Hysterectomy: surgical route and complications

OBJECTIVES: To compare the morbidity associated with abdominal, vaginal and laparoscopic hysterectomies in a group of patients suitable for anyone of these surgical routes. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of 1000 consecutive hysterectomies. RESULTS: The 513 patients were deemed to be suitable for hysterectomy by anyone of the three surgical routes. The overall complication rates were 34, 24 and 21% for abdominal, vaginal and laparoscopic hysterectomy, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that the morbidity was similar when confounding factors were allowed for, in particular the use of peri-operative antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: The route of hysterectomy is not a major determining factor of peri-operative complications when other confounding variables are taken into account.     

Risk factors for an atherothrombotic event in patients with diabetic macular edema treated with intravitreal injections of bevacizumab

AIM: To identify risk factors for an atherothrombotic event (ATE) among patients who were treated for DME with intravitreal bevacizumab injections. METHODS: This retrospective study enrolled all consecutive patients with DME who were treated by intravitreal bevacizumab from 2009 through 2016 in a single center. They were divided into one group treated by bevacizumab and subsequently had an ATE and a second group also treated by bevacizumab and did not have an ATE. RESULTS: A total of 455 patients with DME were enrolled. Seventy-two of the patients had an ATE. A multivariate model adjusted for age, gender, smoking, body mass index, HbA1c, duration of diabetes, creatinine, and blood pressure revealed an increased risk for ATE in the patients with diabetic duration of more than 13y, a systolic blood pressure over 153 mm Hg at first treatment, or having been treated by more than 4 intravitreal bevacizumab injections. Additionally, patients that had an ATE within 3mo from the last intravitreal treatment underwent more bevacizumab injections (5.17±3.82 vs 3.08±1.96; P=0.0003). CONCLUSIONS: The risk factors for an ATE identified in this study were systolic blood pressure >153.5 mm Hg, a history of diabetic mellitus for more than 13y, and treatment with more than 4 intravitreal bevacizumab injections. These factors need to be borne in mind when bevacizumab is being considered in the management of patients with DME.     

Determination of certain drugs in binary mixtures formulations by second derivative ratio spectrophotometry and LC

Spectrophotometric and high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods are developed for simultaneous determination of three binary mixtures with overlapping spectra. The spectrophotometric method is based on the use of second derivative of the ratio spectra (2DD) for resolution of three binary mixtures of indapamide with captopril (mixture 1), cinnarizine with heptaminol acefylline (mixture 2) and amoxycillin trihydrate with flucloxacillin sodium (mixture 3). The HPLC method depends on the separation of components of binary mixtures using ODS column with mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and 5 mM aqueous heptane sulphonic acid sodium salt in ratios of (60:40, v/v, pH 5.5) for mixture 1, (50:50, v/v, pH 3.0) for mixture 2 and (35:65, v/v, pH 4.2) for mixture 3. The proposed methods are accurate, non-destructive and successfully applied for the determination of the three binary combinations in synthetic mixtures and commercial pharmaceutical products.     

Preventable infant mortality and quality of health care: maternal perception of the child's illness and treatment

This study used a qualitative methodology to analyze the discourse of mothers from Greater Metropolitan Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, whose infant children had died from what were considered avoidable causes (diarrhea, malnutrition, and pneumonia), seeking to elucidate the factors associated with utilization of health care services. Identification of the illness by the mother was related to perception of specific alterations in the child's state of health. Analysis of the alterations helped identify the principal characteristics ascribed to each alteration and their relationship to the search for treatment. The authors also studied the mother's assessment of treatment received at health care facilities; 43.0% of the cases involved problems related to the structure of health care services or the attending health care professionals. In 46.0% of the cases, mothers associated the child's death with flaws in the health care service. The study group showed a variety of interpretations of illness, often distinct from the corresponding biomedical concepts. The fact that attending health care personnel overlooked or underrated the mother's perception of the illness and the lack of communications between health care personnel and the child's family had an influence on the child's evolution and subsequent death.     

Clinical review: Treatment of heat stroke: should dantrolene be considered?

Rapid and efficient cooling is the most important therapeutic objective in patients with heat stroke (HS). This article reviews the mechanism of action and rationale for the use of dantrolene as a potential supportive cooling method in the treatment of HS. Relevant studies were included to support discussion of the role of dantrolene for the treatment of HS. In some studies dantrolene was shown to accelerate cooling rate when administered after the development of exertional HS. Dantrolene was also found to be effective in reducing the extent of HS signs when given as pretreatment in an animal model. Accumulated data do not support the routine use of dantrolene as an adjuvant cooling technique in HS, but administration of this drug in severe cases, or in which no improvement is observed, appears rational. Further trials are needed in order to assess the true effectiveness of dantrolene in HS.     

Preclinical trial of a modified gastroscope that performs a true anterior fundoplication for the endoluminal treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease

Background  

Laparoscopic fundoplication provides good reflux control, but side-effects due to the surgical procedure are known. Different endoluminal techniques have been introduced, but all with disappointing results.     

Immune reconstitution syndrome in patients treated for HIV and tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro.

We made a retrospective longitudinal study from January 2000 to January 2003 to examine cases of immune reconstitution syndrome (IRS) and its incidence rate in tuberculosis (TB)-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infected patients. The incidence rate (IR) was calculated using a Poisson regression. The confidence interval (CI) that was stipulated was 95%. IRS occurred in 10/84 HIV and TB-positive patients; nine of them were on highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) during a mean of 61.7 (+/- 59) days following the introduction of antiretrovirals. Lymph-node enlargement was the sole clinical manifestation. CD4 counts were <100 cells/mm(3)in 50% of the patients, at the time of TB diagnosis. All but two patients were treated with prednisone, and recovered from TB within a mean of 91 days (+/- 30 days). One relapse of TB was observed, but there were no IRS-related deaths. The incidence rate was higher (IR=11.18; CI, 1.41-88.76) in patients that had superficial lymph node enlargement at the moment of TB diagnosis (not associated with TB), extrapulmonary TB (IR=1.97; CI, 0.44-8.79), were antiretroviral naive (IR=1.85; CI, 0.48-7.16), and CD4 counts <100 cells/mm(3) (IR=1.50; CI, 0.40-5.59), although with a wide CI. IRS was frequent in our sample, occurred more frequently in HIV-naive patients with lymph-node enlargement and extrapulmonary TB. No cases of new pulmonary lesions or worsening of pulmonary infiltrates were observed.     

Multicentre evaluation of an automated BACTEC 960 system for susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

SETTING: Three mycobacteria reference laboratories in the south-eastern part of Brazil. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the automated Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tube (MGIT) for drug susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. DESIGN: Performance of the automated BACTEC MGIT 960 (M960) system for testing M. tuberculosis susceptibility to streptomycin (SM), isoniazid (INH), rifampicin (RMP) and ethambutol (EMB) was evaluated with 95 clinical isolates and compared to the results of the radiometric BACTEC 460TB (B460) system, the proportion method (PM), and the resistance ratio method (RRM). Judicial susceptibility profiles of 88 isolates were defined based on two or more concordant results among B460, PM and RRM, and used as a reference for comparison with M960 results. RESULTS: Agreement rates between M960 and conventional methods were 95.2% with B460, 96.6% with the PM and 93.4% with the RRM. The lowest agreement rates were obtained for SM with the RRM and for EMB with B460. When comparing M960 with judicial susceptibility profiles, the agreement rate was 97.9%. The agreement rates obtained for INH and RMP were 99.2% and for SM and EMB they were 96.2% and 96.9%, respectively. The mean time to reporting the M960 results was 6.9 days. CONCLUSION: M960 offers great improvements when compared to the proportion and resistance ratio methods and would benefit patient treatment.     

Pharmacokinetic dosing of aminoglycosides: a controlled trial

PURPOSE: To evaluate whether individualized pharmacokinetic dosing of aminoglycosides can reduce nephrotoxicity and improve the outcome of patients with gram-negative sepsis. METHODS: We conducted a prospective controlled trial at a tertiary care university hospital. Eighty-one patients with suspected or documented gram-negative infections were enrolled. All were treated with either gentamicin or amikacin, according to clinical judgement. Patients were allocated to one of two groups based on the last digit (odd/even) of their identification number. In the study group (pharmacokinetic dosing) of 43 patients, plasma aminoglycoside levels were determined 1 hour after initiation of drug infusion and 8 to 16 hours later to estimate the elimination half-life and volume of distribution, from which the subsequent dosage schedule was calculated. Target peak plasma levels were 20 microg/mL for gentamicin and 60 microg/mL for amikacin. Target trough levels were <1 microg/mL for both drugs. The control group (fixed once-daily dosing) consisted of 38 patients who were prescribed single daily doses of gentamicin or amikacin. The primary endpoints were renal toxicity (> or = 25% increase in serum creatinine level or a serum creatinine level > or = 1.4 mg/dL) and 28-day mortality. RESULTS: The two study groups were similar in age, sex, indications for therapy, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, and clinical assessment at baseline. Although the pharmacokinetic group received significantly greater doses of aminoglycosides than did the once-daily group, the incidence of nephrotoxicity was significantly lower in the pharmacokinetic group (5% [2/43] vs. 21% [8/38], P = 0.03). There was no statistically significant difference in 28-day mortality (27% [12/43] vs. 22% [8/38], P = 0.3). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that individualized pharmacokinetic dosing of aminoglycosides reduces the incidence of nephrotoxicity and allows the use of greater doses of aminoglycosides.     

自动BACTEC960系统检测结核分枝杆菌药物敏感性的多中心评估分析

地点：巴西东南部3个分枝杆菌参比实验室。目的：评估自动化分枝杆菌生长指示管（MGIT）检测结核分枝杆菌药物敏感性的能力。设计：用自动BECTECMGIT960（M960）对95份结核分枝杆菌临床分离株进行链霉素（SM），异烟肼（INH）、利福平（RMP）、乙胺丁醇（EMB）的敏感性检测，并与BACTEC460（B460）、比例法（PM）、抗性比率法（RRM）的检测结果进行比较，其中88株以BACTEC460、比例法、抗性比率法中的至少两种方法获得一致结果作为最终结果，并与M960的结果相比较。结果：M960与B460的符合率为95．2％，与PM为96．6%,与RRM为93．4％；其中与RRM在SM上符合率最低，与B460在EMB上符合率最低。M960结果与最终结果的符合率为97．9％，INH与RMP的符合率为99．2%,SM与EMB的符合率分别为96．2%和96．9％，M960报告结果的平均时间为6．9d。结论：与比例法和抗性比率法相比，M960显示出了极大的优势，并且有助于患者的治疗。