Health-Related Lifestyle Profiles in Healthy Adults: Associations with Sociodemographic Indicators, Dispositional Optimism, and Sense of Coherence.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Promoting healthy behaviors throughout life is an essential prevention tool. This study investigated the associations among lifestyle profiles (including diet, alcohol consumption, physical activity, cigarette smoking, and cardiovascular screening), sociodemographic factors (gender, age, education, and family history of CVDs), and psychological factors (sense of coherence and dispositional optimism).

[Inguinal hernia surgery. Review of a caseload and description of a technique variation].

Background: To evaluate the efficacy of the tension free surgical technique for the treatment inguinal hernia.

Methods: The authors propose personal experience of 172 patients, treated for inguinal hernia in the period from 1986 to 1993, selecting two patients groups. In the first group the patients (80 cases) were treated with traditional hernioplasty, in the second group (92 cases) hernioplasty tension-free was performed.

Surgical treatment of multinodular goiter: incidence of lesions of the recurrent nerves after total thyroidectomy.

The problems concerning surgical goiter treatment are discussed, particularly the morbidity of total thyroidectomy and possible injury to recurrent nerves in comparison to the partial resection of the gland. We discuss our case material and review the literature. We conclude that total thyroidectomy seems to be the most effective surgical procedure with lower morbidity than subtotal thyroidectomy.

Isolated intestinal neurofibromatosis of colon. Single case report and review of the literature.

Isolated intestinal neurofibromatosis of the colon is a most unusual disease: from 1937 to 1999 only 12 cases have been reported. The differential diagnosis and treatment of this lesion are very difficult. A review of the literature is made and personal experience in the diagnosis and treatment of a case in a 68-year-old female is described.

Diagnosis controversies for adrenal ganglioneuroma.

The authors report a case of adrenal ganglioneuroma which was incidentally diagnosed performing preoperative examination for a sigmoid carcinoma. The authors took this finding as a starting point to underline the rarity of this condition and its chance discovery, this being due to the rare presence of signs and symptoms and its frequent association with other synchronous neoplasms; all this makes differential diagnosis rather difficult.