Understanding Petri Nets in Health Sciences Education: The Health Issue Network Perspective.

Scarce literature exists as to the use of Petri Nets (PN) to model the dynamic evolution of health issues in a deterministic way. Starting from the HIN (Health Issue Network) approach, the paper aims at describing the suitability of PN in supporting the Case-Based Learning method for improving an educational simulation environment in which students can manage realistic clinical data related to the evolution of a patient's health state over time.

Injury patterns and causes of death in 953 patients with penetrating abdominal war wounds in a civilian independent non-governmental organization hospital in Lashkargah, Afghanistan.

Background: Management of penetrating abdominal war injuries centers upon triage, echeloned care, and damage control. A civilian hospital based in a war zone can rarely rely upon these principles because it normally has limited resources and lacks rapid medical evacuation. We designed this study to describe organ injury patterns and factors related to mortality in patients with penetrating abdominal war injuries in a civilian hospital in an active war zone in Afghanistan, examine how these findings differ from those in a typical military setting, and evaluate how they might improve patients' care.

HIN - Health Issue Network as Means to Improve Case-Based Learning in Health Sciences Education.

HIN (Health Issue Network) is introduced as a peculiar approach to enhance Case-Based Learning (CBL) methodology for health sciences education, as well as innovative tool to query problem-oriented EHRs. In this paper HIN's Petri Nets-based formalism is described, and a first example of its twofold (lower and upper) representation level is proposed.

Cytoreduction and HIPEC in the treatment of "unconventional" secondary peritoneal carcinomatosis.

Background: Peritoneal metastasis (PM) is considered a terminal and incurable disease. In the last 30 years, cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) radically changed the therapeutic approach for these patients and is regarded as the standard of care for pseudomyxoma peritonei from appendiceal cancer and peritoneal mesotheliomas. Improved survival has also been reported in treating PM from ovarian, gastric, and colorectal cancers.

Frequency and severity of globus pharyngeus symptoms in patients undergoing thyroidectomy: a pre-post short term cross-sectional study.

Background: Globus pharyngeus is a sensation of a lump or foreign body in the throat, sometimes associated with thyroid diseases and surgery. Previous studies investigated this condition with contradictory results, mainly because not standardized instruments of measure were used. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and severity of globus pattern symptoms in a population of patients three months after a thyroidectomy, and the reduction or increase of pre-existing symptoms or the onset of new symptoms.

Two-year subjective, objective, quality of life, and endoscopic follow-up after laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti in patients with columnar-lined esophagus.

Introduction: Barrett esophagus (BE) is a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease. We wish to determine the effects of surgery on the histology of the esophageal mucosa and evaluate Quality of Life.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-seven patients with columnar-lined esophagus (CLE) metaplasia underwent laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication.

An unexpected case of giant hiatal hernia and review of literature. GHH: case report and literature review.

Introduction: The management of giant hiatal hernia remains one of the most complicated surgical challenge and several operative approaches have been proposed during the years. Currently, the most practiced is the laparoscopic approach, which adds functional outcomes overlapping those of the conventional open surgery to the own advantages of the technique. The main problem of this operation is the high rate of recurrence, occurring independently by the specific technique adopted.

Quality of life after Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication.

Background: We investigated Quality of Life (QoL) and Johnsson & DeMeester score of patients after Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication.

Materials And Methods: From January 2007 to June 2008, 43 patients with chronic gastroesophageal reflux underwent laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication; 7 were lost during the follow-up. Patients underwent endoscopy, 24-hour pH-metry, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease-Health-Related Quality-of-Life (GERD-HRQL), and Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaires preoperatively, 6 months, and 12 months after surgery.

Laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication for gastroesophageal reflux disease patients after 2-year follow-up.

Introduction: Gastroesphageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common condition in the general population, affecting patients' quality of life and predisposing to Barrett's esophagus and its most fearsome complication, esophageal adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study is to compare objective and subjective outcomes of laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication after 2 years of follow-up.

Subjects And Methods: Seventy-six GERD patients underwent laparoscopic Nissen-Rossetti fundoplication.