Hand hygiene, knowledge and training motivational drives: findings from a survey in a university hospital.

This study assessed healthcare workers' (HCWs) knowledge and adherence to hand hygiene principles in a large Italian university hospital, focusing on identifying knowledge gaps and evaluating training effectiveness. A specifically designed 17-item questionnaire, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire, was used to measure theoretical knowledge, the role of training, and the impact of experience. The survey had an 8% participation rate (542 responses from a total of 6,749 HCWs), with higher responses among nurses and doctors.

Anti-Shrinkage Technique for Feline Skin Samples.

Surgical resection of subcutaneous neoplasms with clear margins is crucial for preventing local recurrence and avoiding adjuvant treatments. However, the evaluation of surgical margins often differs significantly from the histopathological assessment due to tissue shrinkage, which can result in inaccurate therapeutic assessments and unreliable patient prognoses. In this study, ten feline cadavers were utilized.

Preclinical pharmacology of patient-derived extracellular vesicles for the intraoperative imaging of tumors.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from the plasma of oncological patients exhibit significant tumor-targeting properties, unlike those from healthy individuals. We have previously shown the feasibility of formulating the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye indocyanine green (ICG) with patient-derived extracellular vesicles (PDEVs) for selective delivery to neoplastic tissue. This staining protocol holds promise for clinical application in intraoperative tumor margin imaging, enabling precise neoplastic tissue resection.

Evaluation of the Effect of a New Skin Fixation Technique to Avoid Shrinkage of Skin Samples Obtained from Canine Cadavers.

Skin shrinkage begins immediately after surgical incision and is an artefact associated with the excision and fixation of a specimen. Skin shrinkage results in important changes in histologic tissue dimensions and can affect the correct quantification of the histologic tumour-free margin (HTFM). Bilateral and symmetrical circular skin samples with a diameter of 60 mm were taken from the lateral thoracic, flank and femoral regions of dog cadavers, with the samples from one side belonging to the study group and the samples from the same animal from the other side belonging to the control group.