Regional guideline for diagnosis and treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the lip: what is the level of compliance?

Objective: To investigate to what extent physicians comply with a regional guideline for the diagnosis, staging, treatment and follow-up of patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lower lip.

Design: Retrospective analysis of data from the medical records of 248 patients diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the lower lip during the period 1989-1997.

Setting: Comprehensive Cancer Centre of the Northern region of the Netherlands.

Leucine kinetics during simultaneously administered insulin and dexamethasone in preterm infants with severe lung disease.

The objective of this study was to determine whether insulin administration would prevent the well-documented catabolic effect of dexamethasone given to preterm infants with chronic lung disease. We studied leucine metabolism in 11 very-low-birth-weight infants before dexamethasone treatment and on d 2, 4, and 7 thereafter. During the first 4 d of dexamethasone, insulin was administered i.

L-dopa-responsive infantile hypokinetic rigid parkinsonism due to tyrosine hydroxylase deficiency.

Tyrosine hydroxylase deficiency was confirmed biochemically and genetically in four unrelated Dutch patients. The patients have a hypokinetic-rigid parkinsonian syndrome with symptoms in early infancy (3 to 6 months of age). Only sporadic dystonic movements were seen.

Carbon dioxide laser evaporation of leukoplakia of the lower lip: a retrospective evaluation.

The purpose of this study was the retrospective evaluation of the treatment results of CO2 laser evaporation for 27 cases of leukoplakia of the lip. The data were derived from 23 patients who presented with leukoplakia of the lower lip during the period 1978-96. Four patients developed a second primary leukoplakia of the lip resulting in 27 cases of leukoplakia.

Reduction of surgical site infections in major surgery by elimination of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus.

Staphylococcus aureus has long been recognized as an important pathogen in human disease. Staphylococcal infections occur regularly in hospital patients and, despite antibiotic therapy, have severe consequences. An increasing number of such infections are caused by methicillin-resistant S.

Outbreak of Staphylococcus schleiferi wound infections: strain characterization by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, PCR ribotyping, conventional ribotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

Within a 1-year period, six surgical-site infections (SSI) caused by Staphylococcus schleiferi were observed in the department of cardiac surgery of Ignatius Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands. Since outbreaks caused by this species of coagulase-negative staphylococci have not been described before, an extensive environmental survey and a case control study were performed in combination with molecular typing of the causative microorganism in order to identify potential sources of infection. Variability, as detected by four different genotyping methods (random amplification of polymorphic DNA [RAPD], conventional and PCR-mediated ribotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis [PFGE] of DNA macro restriction fragments), appeared to be limited both among the clinical isolates and among several control strains obtained from various unrelated sources.

Nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus: epidemiology, underlying mechanisms, and associated risks.

Staphylococcus aureus has long been recognized as an important pathogen in human disease. Due to an increasing number of infections caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains, therapy has become problematic.

Fentanyl in 2% mepivacaine compared with fentanyl in 0.5% bupivacaine: two parallel controlled double blind studies.

The efficacy of epidural mepivacaine and bupivacaine, combined with fentanyl to enhance blockade, was compared in two parallel controlled, double-blind clinical trials. Patients in the studies (n = 91) were scheduled for orthopedic surgery of the legs and a tourniquet was used in all cases. Those patients receiving mepivacaine attended day surgery only, whereas patients receiving bupivacaine were hospitalised.