Motor and functional recovery after neck dissection: comparison of two early physical rehabilitation programmes.

The aim of this prospective, single-centre, non-randomized explorative study is to comparatively assess two-month results of two early rehabilitation programmes in patients receiving neck dissection for head and neck cancer, with the hypothesis that those not receiving therapist-assisted physiotherapy would take an active role in their own rehabilitation to enhance outcomes. At the European Institute of Oncology, Milan (Italy), 97 patients were registered during the pre-hospitalization period and divided into an Autonomous group (living distant from the hospital) and a Physio group (living near). As expected, only 50 patients (25 per group) completed the study.

Identification of patients at high risk for hypocalcemia after total thyroidectomy.

Hypocalcemia is a major post-operative complication of total thyroidectomy, causing severe symptoms and increasing hospitalization time. The primary cause is secondary hypo-parathyroidism following damage to, or devascularisation of, one or more parathyroid glands during surgery. Aim of the study was to develop a simple and reliable method for predicting post-operative hypocalcemia in total thyroidectomy patients.

Pregnancy and thyroid cancer: ultrasound study of foetal thyroid.

Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy, more frequently diagnosed in young women during childbearing age and approximately 10% of all thyroid cancers are diagnosed during pregnancy or in the early post-partum period. Thyroid cancer in young people has generally an excellent prognosis, and survival among women with thyroid cancer diagnosed during pregnancy may not differ from that in age-matched non-pregnant women with similar cancer. Pregnancy after treatment of thyroid carcinoma requires both maternal and foetal controls.