Frontiers of medicine
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Frontiers of medicine · Mar 2013
Case ReportsA case of thymic Langerhans cell histiocytosis with diabetes insipidus as the first presentation.
Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is an idiopathic group of reactive proliferative diseases linked to aberrant immunity, pathologically characterized by clonal proliferation of Langerhans cells. LCH rarely involves the thymus. ⋯ In screening for LCH lesions, attention should be attached to rarely involved sites in addition to commonly involved organs. Follow-up and imageological examination are very important to a final diagnosis.
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Frontiers of medicine · Dec 2012
Utility of transbronchial biopsy in the diagnosis of lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
Pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) is a rare cystic lung disease that targets women during their reproductive years. A confident diagnosis can often be based on clinical grounds, but diagnostic certainty requires pathological analysis. Although surgical lung biopsy is considered the gold standard for obtaining tissue in patients with diffuse lung disease, it is also associated with higher morbidity and mortality than alternative, less invasive techniques. ⋯ Transbronchial biopsy specimens were subsequently collected and reviewed by an expert pathologist to validate the diagnosis. We found that transbronchial biopsy has a yield of approximately 60% in patients with LAM. We conclude that transbronchial biopsy may be a safe and effective method for establishing the diagnosis of LAM, obviating the need for surgical lung biopsy in more than half of LAM patients.
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Frontiers of medicine · Sep 2012
Estimation of the minimum effective dose of tramadol for postoperative analgesia in infants using the continual reassessment method.
Tramadol is a potent analgesic. However, the analgesia efficacy of tramadol, particularly its minimum effective dose (MED), is not clear. The aim of this study is to find MED of tramadol for postoperative analgesia in infants. ⋯ Phase 1 and phase 2 were insufficient to identify the MED. In phase 3, the successful analgesia probability for dose 0.35 mg·kg(-1)·h(-1) was 96.7% (95% CI, 0.853-0.997). We have demonstrated that tramadol provides insufficient analgesia for surgeries considered to cause moderate-to-severe postoperative pain in infants if used as the sole analgesic, and that local anesthetic wound infiltration enhances the efficacy of tramadol.
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Frontiers of medicine · Sep 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyComparative cost analysis of three different anesthesia methods in gynecological laparoscopic surgery.
In the current study, we assessed and evaluated the costs and benefits of three popular methods of general anesthesia practiced in our department for gynecological laparoscopic surgery in recent years. Sixty adult female patients who underwent elective gynecological laparoscopic surgery under general anesthesia were randomly divided into three groups: group V, group I and group C. In group V, anesthesia was induced intravenously with midazolam, remifentanil, propofol and vecuronium, and maintained with continuous infusion of propofol and remifentanil. ⋯ Although there was no statistical significance among groups, the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting were higher in group C, and the rates of shivering and the needs for analgesics were higher in group V. Anesthesia costs in group I were the lowest. Therefore, it is concluded that the costs of anesthesia induced with midazolam, fentanyl, propofol, vecuronium, and maintained with isoflurane, fentanyl and vecuronium are cheapest, and there is no significant difference in patients' satisfaction and safety among the three above-mentioned methods of anesthesia in our department.
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Frontiers of medicine · Sep 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialEMLA® cream coated on endotracheal tube with or without epidural lidocaine reduces isoflurane requirement during general anesthesia.
This study was designed to evaluate the effect of tracheal topical anesthesia using EMLA® Cream (EC) coated on the endotracheal tube (ETT) with or without epidural anesthesia (EA) on isoflurane requirement during general anesthesia (GA) and investigate whether EC coated on the ETT with EA was associated with the additive effect compared with the effect when each anesthetic was administered independently. The prospective randomized, double-blinded, and controlled study included 60 ASA I-II patients scheduled for upper abdominal surgery requiring GA. Patients were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: group 1 received GA, group 2 received EC + GA, group 3 received GA + EA, and group 4 received EC + GA + EA. ⋯ The isoflurane requirement evaluated by %MEC decreased by 12%, 38%, and 50% in groups 2, 3, and 4, respectively. The incidence of emergence agitation was significantly lower in groups 2 and 4 than those in groups 1 and 3 (P < 0.05). Tracheal topical anesthesia using EC coated on ETT with or without EA reduced the isoflurane requirement during GA, indicating that EC combined with EA exhibited an additive effect on the requirement of general anesthetic.