Preventive analgesia by local anesthetics: the reduction of postoperative pain by peripheral nerve blocks and intravenous drugs.

The use of local anesthetics to reduce acute postoperative pain has a long history, but recent reports have not been systematically reviewed. In addition, the need to include only those clinical studies that meet minimum standards for randomization and blinding must be adhered to. In this review, we have applied stringent clinical study design standards to identify publications on the use of perioperative local anesthetics.

The pharmacokinetics of methadone in adolescents undergoing posterior spinal fusion.

Background: The optimal methadone dosing regimen for children undergoing spinal surgery is uncertain because of sparse pediatric pharmacokinetic data and a paucity of analgesic effect data. The minimum effective analgesic concentration of methadone in opioid naïve adults is 58 mcg · L(-1).

Methods: Adolescents aged 12-19 years undergoing idiopathic scoliosis correction were administered 0.

[Acute aortic dissection: be aware of signs and symptoms].

Acute aortic dissection is a rare medical emergency accompanied by high mortality. For ensuring fast diagnosis and delivery of appropriate medical treatment the knowledge of signs and symptoms is crucial. Here we summarize clinical presentation according to existing studies, focus on diagnosis and introduce to contemporary treatment of this disease.

Mitochondrial DNA mutations in differentiated thyroid cancer with respect to the age factor.

Introduction: Increased numbers of mitochondria in differentiated thyroid cancer and, most strikingly, mutations in human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in older people have led to speculation that mtDNA mutations might contribute to aging or accumulate in postmitotic tissues with age. Mutation analyses of mtDNA in papillary (PTCs) and follicular (FTCs) thyroid carcinomas have been limited to date. The significance and frequency of mtDNA mutations in PTC and FTC are therefore controversial, as is age dependence.

Importance of lymph node metastases in follicular thyroid cancer.

There are many concepts of risk and prognostic factor analysis for differentiated thyroid cancer. The prognostic role of lymph node metastases in follicular thyroid cancer (FTC), however, is still controversial. We performed a retrospective trial in 186 patients with FTC (124 women, 62 men; mean follow-up 5.