Surgical management for chronic pain

Chronic pain in the UK affects up to 43% of the population. The consequences include physical and psychological distress, loss of function, employment, family and social strain and increased utilization of healthcare services. Modern pain management services operate across primary, secondary and tertiary care and incorporate general practitioners, psychologists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, specialist nurses, pain physicians and surgeons. This allows for a coordinated approach to chronic pain, engaging the patient in a structured pathway from conservative measures, through to surgery if necessary. Surgical interventions have been utilized effectively throughout the 20^th century for the treatment of a variety of conditions, some of which are now effectively managed with improved pharmacological approaches or novel neuromodulation techniques. Ablative procedures that aim to permanently interrupt the pain pathway still represent the final solution for some conditions, particularly those with cancer associated pain; however, the search for less invasive, less risky measures continues. This is stimulated by an increased understanding of the neurobiology of pain transmission and the physiological changes which occur in persistent pain.     

Demonstration of a modelling-based multi-criteria decision analysis procedure for prioritisation of occupational risks from manufactured nanomaterials

Several tools to facilitate the risk assessment and management of manufactured nanomaterials (MN) have been developed. Most of them require input data on physicochemical properties, toxicity and scenario-specific exposure information. However, such data are yet not readily available, and tools that can handle data gaps in a structured way to ensure transparent risk analysis for industrial and regulatory decision making are needed. This paper proposes such a quantitative risk prioritisation tool, based on a multi-criteria decision analysis algorithm, which combines advanced exposure and dose-response modelling to calculate margins of exposure (MoE) for a number of MN in order to rank their occupational risks. We demonstrated the tool in a number of workplace exposure scenarios (ES) involving the production and handling of nanoscale titanium dioxide, zinc oxide (ZnO), silver and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The results of this application demonstrated that bag/bin filling, manual un/loading and dumping of large amounts of dry powders led to high emissions, which resulted in high risk associated with these ES. The ZnO MN revealed considerable hazard potential in vivo, which significantly influenced the risk prioritisation results. In order to study how variations in the input data affect our results, we performed probabilistic Monte Carlo sensitivity/uncertainty analysis, which demonstrated that the performance of the proposed model is stable against changes in the exposure and hazard input variables.     

中下段直肠癌系膜环周切缘的临床研究

目的探讨中下段直肠癌系膜环周切缘与直肠癌预后的相关性,分析环周切缘与临床病理特征的关系。方法采用病理大切片技术,前瞻性研究56例中下段直肠癌直肠系膜环周切缘侵犯情况。结果中下段直肠癌根治性切除术后局部复发率为13%（7/56）,远处复发率为25% （14/56）;中下段直肠癌直肠系膜环周切缘阳性率为21%（12/56）;环周切缘阳性的中下段直肠癌局部复发率为33%（4/12）,明显高于环周切缘阴性的7%（3/44）（χ^2=6.061,P=0.014）;前者远处复发率为50%（6/12）,后者为18%（8/44）（χ^2=5.091,P=0.024）。Kaplan-Meier生存分析显示,环周切缘与生存时间密切相关（log-rank,P=0.011）;环周切缘阳性的中下段直肠癌患者3年生存率为41.7%,明显低于环周切缘阴性者的70.4%。T3直肠癌环周切缘阳性率为37%（10/27）,明显高于T1和T2的0/6和9%（2/23）（χ^2=7.758,P=0.021）。肿瘤直径≥5 cm直肠癌环周切缘阳性率为39%（7/18）,明显高于肿瘤直径〈5 cm的13%（5/38）（χ^2=4.803,P=0.028）。结论环周切缘侵犯与浸润深度和肿瘤直径密切相关,是影响中下段直肠癌预后的重要因素。