Management of patients with breast cancer: are we ready in India for sentinel lymph node biopsy?

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer among women worldwide. Surgery plays an important role in its management. Axillary lymph node dissection has been the standard of care for staging, prognostication and control of axillary disease for almost a century. However, this time-tested paradigm is shifting gradually in the western world, because of the increasing use of screening mammography resulting in the detection of a large proportion of node-negative early breast cancers and a significant incidence of axillary lymph node dissection-related arm morbidity. Minimally invasive and less morbid procedures such as sentinel lymph node biopsy are being used more commonly in the West. However, the western experience cannot be directly extrapolated to the Indian scenario because of the differences in patient profile, treatment standards and expertise available. There is a need to critically analyse these issues before the Indian medical community advocates sentinel lymph node biopsy as a routine procedure for managing patients with breast cancer.     

Ten years of mental health service reform in Australia: are we getting it right?

We summarise the most recent data available on changes to the public and private mental health sectors from the commencement of the National Mental Health Strategy in 1993 to 2002. There has been substantial service system change in the directions agreed by governments under the Strategy, supported by a 65% growth in government spending on mental health. Despite this there is growing public and professional concern about deficiencies in the mental health service system. We review the current call for change in light of increased community expectations and growth in demand for services. Given broad national and international support for Australia's policy directions, the problems lie with the pace and extent of change and ensuring better outcomes from the increased investment in mental health care.     

Five years after To Err Is Human: what have we learned?

Lucian L. Leape, MD; Donald M. Berwick, MD

JAMA. 2005;293:2384-2390.

Five years ago, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for a national effort to make health care safe. Although progress since then has been slow, the IOM report truly "changed the conversation" to a focus on changing systems, stimulated a broad array of stakeholders to engage in patient safety, and motivated hospitals to adopt new safe practices. The pace of change is likely to accelerate, particularly in implementation of electronic health records, diffusion of safe practices, team training, and full disclosure to patients following injury. If directed toward hospitals that actually achieve high levels of safety, pay for performance could provide additional incentives. But improvement of the magnitude envisioned by the IOM requires a national commitment to strict, ambitious, quantitative, and well-tracked national goals. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality should bring together all stakeholders, including payers, to agree on a set of explicit and ambitious goals for patient safety to be reached by 2010.

     

Cardiovascular risk in Chinese patients with chronic kidney diseases: where do we stand?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem. Kidney failure requiring renal replacement therapy is the most visible outcome of CKD. In China, there is a rising incidence and prevalence of end stage renal diseases (ESRD), with poor outcomes and high cost. The registered number of individuals with ESRD treated by dialysis was 41 755 in 1999 and is expected to surpass 140 000 by 2009. It is important to note that, as many developing countries, the registered number of dialysis patients accounts only for less than 10% of total ESRDpopulation in China.     

Resistance to antibiotics: are we in the post-antibiotic era?

Serious infections caused by bacteria that have become resistant to commonly used antibiotics have become a major global healthcare problem in the 21st century. They not only are more severe and require longer and more complex treatments, but they are also significantly more expensive to diagnose and to treat. Antibiotic resistance, initially a problem of the hospital setting associated with an increased number of hospital-acquired infections usually in critically ill and immunosuppressed patients, has now extended into the community causing severe infections difficult to diagnose and treat. The molecular mechanisms by which bacteria have become resistant to antibiotics are diverse and complex. Bacteria have developed resistance to all different classes of antibiotics discovered to date. The most frequent type of resistance is acquired and transmitted horizontally via the conjugation of a plasmid. In recent times new mechanisms of resistance have resulted in the simultaneous development of resistance to several antibiotic classes creating very dangerous multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial strains, some also known as "superbugs". The indiscriminate and inappropriate use of antibiotics in outpatient clinics, hospitalized patients and in the food industry is the single largest factor leading to antibiotic resistance. In recent years, the number of new antibiotics licensed for human use in different parts of the world has been lower than in the recent past. In addition, there has been less innovation in the field of antimicrobial discovery research and development. The pharmaceutical industry, large academic institutions or the government are not investing the necessary resources to produce the next generation of newer safe and effective antimicrobial drugs. In many cases, large pharmaceutical companies have terminated their anti-infective research programs altogether due to economic reasons. The potential negative consequences of all these events are relevant because they put society at risk for the spread of potentially serious MDR bacterial infections.     

Update on hantavirus in Oklahoma: are we missing cases?

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) was first recognized in 1993. Through July 6, 2005, 396 cases have been reported in the US, including 50 from Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. We report the second case of HPS in Oklahoma and present data from rodent testing to support the presence of hantaviruses across Oklahoma. We examined Oklahoma death certificates for 1999-2003 for possible unreported HPS cases. The rate of death in young adults 15-49 years due to acute respiratory distress syndrome was 69% higher and the death rate due to unspecified respiratory failure was three times higher in the grassland area of Oklahoma as compared to the non-grassland. It appears the highest risk of HPS is in the Oklahoma grasslands but Sin Nombre virus is present in the non-grassland area as well. We request physician collaboration in detection and reporting of HPS cases and present brief recommendations for prevention.     

Effeciency of three different additional treatments in patients with stage I～II endometriosis associated with infertility after laparoscopy surgery

目的 探讨Ⅰ～Ⅱ期子宫内膜异位症(Endometriosis,EMT)伴不孕腹腔镜术后三种不同辅助治疗对妊娠的影响.方法 对2009年6月~2010年12月90例在我院经电视腹腔镜检查并确诊为Ⅰ～Ⅱ期EMT并排除其他不孕因素的不孕患者,经宫腔镜检查及腹腔镜盆腔内异症病灶电凝术后,根据患者意愿分为期待组(30例,A组)、HMG促孕组(30例,B组)和散结镇痛胶囊+HMG促孕组(30例,C组);随访12个月,追踪1)三组患者治疗3个月、6个月及12个月妊娠情况;2)三组患者腹腔镜术后3、6、12个月Ca125及痛经情况,统计复发率.结果 1)A、B、C三组3、6、12个月累积临床妊娠率分别为:13.3%(4/30)、23.3(7/30)、26.7(8/30);30%(9/30)、36.7%(11/30)、50%(15/30);33.3%(10/30)、43.3(13/30)、56.7(17/30).三组两两组比较,A组12个月累积临床妊娠率均低于B组和C组,差异具有统计学意义(P<0.05);B组和C组相比,3、6及12个月妊娠率均无明显差异.2)A、B、C三组术后12个月C组患者EMT复发率明显低于A组和B组.结论 Ⅰ～Ⅱ期EMT伴不孕患者经腹腔镜治疗后应用HMG促孕治疗可提高术后妊娠率;散结镇痛胶囊对延缓EMT复发具有一定的疗效.