Blood ozonization in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 pneumonia: a single centre experience.

The emerging outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread worldwide. We prescribed some promising medication to our patients with mild to moderate pneumonia due to SARS-CoV-2, however such drugs as chloroquine, hydrossichloroquine, azithromycin, antivirals (lopinavir/ritonavir, darunavir/cobicistat) and immunomodulating agents (steroids, tocilizumab) were not confirmed as effective against SARS-CoV2. We, therefore, started to use auto-hemotherapy treated with an oxygen/ozone (O/O) gaseous mixture as adjuvant therapy.

Incremental value of FDG-PET/CT to monitor treatment response in infectious spondylodiscitis.

Objective: To assess the added value of serial 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) uptake analysis in predicting clinical response to treatment in infectious spondylodiscitis (IS). We sought to analyze changes in quantitative FDG-PET/CT parameters among patients with clinical response or treatment failure and to compare the sensitivity and specificity of serial FDG-PET/CT and MRI in predicting treatment response in IS.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective study consisted of 68 FDG-PET/CT examinations in 34 patients performed before and after at least 2 weeks of antibiotic treatment.

Management of vertebral osteomyelitis over an eight-year period: The UDIPROVE (UDIne PROtocol on VErtebral osteomyelitis).

Objectives: Vertebral osteomyelitis (VO) is a compelling clinical entity for clinicians because of its insidious and indolent course, which makes diagnosis difficult.

Methods: All patients with a suspected diagnosis of VO were analyzed over an 8-year period (January 2009 to January 2017). The UDIPROVE protocol (UDIne PROtocol on VErtebral osteomyelitis) was applied in all cases.

Prosthetic joint infections: clinical management, diagnosis, and treatment.

Purpose Of Review: Prosthetic joint infections (PJIs) represent one of the most disastrous complications in prosthetic surgery, requiring long hospitalization, prolonged antimicrobial treatment and repeated surgical interventions. No gold standard test to formulate diagnosis exist. A combination of high index of suspicion, physical examination, microbiological and biohumoral investigations is required.

Post-neurosurgical meningitis: Management of cerebrospinal fluid drainage catheters influences the evolution of infection.

Background: In order to better define the pathogenic role of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) drainage catheters in postoperative patients, we comparatively analyze the clinical course of device and non-device-related meningitis.

Methods: This is an observational, partially prospective, study on consecutive adult patients who developed meningitis after undergoing neurosurgical procedures at the Neurosurgery and Neurointensive care Departments, Spedali Civili, Brescia, Italy, between January 1999 and August 2007.

Results: All 77 consecutive post-neurosurgical meningitis events in 65 patients were included in the analysis.