Perioperative Blood Transfusion Is Dose-Dependently Associated with Cancer Recurrence and Mortality after Head and Neck Cancer Surgery.

Background: The association between perioperative blood transfusion and cancer prognosis in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) receiving surgery remains controversial.

Methods: We designed a retrospective observational study of patients with HNC undergoing tumor resection surgery from 2014 to 2017 and followed them up until June 2020. An inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was applied to balance baseline patient characteristics in the exposed and unexposed groups.

CREST: clinical bleeding and risk evaluation in hematology-oncology patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of thromboelastography's role.

Thrombocytopenia and bleeding are common complications of hematologic malignancies. Often, prophylactic platelets are administered to minimize bleeding risk, based on total platelet count (TPC). However, TPC is a poor predictor, and does not provide rapid information.

The co-influence of hyaluronic acid and collagen on the development of an engineered annulus tissue model with bone marrow stromal cells.

Inveterbral disc degeneration is a significant musculoskeletal disease that brings huge burden of pain, disability, psychological and social consequences to the affected population worldwide with treatments that only alleviate the pain but does not address the underlying biological problems. For the past decades, tissue engineering of the disc has been investigated with annulus fibrosus (AF) been one of the complicated disc component to be engineered. With the limited source of annulus cells, bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) have been frequently investigated as a potental cell candidate to develop an AF-like tissue which often require a multi-disciplinary effort to achieve.

Deep Neural Network-Based Respiratory Pathology Classification Using Cough Sounds.

Intelligent systems are transforming the world, as well as our healthcare system. We propose a deep learning-based cough sound classification model that can distinguish between children with healthy versus pathological coughs such as asthma, upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), and lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). To train a deep neural network model, we collected a new dataset of cough sounds, labelled with a clinician's diagnosis.

A concept mobility device with multi-positional configurations and child-kind restraint for safe perioperative transfer and induction of anaesthesia in children with autistic spectrum disorder - a cross sectional study.

Background: Transfer into the operating room, onto the operating table and mask induction of anaesthesia are major challenges faced by children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In a pilot study, parents observed that perioperative transfer becomes unsafe and difficult when children with ASD becomes uncooperative.

Method: A CHILD-KIND CONCEPT mobility system comprising of multi-positioning seat configurations and restraining module was developed with inputs from multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals and parents with children with ASD.

Perioperative anaphylaxis: A five-year review in a tertiary paediatric hospital.

Making a diagnosis of perioperative anaphylaxis and identifying culprit drugs are diagnostic challenges. The aim of this study is to describe the perioperative presentation of anaphylaxis and results of patients who underwent allergy evaluation. This is a retrospective review of perioperative anaphylaxis of severity Grade 2 and above based on the Australian and New Zealand Anaesthetic Allergy Group criteria from 2015 to 2019 in a tertiary paediatric hospital.

Asthmatic versus healthy child classification based on cough and vocalised /ɑ:/ sounds.

Cough is a common symptom presenting in asthmatic children. In this investigation, an audio-based classification model is presented that can differentiate between healthy and asthmatic children, based on the combination of cough and vocalised /ɑ:/ sounds. A Gaussian mixture model using mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and constant-Q cepstral coefficients was trained.

IMOVE-An Intuitive Concept Mobility Systems for Perioperative Transfer and Induction of Anaesthesia for Special Needs Children.

Children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit uncontrollable disruptive behaviour during transfer to the operating room and operating table and at the induction of anaesthesia (sleep). This process often involves the physical restraining of children. These children are then lifted onto the operating table by healthcare staff after being anaesthetized.

Scaffold-Free tissue engineering with aligned bone marrow stromal cell sheets to recapitulate the microstructural and biochemical composition of annulus fibrosus.

Current tissue engineering strategies through scaffold-based approaches fail to recapitulate the complex three-dimensional microarchitecture and biochemical composition of the native Annulus Fibrosus tissue. Considering limited access to healthy annulus fibrosus cells from patients, this study explored the potential of bone marrow stromal cells (BMSC) to fabricate a scaffold-free multilamellar annulus fibrosus-like tissue by integrating micropatterning technologies into multi-layered BMSC engineering. BMSC sheet with cells and collagen fibres aligned at ~30° with respect to their longitudinal dimension were developed on a microgroove-patterned PDMS substrate.

Sellick maneuver assisted real-time to achieve target force range in simulated environment-A prospective observational cross-sectional study on manikin.

A force sensor system was developed to give real-time visual feedback on a range of force. In a prospective observational cross-section study, twenty-two anaesthesia nurses applied cricoid pressure at a target range of 30-40 Newtons for 60 seconds in three sequential steps on manikin: Group A (step 1 blinded, no sensor), Group B (step 2 blinded sensor), Group C (step 3 sensor feedback). A weighing scale was placed below the manikin.

Evaluation of anesthesia informed consent in pediatric practice - An observation cohort study.

Background And Aims: An informed consent requires active participation by both physicians and patients. It is the responsibility of the physician to give the complete disclosure of information in easy language for the parent to understand. An informed consent process can be a challenge especially for the anesthetists when time is a limiting factor for patient-anesthetist interaction especially in same day admission and day surgery.

A 10-Year Radiographic Study Comparing Anterior Versus Posterior Instrumented Spinal Fusion in Patients With Lenke Type 5 Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis.

Unlabelled: MINI: This is a long-term prospective cohort study comparing the radiographic outcomes of anterior versus posterior instrumentation for Lenke 5 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Both approaches were comparable in terms of radiographic outcomes up to 10 years. The posterior approach is more prone to developing proximal junctional kyphosis.

Pembrolizumab-associated bronchiolitis in an elderly lung cancer patient required the treatment with an inhaled corticosteroid, erythromycin and bronchodilators.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have been used to treat lung cancer. Several types of ICI-related interstitial lung diseases have been reported, including organizing pneumonia, non-specific interstitial pneumonia, and diffuse alveolar damage. However, pembrolizumab-associated bronchiolitis requiring treatment for persistent cough has not yet been reported.

Ossification of the yellow ligament in the cervical spine - an unusual location.

Ossification of the yellow ligament (OYL) or ligamentum flavum, usually occurs in the thoracic spine. Focal OYL occurring in the cervical spine is considered rare and is sparsely reported in the literature. We came across a 30-year-old male patient with progressive left upper limb and bilateral lower limb weakness over a period of 3 months, associated with an unsteady gait.

A symptomatic anterior mediastinal mass with a simultaneous infection.

Surgical resection remains the treatment of choice for mature mediastinal teratoma, and the operation itself is sometimes complicated or life-threatening, especially when it ruptures into adjacent vital structures. We describe a rare case of unanticipatedly delayed complete resection of a symptomatic teratoma with simultaneous infection, followed by extended rupture into the pleural space, lung, and bronchus. The clinical presentation and the microbiological and radiologic features may lead to the impression of a lung abscess until it can be proven otherwise pathologically after an initial thoracic aspiration.

A mouthful - airway matters in intraoperative neuromonitoring in auditory brainstem implant surgery for the pediatric patient: a case series.

Background: The Auditory brainstem implant (ABI) is a new surgical option for hearing impaired children. Intraoperative neurophysiology monitoring includes brainstem mapping of cranial nerve (CN) IX, X, XI, XII and their motor nuclei, and corticobulbar tract motor-evoked potential. These require laryngeal electrodes and intra-oral pins, posing a challenge to airway management especially in the pediatric airway, where specialized electromyogram (EMG) tracheal tubes are not available.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in chronic pain: implications of new data for clinical practice.

COX2-selective and nonselective (ns) nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used for chronic pain management. There are marked differences in the risk of adverse gastrointestinal (GI) and cardiovascular (CV) events among different NSAIDs. In 2017, publication of two randomized controlled trials and an individual patient-data meta-analysis provided robust data on the relative GI and CV tolerability profiles of currently available NSAIDs.