Category: Medicine

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Clinical Practice Guidelines For The Management of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (ERS/ESTS/EACTS/ESTRO, 2020)

Clinical practice guidelines for the management of malignant pleural mesothelioma were released in May 2020 by the European Respiratory Society, European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, and European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology.

Epidemiology Research Priorities

The task force recommends large international epidemiological studies to determine the relationship between pleural plaques and malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Additionally, well-designed clinical trials are needed to determine the effectiveness of CT screening in populations exposed to asbestos.

Further research is needed, and highly encouraged, on biomarkers for malignant pleural mesothelioma, as the ones proposed previously have not proven useful for diagnosis, prognosis, or clinical follow-up for disease monitoring.

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Sevoflurane Shows Promise as Topical Analgesic for Intractable Pain

The widely used inhalational anesthetic sevoflurane was effective as a topical analgesic in treating otherwise refractory pain in an elderly patient with a severe leg ulcer, in a case report newly published by Spanish physicians.

In addition, there are indications that the medication accelerated healing of the year-old ulcer, Dr. Manuel Geronimo-Pardo of Complejo Hospitalario Universítario, in Albacete, and colleagues report in the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.

“Sevoflurane produces a rapid, intense, and long-lasting analgesic effect when it is irrigated on painful wounds, regardless of the etiology of the ulcer and the nature of the pain,” Dr. Geronimo-Pardo told Reuters Health by email. “Mild and transient itching at the wound edges is the most frequent adverse effect, so the risk-benefit profile is favorable.”

An 87-year-old woman was under palliative treatment for advanced endometrial cancer, but also had numerous comorbidities, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, acute coronary syndrome with a stent, chronic kidney failure, and peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Her living will barred hospital admission or any invasive procedures.

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