Journal of oral pathology & medicine : official publication of the International Association of Oral Pathologists and the American Academy of Oral Pathology
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J. Oral Pathol. Med. · Feb 2018
Surgical specimen handover from the operating theatre to laboratory-Can we improve patient safety by learning from aviation and other high-risk organisations?
Essential communication between healthcare staff is considered one of the key requirements for both safety and quality care when patients are handed over from one clinical area to other. This is particularly important in environments such as the operating theatre and intensive care where mistakes can be devastating. Health care has learned from other high-risk organisations (HRO) such as aviation where the use of checklists and human factors awareness has virtually eliminated human error and mistakes. ⋯ Furthermore, the request form might not warn staff about potential hazards. In this article, we provide a brief summary of the factors involved in human error and introduce a novel checklist that can be readily completed at the same time as the routine pathology request form. This additional measure enhances safety, can help to reduce processing and mislabelling errors and provides essential information in a structured way assisting both laboratory staff and pathologists when handling head and neck surgical specimens.
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J. Oral Pathol. Med. · Feb 2018
Plasma IL-8 signature correlates with pain and depressive symptomatology in patients with burning mouth syndrome: Results from a pilot study.
Burning mouth syndrome (BMS) is a neuropathic orofacial pain condition of unknown aetiology that encompasses intra-oral burning pain without abnormal clinical findings. Psychological, neural and inflammatory processes are associated with BMS pathogenesis. Currently, studies characterising plasma cytokine/chemokine profiles with pain and depression in patients with BMS are lacking. Considering that inflammation is associated with the pathophysiology of BMS, and that inflammation is closely associated with pain and depression, we aimed to correlate depressive symptomatology and oral cavity pain with plasma cytokine/chemokine signatures in a cohort of patients with BMS. ⋯ Overall, these findings indicate that plasma IL-8 profiles are dysregulated in BMS and that modulation of IL-8 production in the disorder may be a tool in the management of BMS symptomatology.