Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the Pediatric Population: A Population Based Clinical Outcomes Study Involving 257 Patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) Database (1973-2011).

Introduction. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a rare pediatric cancer accounting for 0.5% of all pediatric malignancies. This study examines a large cohort of HCC patients in an effort to define the factors impacting clinical outcomes in pediatric HCC patients compared to adults. Methods. Demographic and clinical data on 63,771 HCC patients (257 pediatric patients ≤ 19 and 63,514 adult patients age ≥ 20) were abstracted from the SEER database (1973-2011). Results. HCC was more common among males (59.5% pediatric and 75.1% adults) and Caucasians (50.4% and 50.5%), p < 0.05. Children more often presented with fibrolamellar variant HCC (24.1% versus 0.3%, p = 0.71) and advanced HCC, including distant disease (33.1% versus 20.8%, p < 0.001), and tumors > 4 cm in size (79.6% versus 62.0%, p = 0.02). Pediatric HCC patients undergoing surgery (13.107 versus 8.324 years, p < 0.001) had longer survival than adult HCC patients. Overall mortality was lower (65.8% versus 82.0%, p < 0.001) in the pediatric HCC group. Conclusion. HCC is a rare pediatric malignancy that presents most often as an advanced tumor, >4 cm in Caucasian males. Children with HCC achieve significantly longer mean overall survival compared to adults with HCC, primarily attributable to the more favorable fibrolamellar histologic variant, and more aggressive surgical intervention, which significantly improves survival.

The Simplified Acute Physiology Score III Is Superior to the Simplified Acute Physiology Score II and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II in Predicting Surgical and ICU Mortality in the "Oldest Old".

Elderly patients in the USA account for 26-50% of all intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. The applicability of validated ICU scoring systems to predict outcomes in the "Oldest Old" is poorly documented. We evaluated the utility of three commonly used ICU scoring systems (SAPS II, SAPS III, and APACHE II) to predict clinical outcomes in patients > 90 years. 1,189 surgical procedures performed upon 951 patients > 90 years (between 2000 and 2010) were analyzed. SAPS II, SAPS III, and Acute APACHE II were calculated for all patients admitted to the SICU. Differences between survivors and nonsurvivors were analyzed using the Student's t-test and binary logistic regression analysis. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed for each scoring system studied. The area under the ROC curve (aROC) for the SAPS III was 0.81 at a cut-off value of 57, whereas the aROC for SAPS II was 0.75 at a cut-off score of 44 and the aROC for APACHE II was 0.74 at a cut-off score of 13. The SAPS III ROC curve for prediction of hospital mortality exhibited the greatest sensitivity (84%) and specificity (66%) with a score of 57 for the "Oldest Old" population.

Clinical outcomes of isolated lower extremity or foot burns in diabetic versus non-diabetic patients: a 10-year retrospective analysis.

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of diabetes mellitus (DM) in the United States is expected to increase from 8 per 1000 in 2008 to 15 per 1000 by 2050 [20]. As a result, DM patients will constitute a large proportion of Burn Center admissions, with burns typically due to contact burn or scalding. Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and peripheral neuropathy (PN) are far more common in DM patients, particularly in those with poorly controlled disease, and are often associated with worse outcomes than non-diabetic (nDM) burn patients. This study sought to analyze whether the outcome of isolated leg and foot burns among DM and nDM individuals differed significantly. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective data on 207 consecutive patients (>18 years old) admitted to a Burn Center with isolated leg or foot burns between 1999 and 2009 was collected and analyzed for this study. Age, gender, ethnicity, total body surface area (TBSA), degree of burn, etiology, hospital and burn intensive care unit (ICU), length of stay (LOS), and status at discharge were reviewed. Patients were grouped as diabetic (DM) or non-diabetic (nDM). Differences were analyzed using either the Student's t-test or Chi-square. RESULTS: 43 DM and 164 nDM patients with isolated lower extremity or foot burns were treated during the study period (1999-2009). The mean age of DM and nDM patients was 54.6 and 43.7 years, respectively (p<0.001). The most common burn etiology was scalding, flame, or contact burn. Percentage of total body surface area (TBSA) burn in DM patients averaged±standard deviation 1.8±1.3% compared to 1.8±1.6% in nDM (p<0.9). Among DM patients, 86% (N=37) of patients suffered third degree burns and 14% (N=6) of patients had second degree burns compared to 76% (N=125) of patients and 24% (N=39) of patients among nDM patients, respectively (p<0.16). The DM group had significantly higher burn ICU admission rates, 16.3% of patients versus 8.5% of patients (p<0.001), total length of hospital stay (mean±standard deviation), 14.1±10 versus 9.8±9.3 days (p<0.01) and renal failure, 4.7% of patients versus 0.6% of patients (p<0.05) compared to the nDM group. 93% of DM patients were discharged to home without further medical attention while 4.7% of patients underwent further treatment. In comparison, 85.4% of the nDM patients were discharged home with no further treatment while 8.5% of patients received home care (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: DM patients who suffer isolated burns to the feet or lower extremities have poorer clinical outcomes and more complicated and protracted hospital courses when compared to nDM patients with similar burns. Although diabetics in the current study did not experience larger or more severe burns than nDM patients, they were nearly twice as likely to be admitted to the ICU, spent an average of four days longer in the hospital, and had a higher likelihood of developing renal failure compared to nDM patients.