Swiss medical weekly
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This opinion article has been written on request because of the recent public controversy over silicone breast implants produced by a now-defunct company, Poly Implant Prosthese (PIP) in France. More than 300,000 PIP devices have been implanted. The purposes of my article are to (1.) provide a general overview of silicone breast implant materials, (2.) to describe the general safety of these materials as reported to date, and (3.) to summarise current publicly available information about these aspects of the PIP prostheses. ⋯ Initial regulatory disclosures suggest the PIP implants may have both biocompatibility and biodurability problems. They also suggest that PIP implants may have been produced using silicone materials not certified as medical grade. Governmental health and regulatory agencies are just now in the process of deciding what actions should be taken to protect patients.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2012
ReviewContinuous flow left ventricular assist devices: a valid option for heart failure patients.
Recent outstanding clinical advances with new mechanical circulatory systems (MCS) have led to additional strategies in the treatment of end stage heart failure (HF). Heart transplantation (HTx) can be postponed and for certain patients even replaced by smaller implantable left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). Mechanical support of the failing left ventricle enables appropriate hemodynamic stabilisation and recovery of secondary organ failure, often seen in these severely ill patients. ⋯ The review is also based on the institutional experience at Berne University Hospital between 2000 and 2012. Apart from short-term devices (Impella, Cardiac Assist, Deltastream and ECMO) which were used in approximately 150 cases, 85 pulsatile long-term LVAD, RVAD or bi-VAD and 44 non-pulsatile LVAD (mainly HeartMateII and HeartWare) were implanted. After an initial learning curve, one-year mortality dropped to 10.4% in the last 58 patients.
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Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a subclinical myopathy, usually triggered by volatile anaesthetics and depolarising muscle relaxants. Clinical symptoms are variable, and the condition is sometimes difficult to identify. Nevertheless, rapid recognition and specific as well as symptomatic treatment are crucial to avoid a lethal outcome. ⋯ There is no screening method to test for MH, as current tests are invasive (open muscle biopsy) or restricted to MH families with known MH-associated mutations (molecular genetic testing). The prevalence of the MH trait is unknown, because the clinical penetrance after contact with triggering agents is very variable. More recently, MH mutations have been associated with rhabdomyolysis following statin therapy or with non-pharmacological triggering, such as exertional heat stroke.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2012
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialEvaluation of a novel in-vitro diagnostic device for the detection of urinary tract infections in diaper wearing children.
Is the novel in-vitro diagnostic device U-Test(®) reliable and secure for urine collection in diaper-wearing children and simultaneous evaluation of the urine collected for the presence of leucocytes and nitrite? ⋯ The evaluation shows that U-Test(®) is a safe and reliable device of high functionality and diagnostic performance for the detection of leucocytes and nitrite directly and without time delay in a child's diaper. This statement is based on a comprehensive comparison of the novel device with accepted diagnostic test systems and procedures based on the same dry chemistry technology. Due to its simplicity of use, U-Test(®) can be considered an alternative to the cumbersome procedures of urine collection by the bag-method or clean-catch followed by dipstick analysis for the presence of leucocytes and nitrite.
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Swiss medical weekly · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyIdentification of older patients at risk of unplanned readmission after discharge from the emergency department - comparison of two screening tools.
The Identification of Senior At Risk (ISAR) and the Triage Risk Stratification Tool (TRST) are the two most studied screening tools to detect high-risk patients for unplanned readmission after an emergency department (ED)-visit. Since their performance was unclear among ED-patients over 75 years, we evaluated their capacities to predict readmission at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months as well as their usefulness in avoiding unnecessary further comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) in negative screened patients. ⋯ Both ISAR and TRST tools predicted modestly unplanned readmission after an ED-visit among patients over 75 years. Nevertheless, due to their low specificity and high NPV these screening tools are useful to select elderly ED-patients who can safely return home without any further CGA.