Annali italiani di chirurgia
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
The use of haemostatic agents in thyroid surgery: efficacy and further advantages. Collagen-Fibrinogen-Thrombin Patch (CFTP) versus Cellulose Gauze.
To assess the efficacy of two widely used topical haemostatic agents: oxidised regenerated cellulose gauze and Collagen- Fibrinogen-Thrombin Patch in patients undergoing total thyroidectomy. ⋯ Both haemostatic agents reduced the amount of sero-hematic fluid during the first 24 hours post-surgery, with CFTP more effective than oxidized cellulose gauze. The use of haemostatic agents may increase the quality of thyroid surgery, improve patient comfort after surgery, and reduce hospital stay.
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The prognosis of locally advanced Gastric Cancer following surgical therapy alone is poor. Peritoneum represents a preferential site of dissemination in such neoplasm. Hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) has been used in association with cytoreductive surgery (CRS) in the treatment of GC peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). Aim of our preliminary experience is reporting our data on prophylactic HIPEC (P-HIPEC) in patients with GC at high risk of developing PC. ⋯ Peritoneal dissemination appears to be a strong determinant in defining GC patients prognosis. Even after curative resection, peritoneal recurrence develops in about 60% of the patients with T3 and T4 tumors, and up to 40% of resected gastric cancer patients die as a direct result of peritoneal dissemination. Clinical trials showed that surgery plus HIPEC was associated with a significant improvement in survival compared to surgery alone in patients affected of GC with resectable PC. At present day there are not studies evaluating the role of P-HIPEC in patients at high risk of developing PC. The rationale of P-HIPEC is based on the concept that positive peritoneal lavage is considered an M1 (stage IV) similarly to macroscopic PC by the 7th TNM classification. Also analogous is the median survival of this 2 groups of patients. Detection of peritoneal micrometastases with cytologic examination has been considered a major method to predict peritoneal recurrences; the sensitivity of this assay is low. Recently, molecular approaches using real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique has made possible the increase in the sensitivity. We can conclude, although the preliminary experience, that prophylactic HIPEC in locally advanced gastric cancer is feasible, increasing median survival compared to surgery alone. For sure this procedure need to be performed in the highly specialized centres strongly respecting the eligibility criteria.