Relationship between climate change and skin cancer and implications for prevention and management: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to explore the published research on the relationship between climate change and skin cancer and the implications for prevention, management and further research. STUDY DESIGN: Scoping review. METHODS: This scoping review following JBI methodology reviewed English articles identified in searches of MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science and Scopus on 14 April 2023. The screening of articles was completed by two independent reviewers. Data were extracted by a single reviewer and checked by another. A causal pathway diagram was iteratively developed throughout the review and was used to categorise the findings. RESULTS: The search identified 1376 papers, of which 45 were included in the final review. Nine papers reported primary research, and 36 papers were reviews, perspectives, commentaries, editorials, or essays. The papers examined climate change influencing behaviours related to ultraviolet exposure (30 papers), ambient temperature (21 papers) and air pollution (five papers) as possible risk factors; occupational, rural, and contextual factors affecting skin cancer (11 papers); and prevention and access to health care in the context of climate change (seven papers). Most papers were published in journals in subject areas other than health. CONCLUSIONS: This review identified ultraviolet radiation, occupation, rising temperature, individual behaviour and air pollution as possible influences on skin cancer rates. Furthermore, it highlights the complexity and uncertainties in the relationship between climate change and skin cancer and the need for further research on this relationship, including primary epidemiological research and reviews that follow recognised review guidelines and include assessment of health services and social determinants in the causal pathways of this relationship.

Limited dissection and early primary closure of the tracheostomy stoma in head and neck oncology operations: a retrospective study of 158 cases.

Tracheostomy is an efficient and widely used method to secure a patent airway in patients undergoing major oral and maxillofacial oncology operations. The inferiorly based Björk flap technique, through a limited incision, followed by early primary skin closure, has been the preferred method in our unit. Patients who underwent tracheostomy for major oral and maxillofacial oncology operations during the period June 2005 to December 2012 were reviewed. Age, gender, preoperative diagnosis, duration the tracheostomy tube was in situ, tracheostomy-associated complications, and long-term sequelae were evaluated. A total 158 tracheostomies were performed using the same surgical approach in patients aged 18-84 years (median 59, mean 58.2, standard deviation 14.24 years). The time the tracheostomy tube was in situ ranged from 3 to 40 days (median 7, mean 9.0, standard deviation 6.52 days). The complication rate was 5.06% (8/158 patients). A major concern highlighted in previous publications is the risk of surgical emphysema with early closure. In this study, no patients developed surgical emphysema, tracheal fistula, clinical tracheal stenosis, or cosmetically unacceptable scarring of the neck. No patient died of a tracheostomy-related cause. In summary, the Björk flap with early primary closure of the skin by simple sutures provides a safe and easily managed approach, causing minimal postoperative morbidity.

Balancing the role of the dental school in teaching, research and patient care; including care for underserved areas.

Inequalities within dentistry are common and are reflected in wide differences in the levels of oral health and the standard of care available both within and between countries and communities. Furthermore there are patients, particularly those with special treatment needs, who do not have the same access to dental services as the general public. The dental school should aim to recruit students from varied backgrounds into all areas covered by the oral healthcare team and to train students to treat the full spectrum of patients including those with special needs. It is essential, however, that the dental student achieves a high standard of clinical competence and this cannot be gained by treating only those patients with low expectations for care. Balancing these aspects of clinical education is difficult. Research is an important stimulus to better teaching and better clinical care. It is recognized that dental school staff should be active in research, teaching, clinical work and frequently administration. Maintaining a balance between the commitments to clinical care, teaching and research while also taking account of underserved areas in each of these categories is a difficult challenge but one that has to be met to a high degree in a successful, modern dental school.

Features of recrudescent chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum infections confer a survival advantage on parasites and have implications for disease control.

This paper reports on the features of recrudescent infections of chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum (CQRPf) malaria from a study in vivo of patients from a malaria endemic (n = 527) and non-endemic (n = 129) region of Sri Lanka where the incidence of RI resistance was 30% and 55%, respectively. In both groups of patients, the recrudescent infections which emerged after treatment of the primary infection with chloroquine (CQ) and primaquine had significantly lower peripheral parasitaemia (0.036% and 0.108% in endemic and non-endemic patients, respectively) compared to their primary infections (mean parasitaemia 0.13% and 0.49%; P = 0.021 and 0.002, respectively). The recrudescences of CQ resistant infections also gave rise to clinical disease of markedly reduced severity (average clinical scores of 10.1 and 8.2) compared to their primary infections (average clinical scores of 12.4 and 12.3; P = 0.003 and 0.001, respectively, in endemic and non-endemic patients). CQ resistant recrudescent infections therefore had a lower probability of being diagnosed and treated. In endemic patients, a higher proportion of CQRPf infections (57%) had gametocytaemia compared to the chloroquine sensitive ones (29%) (P = 0.014, chi 2 = 5.96) and were significantly more infective to mosquitoes (P = 0.047). these findings imply that, in areas where CQ resistance is prevalent, the continued use of the drug may confer a survival and propagation advantage on resistant parasites and favour the rapid expansion of their reservoir. In support of this, we also present epidemiological evidence showing that, in endemic areas, the proportion of P. falciparum patients carrying gametocytes has increased significantly since the emergence of chloroquine resistance. These findings are relevant to the management of drug resistance and malaria control in countries where P.falciparum is only partially resistant to CQ.