Managing tissue viability issues in patients with cancer approaching the end of life.

This article provides an overview of tissue viability issues related to the care of patients with cancer who are approaching the end of life. Altered physiology as a result of various factors, including nutrition, medication and radiotherapy, is identified. The article discusses the presentation and treatment of cutaneous radiation injury, malignant wounds, pressure ulcers and Skin Changes At Life's End (SCALE), an acronym used to describe a set of clinical phenomena associated with skin changes in patients approaching the end of life, and makes recommendations for practice.

Supporting assistant practitioners during their training.

Assistant practitioners, also known as associate practitioners, provide support to the registered healthcare workforce, practising with advanced knowledge and skills. Assistant practitioners require substantial training to obtain the skills and knowledge required for the role. This article identifies the challenges trainee assistant practitioners may encounter, and makes recommendations for how they can be best supported.

Time course of esophageal lesions after catheter ablation with cryothermal and radiofrequency ablation: implication for atrio-esophageal fistula formation after catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation.

Background: Atrio-esophageal fistulas have been described as a consequence of radiofrequency (RF) ablation for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, whether cryoablation can avoid this potential fatal complication remains unclear.

Methods And Results: We studied the effects of direct application of RF and cryoablation on the cervical esophagus in 16 calves.

Effects of temporal application parameters on lesion dimensions during transvenous catheter cryoablation.

Unlabelled: Lesion dimension of cryoablation.

Background: Transvenous catheter cryoablation is a novel technique for treating cardiac arrhythmias. However, the relative importance of temporal application parameters on lesion dimension and clinical efficacy has not been studied.

Feasibility of catheter cryoablation in normal ventricular myocardium and healed myocardial infarction.

Although novel cryoablation systems have recently been introduced into clinical practice for catheter ablation of supraventricular tachycardia, the feasibility of catheter cryoablation of VT is unknown. Thus, the present study evaluates catheter cryoablation of the ventricular myocardium (1) in healthy sheep and (2) of VT in chronic myocardial infarction (MI). In three healthy sheep, 21 ventricular lesions (12 left and 9 right ventricle) were created with a catheter cryoablation system.