de laringe / Repair of solitary internal jugular vein after laryngeal cancer recurrence

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Soft palate preservation after tumor resection with transoral laser microsurgery

Background: Management and preservation of the soft palate is dependent on clinical stage and tumor histology. However, available literature is scarce regarding the palate preservation with the use of laser CO2.Objectives: We report the results obtained after management with laser surgery and soft palate preservation in three patients with salivary gland neoplasms. Method: Three patients with minor salivary gland tumors were treated by means of transoral laser microsurgery. All tumors were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging. All tumors were >3 cm. Soft palate function was preserved and reconstruction was performed with primary closure. Patients began oral feeding the same day and were discharged after 24 h. Conclusions: Transoral laser microsurgery is recommended for treatment of soft palate tumors. This treatment can be considered a better option when compared with other modalities such as radio- or chemo radiotherapy which require a longer time of treatment, are more expensive and tend to produce significant toxicity (AU)