OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical effects of nephron-sparing surgery in patients with early-stage small renal cell carcinoma. METHODS: Nephron-sparing surgery was performed in 21 patients with renal cell carcinoma including 1 with solitary kidney, 3 with unilateral tumor and contralateral renal compromise, and 17 with unilateral tumor and normal contralateral kidney. The diameter of the tumors ranged from 1.5 to 6.0 cm, with a mean of 2.8 cm. The tumor diameter in 17 patients with normal contralateral kidney was less than 4 cm (mean 2.5 cm) and the average diameter in 4 patients with contralateral renal compromise was 4.2 cm. Sixteen cases were in stage T(1), 4 in stage T(2), and 1 in stage T(3). Of the 21 patients, 4 underwent tumor enucleation, 10 polar nephrectomy and 7 wedge resection. RESULTS: All patients were followed up for an average of 40.8 months (7 to 66 months). One patient suffered a right lung and mediastinum metastasis 3 years after the surgery later and 1 with chronic glomerulonephritis required dialysis 27 months after the operation. No surgical complication or local recurrence were found in other patients. CONCLUSION: As a safe and effective therapy for early-stage small renal cell carcinoma, nephron-sparing surgery can be considered as the gold-standard therapy for patients with lesions less than 4 cm in T(1) and T(2) stages of localized unilateral tumor with normal contralateral kidney. 相似文献
OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of two information-based provider reminder interventions designed to improve self-care management and outcomes of heart failure (HF) patients. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING: Interview and agency administrative data on 628 home care patients with a primary diagnosis of HF. STUDY DESIGN: Patients were treated by nurses randomly assigned to usual care or one of two intervention groups. The basic intervention was an e-mail to the patient's nurse highlighting six HF-specific clinical recommendations. The augmented intervention supplemented the initial nurse reminder with additional clinician and patient resources. DATA COLLECTION: Patient interviews were conducted 45 days post admission to measure self-management behaviors, HF-specific outcomes (Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire-KCCQ), health-related quality of life (EuroQoL), and service use. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Both interventions improved the mean KCCQ summary score (15.3 and 12.9 percent, respectively) relative to usual care (p< or =.05). The basic intervention also yielded a higher EuroQoL score relative to usual care (p< or =.05). In addition, the interventions had a positive impact on medication knowledge, diet, and weight monitoring. The basic intervention was more cost-effective than the augmented intervention in improving clinical outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the positive impact of targeting evidence-based computer reminders to home health nurses to improve patient self-care behaviors, knowledge, and clinical outcomes. It also advances the field's limited understanding of the cost-effectiveness of selected strategies for translating research into practice. 相似文献
Background: Preconditioning the brain with relatively safe drugs seems to be a viable option to reduce ischemic brain injury. The authors and others have shown that the volatile anesthetic isoflurane can precondition the brain against ischemia. Here, the authors determine whether isoflurane preconditioning improves long-term neurologic outcome after brain ischemia.
Methods: Six-day-old rats were exposed to 1.5% isoflurane for 30 min at 24 h before the brain hypoxia-ischemia that was induced by left common carotid arterial ligation and then exposure to 8% oxygen for 2 h. The neuropathology, motor coordination, and learning and memory functions were assayed 1 month after the brain ischemia. Western analysis was performed to quantify the expression of the heat shock protein 70, Bcl-2, and survivin 24 h after isoflurane exposure.
Results: The mortality was 45% after brain hypoxia-ischemia. Isoflurane preconditioning did not affect this mortality. However, isoflurane preconditioning attenuated ischemia-induced loss of neurons and brain tissues, such as cerebral cortex and hippocampus in the survivors. Isoflurane also improved the motor coordination of rats at 1 month after ischemia. The learning and memory functions as measured by performance of Y-maze and social recognition tasks in the survivors were not affected by the brain hypoxia-ischemia or isoflurane preconditioning. The expression of Bcl-2, a well-known antiapoptotic protein, in the hippocampus is increased after isoflurane exposure. This increase was reduced by the inhibitors of inducible nitric oxide synthase. Inducible nitric oxide synthase inhibition also abolished isoflurane preconditioning-induced neuroprotection. 相似文献
Purpose To perform an audit of paediatric surgical patients in a provincial general surgical unit. Methodology Data was prospectively recorded using a standardized proforma on all children aged up to 15 yrs, seen between 11th December 2005 and 11th December 2006. Results There were 209 admissions (194 children), median age 8 yrs (6 wks–15 yrs) with 153 (73%) acutes. 37 children (18%) were under 2 yrs. Male : female ratio was 3 : 2. Procedures (n = 119) were appendicectomy (35), inguinal herniotomy (30), skin procedures (29), endoscopy (10), testicular (10) and others (5). The commonest acute and elective operations were appendicectomy and inguinal herniotomy respectively. 51% of operations were acute. There were 10 tertiary hospital transfers (5%) for burns (4), pyloric stenosis (3), intussusseption (1), neonatal inguinal hernia (1) and pyoderma gangrenosum (1). Median age of transfers was 11 months (6 wks–14 yrs). Complications were wound infection (1), post‐operative ileus (2) and infarcted ovary (1). Conclusion There are increasing moves towards centralization in paediatric surgery. 1 With only 4 paediatric tertiary centres in NZ, many general surgeons routinely perform paediatric surgery. A large number of children presented to our surgical department. Around half of these children required surgery and half of operations were acute. There is still a significant need for general paediatric surgery in the provinces and hence close collaboration with specialist paediatric surgeons. 相似文献