During the COVID-19 crisis it was necessary to generate a specific care network and reconvert operating rooms to attend emergency and high-acuity patients undergoing complex surgery. The aim of this ...study is to classify postoperative complications and mortality and to assess the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic may have had on the results.
this is a non-inferiority retrospective observational study. Two different groups of surgical patients were created: Pre-pandemic COVID and Pandemic COVID. Severity of illness was rated according to the Diagnosis-related Groups (DRG) score. Comparisons were made between groups and between DRG severity score-matched samples. Non-inferiority was set at up to 10 % difference for grade III to V complications according to the Clavien-Dindo classification, and up to 2 % difference in mortality.
A total of 1649 patients in the PreCOVID group and 763 patients in the COVID group were analysed; 371 patients were matched for DRG severity score 3-4 (236 preCOVID and 135 COVID). No differences were found in relation to re-operation (22.5 % vs. 21.5 %) or late admission to critical care unit (5.1 % vs. 4.5 %). Clavien grade III to V complications occurred in 107 patients (45.3 %) in the PreCOVID group and in 56 patients (41.5 %) in the COVID group, and mortality was 12.7 % and 12.6 %, respectively. During the pandemic, 3 % of patients tested positive for Covid-19 on PCR: 12 patients undergoing elective surgery and 11 emergency surgery; there were 5 deaths, 3 of which were due to respiratory failure following Covid-19-induced pneumonia.
Although this study has some limitations, it has shown the non-inferiority of surgical outcomes during the COVID pandemic, and indicates that resuming elective surgery is safe.
Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT04780594 .
El tumor de Frantz - Gruber es una masa sólida pseudopapilar del páncreas, poco común y con bajo potencial de malignidad, descrita por primera vez por Franz en 1959.¹ Predomina en mujeres entre la ...3era y 4ta década de vida. La sintomatología está dada principalmente por efecto de masa y se caracteriza por dolor vago y sensación de plenitud. El diagnóstico radiológico incluye estudios como tomografía axial computarizada (TAC) y resonancia magnética, y los estudios histológicos confirman la sospecha clínica. El abordaje es quirúrgico en la mayoría de los casos e incluye una resección completa del tumor. La presencia de metástasis hepática no es infrecuente. La sobrevida a 5 años es por arriba del 90%.² Se reporta el caso de un paciente de 15 años, sin antecedentes patológicos o quirúrgicos, visto en el Servicio de Emergencias por epigastralgia y vómitos. Un ultrasonido (US) abdominal demostró una lesión en la cola pancreática, luego por TAC y US endoscópico se logró documentar una masa de aspecto quístico y contenido denso que abarca también el cuerpo del páncreas. Se recomendó abordaje quirúrgico; durante la laparotomía exploratoria se halla tumoración mixta sólidoquística. Se practicó pancreatectomía distal y esplenectomía. La evolución y manejo postoperatorio fueron sin complicaciones.The Frantz-Gruber tumor is a rare solid pseudopapilar mass of the pancreas characterized for its low malignant potential, first described by Franz in 1959.1 It occurs mainly in women between the third and fourth decades of life. Symptoms are determined by a mass effect, commonly non-specific abdominal pain and fullness sensation. Radiological diagnosis is mainly based on CT scan and Magnetic Resonance, while the histological findings confirm the clinical suspicion. Surgical management is recommended in most of the cases and implies complete resection of the tumor. Liver metastasis are not uncommon. Five year survival rates are about 90%.2 We report the clinical case of a 15 year-old boy with negative personal or surgical history who came into the emergency room with epigastric pain and vomiting. An abdominal ultrasound showed a tumor localized in the tail of the pancreas, this was confirmed by CT scan. An endoscopic ultrasound showed a cystic mass with solid content. Facing this situation, surgical approach was decided. An exploratory laparotomy was performed and a mixed solid cystic tumor was found. A distal pancreatectomy plus splenectomy was performed. Postoperative course and follow-up where uneventful.
El tumor de Frantz – Gruber es una masa sólida pseudopapilar del páncreas, poco común y con bajo potencial de malignidad, descrita por primera vez por Franz en 1959.1 Predomina en mujeres entre la ...3era y 4ta década de vida. La sintomatología está dada principalmente por efecto de masa y se caracteriza por dolor vago y sensación de plenitud. El diagnóstico radiológico incluye estudios como tomografía axial computarizada (TAC) y resonancia magnética, y los estudios histológicos confirman la sospecha clínica. El abordaje es quirúrgico en la mayoría de los casos e incluye una resección completa del tumor. La presencia de metástasis hepática no es infrecuente. La sobrevida a 5 años es por arriba del 90%.2 Se reporta el caso de un paciente de 15 años, sin antecedentes patológicos o quirúrgicos, visto en el Servicio de Emergencias por epigastralgia y vómitos. Un ultrasonido (US) abdominal demostró una lesión en la cola pancreática, luego por TAC y US endoscópico se logró documentar una masa de aspecto quístico y contenido denso que abarca también el cuerpo del páncreas. Se recomendó abordaje quirúrgico; durante la laparotomía exploratoria se halla tumoración mixta sólidoquística. Se practicó pancreatectomía distal y esplenectomía. La evolución y manejo postoperatorio fueron sin complicaciones.
Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) is a group of inherited neurologic disorders in which iron accumulates in the basal ganglia resulting in progressive dystonia, spasticity, ...parkinsonism, neuropsychiatric abnormalities, and optic atrophy or retinal degeneration. The most prevalent form of NBIA is pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) associated with mutations in the gene of pantothenate kinase 2 (PANK2), which is essential for coenzyme A (CoA) synthesis. There is no cure for NBIA nor is there a standard course of treatment. In the current work, we describe that fibroblasts derived from patients harbouring PANK2 mutations can reproduce many of the cellular pathological alterations found in the disease, such as intracellular iron and lipofuscin accumulation, increased oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction. Furthermore, mutant fibroblasts showed a characteristic senescent morphology. Treatment with pantothenate, the PANK2 enzyme substrate, was able to correct all pathological alterations in responder mutant fibroblasts with residual PANK2 enzyme expression. However, pantothenate had no effect on mutant fibroblasts with truncated/incomplete protein expression. The positive effect of pantothenate in particular mutations was also confirmed in induced neurons obtained by direct reprograming of mutant fibroblasts. Our results suggest that pantothenate treatment can stabilize the expression levels of PANK2 in selected mutations. These results encourage us to propose our screening model as a quick and easy way to detect pantothenate-responder patients with PANK2 mutations. The existence of residual enzyme expression in some affected individuals raises the possibility of treatment using high dose of pantothenate.
Increasing weather risks threaten agricultural production systems and food security across the world. Maintaining agricultural growth while minimizing climate shocks is crucial to building a ...resilient food production system and meeting developmental goals in vulnerable countries. Experts have proposed several technological, institutional, and policy interventions to help farmers adapt to current and future weather variability and to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper presents the climate-smart village (CSV) approach as a means of performing agricultural research for development that robustly tests technological and institutional options for dealing with climatic variability and climate change in agriculture using participatory methods. It aims to scale up and scale out the appropriate options and draw out lessons for policy makers from local to global levels. The approach incorporates evaluation of climate-smart technologies, practices, services, and processes relevant to local climatic risk management and identifies opportunities for maximizing adaptation gains from synergies across different interventions and recognizing potential maladaptation and trade-offs. It ensures that these are aligned with local knowledge and link into development plans. This paper describes early results in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate different examples of the CSV approach in diverse agroecological settings. Results from initial studies indicate that the CSV approach has a high potential for scaling out promising climate-smart agricultural technologies, practices, and services. Climate analog studies indicate that the lessons learned at the CSV sites would be relevant to adaptation planning in a large part of global agricultural land even under scenarios of climate change. Key barriers and opportunities for further work are also discussed.
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