Medicine
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The incidence of spinal metastasis is increasing as cancer patients live longer owing to the improvement of cancer treatments. However, traditional surgery (TS) which fixates at least 2 levels above and 2 levels below the affected vertebrae is sometimes difficult to perform as it is burdensome to the patients. In this article, we introduce our experience and strategy in treating spinal metastasis, focusing particularly on challenging cases. ⋯ Spine Oncology Study Group Outcomes Questionnaire, visual analog scale, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score, and Karnofsky Performance Score was improved after surgery. All surgical methods, including TS, cervical pedicle screw, cervicothoracic junction fixation, thoracolumbar short fixation, and decompression surgery, showed good clinical and radiological outcomes. Optimized surgical methods show similarly good clinical outcomes in managing spinal metastasis as TS.
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We saw a steady increase in the number of bibliographic studies published over the years. The reason for this rise is attributed to the better accessibility of bibliographic data and software packages that specialize in bibliographic analyses. Any difference in citation achievements between bibliographic and meta-analysis studies observed so far need to be verified. In this study, we aimed to identify the frequently observed MeSH terms in these 2 types of study and investigate whether the highlighted MeSH terms are strongly associated with one of the study types. ⋯ The breakthrough was made by developing a dashboard using forest plots to display the difference in event counts. The visualization of the observed MeSH terms could be replicated for future academic pursuits and applications in other disciplines using the odds of 95% confidence intervals.
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Observational Study
Surgical treatment of facial blushing: Patient selection and operative technique (retrospective observational study).
Surgeons are often reluctant to offer further intervention to patients with medically intractable facial blushing. This is mainly because of the relatively high failure rate of blushing resolution and a high incidence of compensatory hyperhidrosis. In this study, we sought to identify the type of blushing that would benefit from surgery and minimize compensatory hyperhidrosis by applying diffuse sympathicotomy (DS). ⋯ Emotional blushing proved to be an established indication of ETS where good long-term results can be expected. Expansion of surgical indication to thermoregulatory or constant type blushing needs to be validated in future studies. Additionally, compensatory hyperhidrosis, another hurdle for ETS, can be minimized by preemptive DS, resulting in redistribution and decrease of sweating.
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This study aimed to assess the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 in the border areas of southwest China, so as to provide guidance to targeted prevention and control measures in the border areas of different risk levels. We assessed the dependence of the risk of an outbreak in the southwest China from imported cases on key parameters such as the cumulative number of infectious diseases in the border area of southwest China in the past 3 years; the connectivity of the neighboring countries with China's Southwest border, including baseline travel numbers, travel frequencies, the effect of travel restrictions, and the length of borders with neighboring countries; the cumulative number of close contacts of coronavirus disease 2019 patients; (iv) the population density in border areas; the efficacy of control measures in border areas; experts estimated risks in border areas based on experience and then given a score; Spearman correlation and Logistic regression models were used to analyze the associated factors of novel coronavirus. According to the correlation of various factors, we assigned values to each parameter, calculated the risk score of each county, and then divided each county into high, medium, and low risk according to the sick score and took different control measure according to different risk levels. ⋯ It is concluded that bilateral transportation convenience is a risk factor for new coronary pneumonia, (odds ratio = 9.23, 95% confidence interval, 1.99-42.73); the number of observers is a risk factor for new coronary pneumonia (odds ratio = 1.04, 95% confidence interval, 1.00-1.08). We found that in countries with travel numbers, travel frequencies, and experts' estimated risk scores were the influencing factors of novel coronavirus. The effect of travel restrictions and the cumulative number of close contacts of the case are risk factors for novel coronavirus.
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Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) are the most important procedures for patients with choledocholithiasis and gallstones. Many studies recommend early LC after ERCP; however, there is still no consensus on the optimal interval between the two. The purpose of this study was to investigate the appropriate timing of LC after ERCP in patients with choledocholithiasis and cholecystolithiasis. ⋯ However, LC within 7 days and even 3 days after ERCP had significant advantages in improvement in total length of stay and medical expenses. Furthermore, we also found an increased risk of gallbladder gangrene and perforation in LC >7 days after ERCP. LC within 7 days and even 3 days after ERCP is a safe, effective, and economical method for patients with choledocholithiasis and gallstones.