The Year in Thoracic Anesthesia: Selected Highlights from 2022.

This article reviews research highlights in the field of thoracic anesthesia. The highlights of this year included new developments in the preoperative assessment and prehabilitation of patients requiring thoracic surgery, updates on the use of devices for one-lung ventilation (OLV) in adults and children, updates on the anesthetic and postoperative management of these patients, including protective OLV ventilation, the use of opioid-sparing techniques and regional anesthesia, and outcomes using enhanced recovery after surgery, as well as the use of expanding indications for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, specialized anesthetic techniques for airway surgery, and nonintubated video-assisted thoracic surgery.

Robot-assisted simple prostatectomy for treatment of large prostatic adenomas: surgical technique and outcomes from a high-volume robotic centre.

Purpose: Aim of the present study is to describe our robot-assisted simple prostatectomy technique and to report 6-month surgical and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Eighty men were consecutively submitted to robot-assisted simple prostatectomy in our institution from October 2019 to October 2020. All procedures were performed by the same surgical team.

Vaginal Hysterectomy Performed Under General Versus Neuraxial Regional Anesthesia: Comparison of Patient Characteristics and 30-Day Outcomes Using Propensity Score-Matched Cohorts.

Objectives: Compared with surgery under general anesthesia (GA), surgery under neuraxial regional anesthesia (RA) has been associated with economic and clinical benefits in certain populations. Our aim was to compare preoperative and postoperative characteristics and 30-day outcomes, including intraoperative complications, for patients undergoing benign vaginal hysterectomy under GA versus RA.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent vaginal hysterectomy for benign indications between 2015 and 2019 using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database.

Unusual case of infectious endocarditis in a patient subjected to transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) without cardiovascular risk factors.

Objective: Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is the gold standard for the treatment of obstructive prostatic hyperplasia. A bacteremia leading to infectious endocarditis (IE) can be the result of urological procedures. IE post TURP is rare.

Premature Ejaculation patients and their partners: arriving at a clinical profile for a real optimization of the treatment.

The aim of the study is to extrapolate clinical features of Premature Ejaculation (PE) patients and female partners of men affected with PE, in order to get a profile that can be of assistance for physicians within the dynamics of a couple, one of which is a PE patient. An observational, non-interventional, cross-sectional epidemiological study entitled IPER (Italian Premature Ejaculation Research) was conducted and included two different cohorts of subjects that were randomly sampled from a patient dataset of selected General Practitioners: 1. IPER-M sub-cohort (1.

Efficacy and safety of low-intensity shockwave therapy plus tadalafil 5 mg once daily in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus and erectile dysfunction: a matched-pair comparison study.

Low-intensity extracorporeal shockwave therapy (LiESWT) represents a promising treatment for patients with erectile dysfunction (ED). We investigated the efficacy of LiESWT combined with tadalafil 5 mg once daily in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and ED and compared LiESWT protocols administering different number of shockwaves. We performed a retrospective matched-pair comparison using data from a prospectively maintained database.

Low-serum testosterone and high-chromogranin A rare case associated with high-grade prostate cancer and higher pathological stages of the disease.

Introduction: CgA and testosterone are two serum markers that may be involved in prostate cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship of testosterone and CgA to grades and stages of prostate cancer, particularly whether low-serum testosterone and high-serum CgA are associated with more aggressive grades, and higher pathological stages of the disease.

Methods: This perspective study included 121 men (Caucasian only) presenting with -newly-diagnosed, untreated prostate cancer.

Effect of sedation on quantitative electroencephalography after cardiac arrest.

Background: Electroencephalography (EEG) has clinical and prognostic importance after cardiac arrest (CA). Recently, interest in quantitative EEG (qEEG) analysis has grown. The qualitative effects of sedation on EEG are well known, but potentially confounding effects of sedatives on qEEG after anoxic injury are poorly characterized.

HCV derived from sera of HCV-infected patients induces pro-fibrotic effects in human primary fibroblasts by activating GLI2.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a leading cause of liver fibrosis, especially in developing countries. The process is characterized by the excess accumulation of ECM that may lead, over time, to hepatic cirrhosis, liver failure and also to hepatocarcinoma. The direct role of HCV in promoting fibroblasts trans-differentiation into myofibroblasts, the major fibrogenic cells, has not been fully clarified.

Immediate Nonfunctional Loading of Two Single-Maxillary Postextractive Implants: 6-Year Postloading Results of Two Case Reports.

Objectives. The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare crestal bone loss of single-maxillary immediate postextractive implants and immediate nonfunctional loading (INFL) during 72 months of follow-up. Material and Methods.

Transurethral resection of prostate: technical progress and clinical experience using the bipolar Gyrus plasmakinetic tissue management system.

Background: The efficacy and safety of a new transurethral endoscopic device using bipolar electrocautery, the Gyrus system, were evaluated. This system permits rapid prostate tissue removal by endoscopic vaporization with little bleeding using saline irrigation, therefore eliminating transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) syndrome.

Methods: Between January 2000 and December 2006 a total of 401 patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia underwent transurethral resection of the prostate utilizing the Gyrus device.

Retropubic versus perineal radical prostatectomy in early prostate cancer: eight-year experience.

Background: Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men and the second leading cause of cancer death. A randomized study was performed on patients with localized prostate cancer and treated with radical prostatectomy using the perineal or the retropubic approach comparing oncological outcomes, cancer control, and functional results.

Study Design: Between 1997 and 2004, in a randomized study 200 patients underwent a radical prostatectomy performed by retropubic (100 patients) or perineal (100 patients) approach.

New perspective in the management of neuroendocrine differentiation in prostate adenocarcinoma.

In this review, we will present some of the information that is known about neuroendocrine (NE) cells and differentiation in the prostate. We will then speculate on the potential role that NE differentiation in prostate carcinoma may play and how this differentiation may be clinically analysed and treated. The androgen-independent growth of prostate cancer can be caused by different mechanisms; one of these is receptor-specific paracrine or autocrine growth modulation of human prostatic cancer cells by neuropeptides secreted by NE cells.

Use of cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor for prevention of urethral strictures secondary to transurethral resection of the prostate.

Objectives: To analyze whether the addition of a cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitor after transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) offers an advantage compared with TURP alone in reducing postoperative urethral strictures. At urethroscopy, stenosis of the urethra with a circumference of less than 19 mm was defined as stricture.

Methods: This was a prospective, unblinded, randomized, single-center study.

Which patients with prostate cancer are actually candidates for hormone therapy?

In this article, we will try to address the following aspects: which factors are responsible of the introduction of new candidates for hormone therapy in prostate cancer, who are actually candidates for hormone therapy, classifying them on the basis of the stage of the disease, and which treatment modalities can be proposed for each candidate. Since the introduction of hormone therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, there has been a debate about the optimal timing of hormone therapy. A modification in the timing of hormone therapy produced new candidates for hormone manipulation.

Antiandrogen monotherapy: recommendations for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Objective: The concept of antiandrogens as monotherapy for the treatment of prostate cancer is discussed.

Methods: Both Medline and Current Contents were used to identify studies on antiandrogen monotherapy in prostate cancer. We tried to analyze this database critically to establish whether or not there is evidence for using this monotherapy.

Variation in chromogranin A serum levels during intermittent versus continuous androgen deprivation therapy for prostate adenocarcinoma.

Objectives: It has been hypothesized that continuous androgen-suppression therapy produces hyperactivation of neuroendocrine (NE) cells and an increase in chromogranin A (CgA) in prostate carcinoma (PC). The aim of this study was to verify whether the intermittent administration of androgen deprivation (IAD) reduces the risk of CgA increase in PC cases treated with complete androgen deprivation (CAD).

Materials And Methods: We analyzed changes in serum CgA levels in patients with PC who successfully responded to the first 24 months of IAD versus continuous CAD therapy.

[Penile metastasis from bladder cancer. A case report].

Penile metastases from bladder cancer are unusual. A case of a man, 50 years old, with undifferentiated bladder carcinoma submitted to radical cystoprostatectomy and ileal conduit is presented. Twelve months after the primary diagnosis the patient presented metastases of the penis.

[Heredity and urologic tumors].

Most human malignant tumours derive from a series of several mutations in cell growth regulatory genes. Neoplastic transformation is a multistep, or at times multigenic event where several mutations must intervene. Hereditary forms have been identified for a number of human neoplasias.