Publications by authors named "Maura C Tracey"

Background: Adequate bowel preparation before colonoscopy is crucial. Unfortunately, 25% of colonoscopies have inadequate bowel cleansing. From a patient perspective, bowel preparation is the main obstacle to colonoscopy.

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Background And Objectives: Proper breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) management is of pivotal importance. Although rapid-acting, oral and nasal transmucosal, fentanyl formulations (rapid-onset opioids, ROOs) are licensed for BTcP treatment, not all guidelines recommend their use. Presumably, some research gaps need to be bridged to produce solid evidence.

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In older patients with comorbidities, hip fractures are both an important and debilitating condition. Since multimodal and multidisciplinary perioperative strategies can hasten functional recovery after surgery improving clinical outcomes, the choice of the most effective and safest pathway represents a great challenge. A key point of concern is the anesthetic approach and above all the choice of the locoregional anesthesia combined with general or neuraxial anesthesia.

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Although we describe a clinical situation that most likely occurs in hundreds of operatory rooms in the world, we report this case as provocation. It concerns an unexpected awakening from an appropriate depth of anesthesia, although the BIS monitor showed a BIS index of less than 50 for a prolonged period before and after the event. Approximately 30 min after induction of anesthesia, the patient had a hypothetic sudden arousal of consciousness, with spontaneous movements, facial muscle activation, intolerance to the tracheal tube, and tearing.

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The prognosis of rectal cancer (RC) is strictly related to both T and N stage of the disease at the time of diagnosis. RC staging is crucial for choosing the best multimodal therapy: patients with high risk locally advanced RC (LARC) undergo surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy (NAT); those with low risk LARC are operated on after a preoperative short-course radiation therapy; finally, surgery alone is recommended only for early RC. Several imaging methods are used for staging patients with RC: computerized tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS).

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Electrochemotherapy is a local non-thermal treatment for cancer ablation. Currently, many studies and case report have investigated the differences in effectiveness of electrochemotherapy with respect to tumor type, chemotherapeutic drug, and route of drug administration. ESOPE trial validated standard operating procedures [SOP] for ECT using the Cliniporator device and demonstrated that ECT is a simple, highly efficacious, and cost-effective treatment of cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules from different primary tumors for cutaneous or superficial lesions.

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Background: Surveillance in hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC) family members recommends baseline colonoscopy starting at age 20 and then surveillance colonoscopy every 1-2 years.

Aims: To verify adherence to the guidelines for HNPCC family members enrolled in endoscopic surveillance.

Methods: Data regarding 11 HNPCC families was retrieved from our database.

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