Minerva chirurgica最新文献

Background: The study intends to analyze influences of different anesthesia and analgesia on cellular immune and cognitive functions of patients undergoing thoracotomy for esophageal cancer (EsC).

Methods: Patients undergoing thoracotomy for EsC were divided into four groups: Group A (received general anesthesia [GA]) and postoperative intravenous analgesia); B (received GA and postoperative epidural analgesia); C (received GA combined with thoracic epidural anesthesia [TEA]) and postoperative intravenous analgesia); D (received GA combined with TEA and postoperative epidural analgesia). The T-lymphocyte subsets were determined at 30 min before anesthesia induction (T0), 2 h after skin incision (T1), and at 4 h (T2), 24 h (T3), and 48 h (T4) after operation. Besides, visual analogue scale (VAS) and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) were assessed.

Results: The percentage of CD3⁺ and CD4⁺ cells in groups B and C were higher than group A from T1 to T3. The ratio of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ in group B and C were higher than in group A at T3. Compared with group A, group D had increased percentages of CD3⁺ and CD4⁺ from T1 to T4, and elevated ratio of CD4⁺/CD8⁺ from T2 to T4 VAS scores were lower and MMSE scores were higher in groups B, C, and D than in group A, and group D had relatively lower VAS and higher MMSE scores as compared to group B.

Conclusions: The intraoperative general anesthesia combined with thoracic epidural anesthesia and postoperative epidural analgesia may reduce adverse effect on cellular immune and cognitive functions of patients undergoing thoracotomy for EsC.

The evolution of axillary surgery in breast cancer has led from complete axillary dissection (AD) to sentinel node biopsy (SNB). It has not stopped yet but continues with a progressive de-escalation of surgical procedures aiming at axillary conservation. In parallel, the meaning of axillary surgery has changed as well. Over time, the dual role of both a therapeutic and a staging procedure has decreased leaving room to other modalities to treat and stage breast cancer. Although, the gold standard for axillary staging in early breast cancer remains SNB, the idea that axillary surgery could be even omitted has been proposed. The concept of abandoning axillary surgery is revolutionary but not new. Historical literature provides interesting data on patients who did not receive any axillary treatment at all with no impact on their survival. Starting from this, several ongoing trials are working to demonstrate that in selected breast cancer cohorts the information deriving from axillary surgery is superfluous and "axillary observation" alone is as effective as SNB. Whilst surgery has been de-escalated to less invasive procedures, systemic treatment, radiotherapy, multigene assays and advanced imaging modalities have gained ground in the management of breast cancer. New research is expected to help select the subgroups of patients for whom axillary surgery is not necessary anymore. This is a qualitative review reporting the most relevant literature data from historical trials on the omission of axillary surgery to the most recent and ongoing ones.

Recent studies have demonstrated that the extent of surgical treatment in both breast and axilla can be minimized through a multimodal and personalized management, based on assessment of breast cancer (BC) molecular subtypes, genetics and on the prevailing relevance of systemic therapies. Axillary lymph-nodes dissection (ALND) represents the older surgical modality for appropriate staging and for adjuvant systemic and radiation therapies planning. Thanks to findings from extensive and crucial clinical trials, sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) replaced this approach, obviating the need for ALND in node-negative disease patients, both in mastectomy and conservative surgery, and becoming a crucial turning point in BC managing. Furthermore, recent clinical trials have established that ALND can be avoided in those patients with low axillary disease burden in the sentinel nodes who are undergoing breast-conserving surgery (BCS) with radiotherapy. Several studies also proved that neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) increases the BCS rates, as well reducing the extent of axillary surgery. The potential oncological safety of axillary observation choice in early BC patients undergoing BCS, in the recent perspective of the prevailing value of BC biology, is also under scientific evaluation. This study explores the current role of SLNB in BC patients eligible for BCS, providing a view into future directions in BC care.

The spread of COVID-19 pandemic has determined a huge imbalance between real clinical needs of the population and effective resources availability. The aim of this study was to report how this situation forces surgeons to consider a non-operative management as an alternative. This is a retrospective monocentric study and we collected data from 60 patients, split in two groups: info from Group A, 28 patients (11 March to 11 April 2020) were compared with info from group B, 32 patients (11 March to 11 April 2019). The most relevant difference between the groups is related to patient's clinical management. The two groups had a considerably different number of cases that were treated with an operative management: 18 cases (64,7%) in group A vs. 28 cases (87,5%) in group B. Otherwise, non-operative approach occurred in 10 cases (35,7%) in group A and only in 4 patients (12,5%) in group B. These data suggest that the drastic reduction of means narrows the range of therapeutic choices. Indeed, in this emergency scenario, the rationing of healthcare resources was the propelling for surgeons to consider alternative therapeutic pathways.