Anxiety during the performance of colonoscopies: modification using music therapy.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS: Colonoscopies are usually performed using pharmacological sedation. This process entails certain risks. In the search for alternative methods, some studies have analysed the effect music can have on patients during the procedure when used as a complement to sedation. We present a prospective, randomized study in which we assess the anxiolytic action music has when it is administered during a single colonoscopy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included 118 patients who were scheduled for ambulatory colonoscopies. They were randomly assigned to the control group (n = 55) and the experimental group (n = 63). We determined their levels of anxiety using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Test (STAI) form, which they filled in before and after the examination. Patients listened to music through personal headphones. RESULTS: The score on the STAI form before the examination was 25.25 +/- 10.49 and 28.16 +/- 11.43 in the control and experimental groups, respectively (P > 0.05). The decrease of the score on the STAI scale after the colonoscopy in the control and experimental groups was 6.27 (95% confidence interval, 3.26-9.28) and 11.35 (95% confidence interval, 8.64-14.05), respectively (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Listening to music during ambulatory colonoscopies decreases the level of anxiety that is inherent to the process without other anxiolytic methods.

Hepatic tumors in patients with cirrhosis: an autopsy study.

The incidence and characteristics of hepatic tumors -primitive or secondary- were analyzed in a series of 596 patients with cirrhosis and on whom an autopsy was carried out. A hepatic tumor was discovered in 43.6%: 96.5% with histological findings of malignant disease and only 3.4% with benign disease. The tumors discovered showed the following in order of frequency: hepatocellular carcinoma (90.3%), hepatic metastases (4.2%), cholangiocarcinoma (2.3%), adenoma (1.5%), hemangioma (1.2%) and hamartoma (0.8%). Therefore, 10% of the neoplasms located in the cirrhotic liver were different from the hepatocellular carcinoma. In 2% of the subjects with hepatic tumors, two histologically different lesions were found to co-exist in the liver, and in every case it was found to be a hepatocellular carcinoma related to another tumor, which further complicated the diagnosis. The most frequent type of hepatocellular carcinoma was multinodular, although diffuse tumors most frequently developed metastases. When the hepatocellular carcinoma was uninodular and small, distal spread was exceptional. Metastatic infiltration of the liver by neoplasms of different origin, characteristically infrequent in cirrhosis, was always accompanied by spread to other organs and did not appear as a single nodule in any case. We conclude that the correct diagnosis of tumor-related lesions located, in a cirrhotic liver is occasionally difficult during life, especially when the neoplasms are different from the hepatocellular carcinoma.

[Ultrasonography-guided percutaneous drainage of hepatic abscess. Results and complications]. / Drenaje percutáneo guiado por ecografía de los abscesos hepáticos. Resultados y complicaciones.

Interventional echography has been proposed as an effective method for the drainage of pyogenic hepatic abscesses. We present the technique and the results with this therapeutic alternative in 23 patients suffering from this serious disease. The procedure was effective in 19 patients (82.6%), being palliative in 3 cases (a carcinoma of the gallbladder, a biliary-bowel fistula and a gastric perforation). The drainage failed in 4 patients (17.4%) (in an infected hematoma were and in 3 cases due to technical problems). There were 4 complications, one of them severe (pleural empyema). We consider that percutaneous drainage guided by echography should by a first choice in the treatment of hepatic abscesses. To achieve good results and to avoid complications it is necessary to have good knowledge of the technique.