Medicine
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Post-herpetic neuralgia (PHN) is one of the most painful diseases, which has made it a major concern for pain physicians. We aimed to quantitatively analyze the research outputs of studies on PHN published over the past 30 years using bibliometric analysis. We also aimed to analyze the research outputs of studies on interventional treatments for PHN and evaluate the academic achievements of Korean pain physicians. ⋯ Our results showed an increasing trend in the number of PHN-related publications and the academic achievements of Korean pain physicians in this field over the past 3 decades. However, the proportion of studies on interventional treatments is relatively small. Korean pain physicians need to establish academic evidence on interventional treatment to expand their role in this field and improve the outcomes of PHN patients.
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Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have a higher incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Previous studies have demonstrated negative clinical outcomes in IBD patients with CDI compared to patients without CDI. The clinical presentation of CDI is indistinguishable from IBD exacerbation, thus posing a frequent clinical dilemma on the role of Clostridioides infection in the testing, diagnosis, and treatment of these patients. ⋯ Patients with IBD had more exposure to systemic antibiotics, 71.1% versus 26.3% (P value <.01). In a multivariable analysis we found no difference in 90-day mortality and rate of relapse between the 2 study groups with an odds ratio of 1.709 (95% confidence interval 0.321-9.905) and odds ratio of 0.209 (95% confidence interval 0.055-1.513) respectively. In our cohort patients with IBD who present with diarrhea and concomitant CDI have similar rates of relapse and mortality compared with patients without IBD.
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The enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathway was formulated with the aim to reduce surgical stress response, alleviate pain and guarantee the best-fit experience of patients' perioperative period. However, the application of ERAS in geriatric patients who underwent unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) was relatively lacking. We hypothesize that UKA patients can benefit from the ERAS protocol. ⋯ The length of hospital stay for patients who underwent ERAS was 11.7 ± 3.8 days and the postoperative complication rate was lower for the ERAS group patients (P = .000 and 0.031). ERAS can reduce the length of hospital stay, and patients can achieve excellent postoperative knee function. The formulation and implementation of the ERAS protocol require good collaboration across multiple disciplines, as well as a deep understanding of the existing clinical evidence and the concept of the ERAS program.
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Strategy for hemorrhagic gastric cancer should both handle the potential life-threatening situation caused by bleeding and increase probability of long-term survival. For hemorrhagic patients with locally advanced gastric cancer, surgical resection is always the preferred option for the reason that it eliminates both the tumor and risk of rebleeding. However, the long-term survival after resection is still unsatisfactory. ⋯ This case suggests that neoadjuvant chemotherapy is feasible in selected hemorrhagic gastric cancer patients and tumor exclusion is helpful in reducing rebleeding risk.
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Nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPCs) are prevalent in southeast Asia. There is a need to systematically review the current trend and status of NPC research. However, most bibliometric analyses have tended to focus on descriptive and diagnostic analytics rather than predictive and prescriptive analyses. Thus, it is necessary to use the model of the 4 (called the descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics [DDPP]) to derive insights from the data. This study aimed to apply the DDPP model to classify article themes and illustrate the characteristics of NPCs; compare NPC researcher achievements across countries, institutes, departments, and authors; determine whether the mean citations of keywords can be used to predict article citations; and highlight articles that are worthy of reading. ⋯ This bibliometric study utilizes the DDPP model to analyze the scientific progress of NPC over the past decade. The whole genome is a hot topic that may prove to be a promising research area in the future. A temporal heatmap may serve as a tool for providing readers with articles that are worth reading, which could lead to additional research in bibliometrics.