Thyroid surgery in the elderly: a comparative experience of 400 patients from an Italian university hospital.

The aim of this study was to compare disease features and surgical complications of patients undergoing surgery under or over 65 years of age. We performed a retrospective review of patients undergoing thyroidectomy or lobectomy from January 1990 through January 2012 in our Institution. Patients aged over 65 years of age were compared with younger patients on a 1:1 ratio.

Cancer of the thyroid gland in geriatric age: a single center retrospective study with a 10-year post-operative follow-up.

Introduction: We evaluated the characteristics of thyroid carcinoma in geriatric patients and outcomes after a 10-years follow-up.

Methods: Comparative retrospective study on a group of 31 geriatric patients and one of 224 non-geriatric, who underwent surgery for thyroid carcinoma in the period 1998-2003. We compared with Fisher's exact test: histology, multifocality, tumor size, lymph-node metastasis, distant metastasis, persistence/recurrence and mortality, including and excluding anaplastic carcinomas, in a subgroup of 26 geriatric patients and another of 223 non-geriatric patients.

Double probe intraoperative neuromonitoring with a standardized method in thyroid surgery.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of intraoperative neuromonitoring (IONM) of the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) and the vagus nerve (VN) with a standardized approach in thyroid surgery.

Methods: Retrospective study with an experimental group with which IONM was used, both with the RLN that the VN, and a control one, each consisting of 300 total thyroidectomies. Each patient underwent a pre-and post-operative videolaryngoscopy.

Abdominal hypertension and venous insufficiency of lower limbs: is there a relationship?

Objective: The purpose of our study is to understand the compression, by subcutaneous fat in obese patients, who present a chronic increase in abdominal pressure, and on the sapheno-femoral cross. Such increase would result in a chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) of lower limbs and, if possible, it will be quantified also according to the posture.

Material And Methods: We studied two different groups of patients with CVI: obese and non-obese.

Verification of the effectiveness of silver dressings to prevent reinfection of skin ulcers after debridement.

Objective: To test the usefulness of silver dressings in patients with skin ulcers in the healing phase after debridement.

Materials And Methods: After randomly selected a group of 30 patients and divided them into three groups (A, B and C) according to the type and severity of the ulcer, we used respectively for each group antiseptics-free dressings, hydrofiber dressings with a low or a high content of silver. Then we performed samples by aspiration from the bottom of the wound three times (zero time, after two weeks, after a month) to prepare bacterial cultures.