0000000000281765
AUTHOR
Grazia Foresta
An Atypical Case of Taravana Syndrome in a Breath-Hold Underwater Fishing Champion: A Case Report
Dysbaric accidents are usually referred to compressed air-supplied diving. Nonetheless, some cases of decompression illness are known to have occurred among breath-hold (BH) divers also, and they are reported in the medical literature. A male BH diver (57 years old), underwater fishing champion, presented neurological disorders as dizziness, sensory numbness, blurred vision, and left frontoparietal pain after many dives to a 30–35 meters sea water depth with short surface intervals. Symptoms spontaneously regressed and the patient came back home. The following morning, pain and neurological impairment occurred again and the diver went by himself to the hospital where he had a generalized to…
Procalcitonin as a marker of Candida species detection by blood culture and polymerase chain reaction in septic patients
Background: The aim of our study is to test procalcitonin (PCT) as surrogate marker of identification of Candida spp. by blood culture (BC) and real-time-polymerase chain reaction (PCR), whether alone or in association with bacteria, in septic patients.Methods: We performed a single-centre retrospective study. We reviewed the clinical charts of patients with a diagnosis of severe sepsis or septic shock treated at our general intensive care unit from March 2009 to March 2013. We analysed all diagnostic episodes consisting of BC, real-time PCR assay and dosage of PCT. We registered age, sex, white blood count, sequential organ failure assessment score and type of admission between medical or …
Neutrophil CD64 as a marker of infection in patients admitted to the emergency department with acute respiratory failure
Andrea Cortegiani, Vincenzo Russotto, Francesca Montalto, Grazia Foresta, Pasquale Iozzo, Santi Maurizio Raineri, Antonino Giarratano Department of Biopathology and Medical and Forensic Biotechnologies (DIBIMEF), Section of Anesthesiology, Analgesia, Emergency and Intensive Care, Policlinico “P Giaccone”, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy Introduction: Cluster of differentiation 64 (CD64) is expressed on neutrophils during bacterial infections and sepsis. The aim of our study was to assess the CD64 expression in patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) with a triage diagnosis of acute respiratory failure (ARF) and/or dyspnea and to verify a relationship bet…
Incidence and factors associated with burnout in anesthesiology: A systematic review
Background. Burnout syndrome has reached epidemic levels among physicians (reported around 50%). Anesthesiology is among the most stressful medical disciplines but there is paucity of literature as compared with others. Analysis of burnout is essential because it is associated with safety and quality of care. We summarize evidence on burnout in anesthesiology. Methods. We conducted a systematic review (MEDLINE up to 30.06.2017). We included studies reporting burnout in anesthesiology with no restriction on role or screening test used. Results. Fifteen surveys/studies described burnout in anesthesiology, including different workers profiles (nurses, residents, consultants, and directors). Al…
Update on perioperative management of the child with asthma
Asthma represents the leading cause of morbidity from a chronic disease among children. Dealing with this disease during the perioperative period of pediatric surgical procedures is, therefore, quite common for the anesthesiologist and other professionalities involved. Preoperative assessment has a key role in detecting children at increased risk of perioperative respiratory complications. For children without an optimal control of symptoms or with a recent respiratory tract infection elective surgery should be postponed, if possible, after the optimization of therapy. According to clinical setting, loco-regional anesthesia represents the desirable option since it allows to avoid airway ins…
A perioperative uncontrollable bleeding in an elderly patient with acquired hemophilia A: a case report
Key Clinical Message Acquired hemophilia A should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of perioperative bleeding in patients without any apparent reason for activated partial thromboplastin time prolongation.