Do patients referred to emergency departments after being assessed in primary care differ from other ED patients? Retrospective analysis of a random sample from two German metropolitan EDs.

Background: To assess differences between patients referred to emergency departments by a primary care physician (PCP) and those presenting directly and the impact of referral on the likelihood of admission.

Design Of Study: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: EDs of two nonacademic general hospitals in a German metropolitan region.

High rate of complete histopathological response in hepatocellular carcinoma patients after combined transarterial chemoembolization and stereotactic body radiation therapy.

Background: Liver transplantation (LT) presents a curative treatment option in patients with early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are not eligible for resection or ablation therapy. Due to a risk of up 30% for waitlist drop-out upon tumor progression, bridging therapies are used to halt tumor growth. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and less commonly stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or a combination of TACE and SBRT, are used as bridging therapies in LT.

Liver transplantation versus watchful waiting in hepatocellular carcinoma patients with complete response to bridging therapy - a retrospective observational study.

Bridging therapy to prevent progression on the waiting list can result in a sustained complete response (sCR). In some patients, the liver transplantation (LT) risk might exceed those of tumor recurrence. We thus evaluated whether a watchful waiting (CR-WW) strategy could be a feasible alternative to transplantation (CR-LT).