Publications by authors named "Sirignano A"

Standard endovascular aortic repair (EVAR) has become the standard of care for treating infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) in patients with favorable anatomies, while patients with challenging AAA anatomies, and those with suprarenal or thoraco-abdominal aneurysms, still need alternative, more complex, solutions, including custom-made branched or fenestrated grafts, which are constrained by production delay and costs. To address urgent needs and complex cases, physicians have proposed modifying standard endografts by manually creating graft fenestrations. This allows for effective aneurysm exclusion and satisfactory patency of visceral vessels.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Group insurance plans are generally easier to adopt than individual LTCI policies, making them a more viable option for many people.
  • * The article examines the development of LTCI in Italy, focusing on socio-economic and legal factors that influence policy effectiveness and the need for legislative improvement to enhance accessibility.
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Background: The SAfety and FEasibility of standard EVAR outside the instruction for use (SAFE-EVAR) Study was designed to define the attitude of Italian vascular surgeons towards the use of standard endovascular repair (EVAR) for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) outside the instruction for use (IFU) through a Delphi consensus endorsed by the Italian Society of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery (Società Italiana di Chirurgia Vascolare ed Endovascolare - SICVE).

Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 26 statements was developed, validated by an 18-member Advisory Board, and then sent to 600 Italian vascular surgeons. The Delphi process was structured in three subsequent rounds which took place between April and June 2023.

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Three-dimensional bioprinting is a rapidly evolving technology that holds the promise of addressing the increasing demand for organs, tissues, and personalized medicine. By employing computer-aided design and manufacturing processes, 3D bioprinting allows for the precise deposition of living cells, biomaterials, and biochemicals to create functional human tissues and organs. The potential applications of this technology are vast, including drug testing and development, disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and ultimately, organ transplantation.

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The fundamental importance of informed consent as a prerequisite for the lawfulness of the medical act is an indisputable cornerstone of clinical practice. However, the provision of effective information and the collection of informed consent presents important critical issues in the underage patient, even considering that in general terms he or she does not have the power to directly express consent, which must be provided by parents or legal guardians. These critical issues are amplified in the context of telemedicine.

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Healthcare in the third millennium is largely delivered through systems involving the use of the technological devices and services, foremost among them telemedicine. For the adequate delivery of digital medicine services, however, it is necessary for users to be digitally literate, that is, able to consciously make use of technology. In order to understand how relevant digital literacy is in determining the effectiveness of e-Health services, we performed a traditional literature review on 3 major databases by combining the terms "Digital Literacy" and "Computer Literacy" with the terms "Telemedicine" and "Telehealth".

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Objectives: Merchant ships represent a peculiar working environment with several challenges and risks. The specific situation on board of ships may affect the mental health of seafarers more remarkably than ashore workers.

Content: A systematic review of the literature has been carried out to identify the main causes of mood disorders among seafarers and the impact that these disorders have on their health.

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Autopsy examination, the gold standard for defining causes of death, is often difficult to apply in certain health care settings, especially in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic and its associated difficulties in terms of implementing autopsy examinations have made the need for alternative means of determining causes of death even more evident. One of the most interesting alternatives to the conventional autopsy is the verbal autopsy, a tool that originated in Africa and Asia in the 1950s and consists of a structured interview with the deceased's family members concerning the symptoms manifested by the person and the circumstances of death.

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Introduction: The identification of professional liability profiles related to the development of pressure injuries is a very thorny issue from a medico-legal perspective. This is because no matter how strict the applied prevention protocols applied may be, the development of such injuries is largely dependent on endogenous factors. This paper aims to investigate the medico-legal issues related to this topic through the exposition of one case of medico-legal litigation and a traditional review of the literature.

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Digitization of health records is still struggling to take hold in the Italian healthcare context, where medical records are still largely kept manually on paper. Besides being anachronistic, this practice is particularly critical if applied to the drug chart. Poor handwriting and transcription errors can generate medication errors and thus represent a potential source of adverse events.

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Background: Endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) has become an accepted alternative to open repair (OR) for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) despite "hostile" anatomies that may reduce its effectiveness. Guidelines suggest refraining from EVAR in such circumstances, but in clinical practice, up to 44% of EVAR procedures are performed using stent grafts outside their instruction for use (IFU), with acceptable outcomes. Starting from this "inconsistency" between clinical practice and guidelines, the aim of this contribution is to report the technical results of the use of EVAR in challenging anatomies as well as the ethical aspects to identify the criteria by which the "best interest" of the patient can be set.

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Discovered in the United States of America (USA) in the 1960s, ketamine was introduced as an anaesthetic drug to specifically replace phencyclidine. Briefly, the substance moved from the medical world to recreational users, since it was discovered that intense psychedelic experiences were obtained with dosages lower than those prescribed for anesthesia. At the end of the 90's, it was circulated in London nightclubs as a drug itself and as counterfeit 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine tablets.

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Acetazolamide (ACZ) is a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor prescribed for the treatment of various pathologies. It is also used in doping and is prohibited in and out of sportive competitions. ACZ was reported not to undergo metabolization.

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The imposition of compulsory health treatments has always been a subject of animated legal and bioethical debate. What is at stake are two opposing interests that are in their own way protected by international treaties and constitutional provisions: the right to individual self-determination and the duty to defend and preserve collective safety. The global health crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the issue of the legitimacy of imposing compulsory vaccination at the center of the multifaceted debate on pandemic health policies.

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Synthetic cathinones (SCs) constitute a heterogenous class of new psychoactive substances (NPS), structurally related to cathinone. SCs represent the widest NPS class, second to synthetic cannabinoids, accounting for approximately 160 different analogues with substitution at the phenyl group, the amine group, or the alkyl chain. In 2020, α-pyrrolidonophenone analogues were the most trafficked SCs, and were involved in many fatalities and intoxication cases.

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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has profoundly affected the social fabric and the economic and health care viability and functioning of most countries. Aside from its deeply destructive impact on health care systems and national economies, the pandemic has jeopardized people's emotional and psychological well-being as well. The authors aimed to shed a light on how the pandemic has been affecting patients with addiction issues and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is characterized by negative thoughts about appearance and body misperceptions.

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Article Synopsis
  • GHB is a naturally occurring small molecule in the human CNS and is used medically as sodium oxybate to treat narcolepsy and assist with alcohol detoxification, but it is also abused, particularly by bodybuilders.
  • The article discusses the risks of recreational GHB use, highlighting its presence in emergency cases and the complexities involved in forensic analysis due to its dual effects and interaction with various neuronal systems.
  • Forensic toxicology faces challenges in distinguishing GHB concentrations in biological samples, making prompt sampling critical for detecting recent use, especially in cases related to sexual assault.
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Telemedicine allows for the effective delivery of health care to patients at a distance through the application of information technology to the field of medicine. This is optimal during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce interpersonal contact to mitigate contagion. Among the possible Telemedicine applications, there is Telesurgery, which involves more and more surgical specialties thanks to the numerous benefits in quality and cost containment.

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: Telemedicine or telehealth services has been increasingly practiced in the recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine turned into and indispensable service in order to avoid contagion between healthcare professionals and patients, involving a growing number of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, at present, several ethical and legal issues related to the practice of these services still remain unsolved and need adequate regulation.

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Objective: Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the coming months is a matter of great importance and urgency for governments worldwide, making fundamental decisions based on what is known about the transmission mechanisms of the virus and its survival in the environment. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of demographic variables, solar radiation and relative humidity on the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic of the various regions in Italy.

Materials And Methods: The retrospective longitudinal study was conducted, and data used in this study was obtained from the Italian Health Ministry.

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Purpose: Accidental femoral nerve injury is a well-known iatrogenic complication of orthopaedic, abdominal, and pelvic surgery. Because of the largely transitory nature of the symptoms associated with nerve damage, its true incidence is in all likelihood underestimated. This work aims to illustrate the surgical contexts within which this nerve injury is reported, based on the evidence obtained from a Scoping Review of the literature of the last 20 years, with specific reference to the underlying etiopathogenetic mechanisms and prognostic outcomes, to highlight the evaluation issues of medico-legal interest related to this pathology.

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Background: Over the past few years, an emerging number of new psychoactive substances (NPSs) entered the illicit market. NPSs are designed to resemble the effects of classical drugs of abuse, reinforcing their effects and duration. Among the most abused NPS, synthetic cannabinoids are cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) that mimic the effect of the main psychotropic phytocannabinoid Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

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Appearance- and performance-enhancing drugs (APEDs) are commonly used by adolescents and young adults in an effort to improve not only athletic performance but also physical and mental efficiency and sexual appearance. The rationale for using these drugs is grounded in the perceived importance of external appearance, the quest for health and youth, and the urge to boost one's sexual performances. Although APED users tend to be quite moderate overall, some specific subpopulations can display pathological use associated with high-risk behaviors.

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