Annals of surgical oncology
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Comparative Study Controlled Clinical Trial
A comparison of postoperative pain after conventional open thyroidectomy and transaxillary single-incision robotic thyroidectomy: a prospective study.
The aim of this study was to compare conventional open thyroidectomy with robotic thyroidectomy in terms of postoperative pain. ⋯ Even though robotic thyroidectomy using the transaxillary technique requires a more extensive subcutaneous dissection than conventional open thyroidectomy, robotic thyroidectomy does not result in more postoperative pain or use of analgesic when compared with open thyroidectomy.
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The benefit of adjuvant treatment in gastric adenocarcinoma was demonstrated by randomized, controlled trials of patients with locally advanced tumors. Thus, its role for stage IIB-IIIC disease is widely accepted. We aimed to identify patients with stage IA-IIA gastric adenocarcinoma who have a poor prognosis and thus may benefit from adjuvant treatment. ⋯ Patients with stage IB-IIA gastric adenocarcinoma and ≥2 adverse features (age >60 years, tumor size >5 cm, proximal location, and high-grade) have 5-year DSS ≤76 %. Adjuvant therapy may be warranted for these patients.
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Postoperative mortality is frequently used in hospital comparisons as marker for quality of care. Differences in mortality between hospitals may be explained by varying complication rates. A possible modifying factor may be the ability to let patients with a serious complication survive, referred to as failure to rescue (FTR). The purpose of this study was to evaluate how hospital performance on postoperative mortality is related to severe complications or to FTR and to explore the value of FTR in quality improvement programs. ⋯ High-mortality hospitals had slightly higher rates of severe complications than low-mortality hospitals. However, FTR was three times higher in high-mortality hospitals than in low-mortality hospitals. In quality improvement projects, feedback to hospitals of FTR rates, along with complication rates, may illustrate shortcomings (prevention or management of complications) per hospital, which may be an important step in reducing mortality.
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If all initially node-positive patients undergo axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC), overtreatment may occur in patients with complete response. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) during NAC may predict axillary response and select patients appropriate for less invasive treatment after NAC. We evaluated the value of sequential (18)F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CTs during NAC for axillary response monitoring in stage II-III breast cancer. ⋯ (18)F-FDG PET/CT early during NAC is useful for axillary response monitoring in cytology-proven node-positive breast cancer because it identifies pathological response, thus permitting ALND to be spared.
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Emerging evidence supports the integration of palliative care concurrently with disease-focused care in patients with serious illnesses, such as lung cancer. This paper describes how longitudinal changes in physical function, symptom burden, and QOL of patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) informed the development of an interdisciplinary, tailored palliative care intervention. ⋯ Patients with early-stage NSCLC report a significant longitudinal decrease in physical QOL, and fluctuations in objective and subjective measures of physical function over time were observed regardless of disease stage category. An interdisciplinary palliative care intervention is currently being tested to decrease symptom burden and improve QOL.