An observational multicentre study on the efficacy and safety of assisted reproductive technologies in women with rheumatic diseases.

Objectives: The aim was to determine whether assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) confer additional risk in rheumatic patients (in terms of disease flare and fetal-maternal complications) and whether, if performed, their efficacy is affected by maternal disease.

Methods: Sixty infertile rheumatic women undergoing 111 ART cycles were included. Clinical pregnancy rate, live birth rate, maternal disease flares and maternal-fetal complications were recorded.

A multicentre collaborative study on the use of cold scalpel and electrocautery for midline abdominal incision.

Background: Although studies in animals demonstrated a better wound healing after abdominal incision with cold scalpel than with electrocautery, clinical experiences did not confirm these findings. The purpose of this study was to compare early and late wound complications between diathermy and scalpel in gynecologic oncologic patients undergoing midline abdominal incision.

Methods: Patients undergoing midline abdominal incision for uterine malignancies were divided into two groups according to the method used to perform the abdominal midline incision: cold scalpel and diathermy in coagulation mode.

Endometrial thickness and histological abnormalities in women on hormonal replacement therapy: a transvaginal ultrasound/hysteroscopic study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess if endometrial thickness could be used to select postmenopausal women on hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) at increased risk for endometrial abnormalities. The secondary aim was to assess if endometrial abnormalities were more likely to occur in patients with increased endometrial thickness or in patients with unexpected bleeding.

Methods: Bi-endometrial thickness was measured by transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) in postmenopausal patients on sequential or combined HRT regimens.

Extended radical hysterectomy in early-stage carcinoma of the uterine cervix: tailoring the radicality.

The question of whether surgical treatment in early-stage cervical cancer should be aggressive or restricted to less radical techniques is still controversial. To answer this question it was thought useful to investigate the correlation of parametrial lymph node metastases with extension and stage of disease. Two-hundred and sixty-three consecutive primary radical surgical procedures were performed in our institute in clinical stage IB or stage IIA cervical cancer.