The South London Hospital for Women and Children was a general hospital treating women and children on Clapham Common in London, UK. It was also known as the South London Hospital for Women and the South London Women's Hospital. Founded by Eleanor Davies-Colley and Maud Chadburn in 1912, it always employed an all-woman staff. It closed in 1984.
Acute appendicitis due to a foreign body is a very rare condition with an incidence of 0.0005% of all appendicitis cases and among all age groups. It is one of the atypical cases of appendicitis, and it is a rare condition commonly asymptomatic; there is a period of time between ingestion of the body and appendicitis. A 14-year-old female patient presented to the emergency room with right lower quadrant colicky pain. Moreover, it was progressive with six hours duration, preceded by loss of appetite. It was associated with nausea, non-projectile vomiting, and diarrhea. By taking the past medical history, the patient had a history of multiple times of foreign ingestions when she was younger. On examination, the patient appeared ill, and was vitally stable. On palpation, the patient had a right lower quadrant tenderness. The patient had positive pointing, rebound, Rovsing, and psoas signs. Full labs were done. Abdominal x-ray revealed a radiopaque metallic body in the right lower quadrant. By ultrasound, there was a minimal free fluid collection in the pelvis. Intraoperatively, the appendix looked hyperemic. Appendectomy was performed, and a needle was extracted from the appendix. Furthermore, the histopathology revealed an early inflamed appendix. Foreign body-causing appendicitis is a rare condition. We need to investigate suspected cases carefully because the presentation is atypical, and sometimes the patients are asymptomatic.
The personalized medicine is in a rapidly evolving scenario. The identification of actionable mutations is revolutionizing the therapeutic landscape of tumors. The morphological and histological tumor features are enriched by the extensive genomic profiling, and the first tumor-agnostic drugs have been approved regardless of tumor histology, guided by predictive and druggable genetic alterations. This new paradigm of "mutational oncology", presents a great potential to change the oncologic therapeutic scenario, but also some critical aspects need to be underlined. A process governance is mandatory to ensure the genomic testing accuracy and homogeneity, the economic sustainability, and the regulatory issues, ultimately granting the possibility of translating this model in the "real world". In this position paper, based on experts' opinion, the AIOM-SIAPEC-IAP-SIBIOC-SIF Italian Scientific Societies revised the new agnostic biomarkers, the diagnostic technologies available, the current availability of agnostic drugs and their present indication.
Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic started in Italy with clusters identified in Northern Italy. The Veneto Oncology Network (Rete Oncologica Veneta) licenced dedicated guidelines to ensure proper care minimising the risk of infection in patients with cancer. Rete Oncologica Veneta covID19 (ROVID) is a regional registry aimed at describing epidemiology and clinical course of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in patients with cancer. Materials and methods: Patients with cancer diagnosis and documented SARS-CoV-2 infection are eligible. Data on cancer diagnosis, comorbidities, anticancer treatments, as well as details on SARS-CoV-2 infection (hospitalisation, treatments, fate of the infection), have been recorded. Logistic regression analysis was applied to calculate the association between clinical/laboratory variables and death from any cause. Results: One hundred seventy patients have been enrolled. The median age at time of the SARS-CoV infection was 70 years (25-92). The most common cancer type was breast cancer (n = 40). The majority of the patients had stage IV disease. Half of the patients had two or more comorbidities. The majority of the patients (78%) presented with COVID-19 symptoms. More than 77% of the patients were hospitalized and 6% were admitted to intensive care units. Overall, 104 patients have documented resolution of the infection. Fifty-seven patients (33%) have died. In 29 cases (17%), the cause of death was directly correlated to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Factors significantly correlated with the risk of death were the following: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS), age, presence of two or more comorbidities, presence of dyspnoea, COVID-19 phenotype >= 3, hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and thrombocytopenia. Conclusions The mortality rate reported in this confirms the frailty of this population. These data reinforce the need to protect patients with cancer from SARS-CoV-2 infection. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Owing to the widespread use of general anesthesia, administration of spinal anesthesia in pediatric patients is not widely practiced. Yet there is ample positive evidence demonstrating its safety, effectiveness, and success. The objective of this study is to compare postoperative patient comfort, length of hospital stay, and cost-effectiveness of pediatric laparoscopic appendectomies performed under spinal and general anesthesia with the usual standard-of-care procedures employed in the hospital. This is a case series of 77 consecutive pediatric laparoscopic appendectomies (involving 5-8–year-old children) that took place in a hospital in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in 2019. A total of 40 patients underwent spinal anesthesia and 37 patients underwent general anesthesia. Variables such as surgery and operation theater times, pain score, incidence of postsurgery vomiting, analgesic usage, discharge times, and hospital costs were recorded. Statistical analysis was used to analyze the data as a function of anesthesia type. The probability of vomiting when using spinal compared to general anesthesia was lower within the first 5 hours (P<.001) and 6 hours (P=.008) postoperation. A significant difference (P<.001) was observed between the total costs of the two procedures, with spinal anesthesia being less expensive. Patients were more likely to be discharged the same day of the procedure when spinal anesthesia was used (P=.008). Spinal anesthesia has many advantages compared to general anesthesia for pediatric laparoscopic appendectomies. Patient comfort is improved due to a significant decrease in vomiting. This allows for more rapid hospital discharges and substantial cost savings, without compromising the outcome of the procedure.
