This is a report on a case of delirium due to a small amount of ketamine with voriconazole. A 58 year old male was treated for multiple myeloma and hip pain due to an extramedullary tumor following the administration of oxycodone, and voriconazole was administrated for his suspected mycotic pneumonia. His pain was refractory, so we started the administration of a small dose of ketamine (4 mg/hr) for analgesia, added to oxycodone. About 30 hours later, the delirium appeared but he complained of worsening hip pain, so we added 2 mg of ketamine rapidly. Immediately after the additional administration of ketamine, his delirium became more serious. We think the reason why a small amount of ketamine induced delirium is an interaction of ketamine and voriconazole. Ketamine is metabolized to norketamine, which is thought to be more harmless than ketamine, by cytochrome P 450 (CYP) (a part of by CYP3A4) and voriconazole is an inhibitor of CYP3A4. In cases of patients treated with voriconazole, ketamine should be more carefully administrated.

Methods: Nineteen volunteers (16 men, three women) lifted a 60-kg doll from a seated position to a standing position. The first transfer was performed without the HAL for Care Support, and the second was performed with the HAL for Care Support assistive robot. We evaluated transfer performance, the visual analog scale (VAS) score for lumbar fatigue, and electromyogram analyses of the trunk and hip. Results: Four participants (two men, two women) succeeded with the HAL for Care Support even though they were unable to perform the task without it. The mean lumbar fatigue VAS score for all participants without the HAL for Care Support was 62 mm, while that with it was 43 mm. With lumbar assistance from the HAL for Care Support, subjective lumbar fatigue during the transfer decreased significantly. A power analysis indicated adequate statistical power to detect a difference in the VAS score for lumbar fatigue (0.99). The activity of the left gluteus maximus alone increased significantly during transfers with the HAL for Care Support. No adverse events occurred during use of the HAL for Care Support for transfers. Conclusions The HAL for Care Support was able to reduce lumbar load in a simulated patient transfer.

Mucolipidosis is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder that demonstrates a clinical resemblance to mucopolysaccharidosis. Accumulation of glycoproteins throughout the body causes dysfunction of several organs, in particular, valvular heart diseases are an important cause of mortality, however, there is no consensus guideline regarding the indications and optimal timing of the surgical repair because of the unclear and short natural history. Here we present 12- and 15-year-old siblings diagnosed with mucolipidosis who underwent aortic valve replacement. The senior sibling received redo-aortic valve replacement for prosthetic valve dysfunction 11 years after the initial surgery. A few surgical valve replacements in patients with mucopolysaccharidosis have been reported, however, there is no published case of aortic valve replacements in two siblings with mucolipidosis.

Sometimes palliative radiotherapy (pRT) is not always used appropriately. In our institution, radiation oncologists started to participate the palliative care conferences from September 2021. Between September 2021 and August 2022, 26 (7.6%) of 341 patients presented at this conference were considered candidates for pRT. Finally, 11 patients (3.2%) underwent pRT (ulcerative breast cancer, 2; metastatic spinal cord compression, 1; re-irradiation, 6; peritoneal dissemination, 1; multiple liver metastases, 1). The participation of radiation oncologists at the palliative care conference is thought to facilitate the treatment option of palliative radiotherapy.

Objective: To treat vertebral fractures with posterior wall injury in the elderly, vertebral bone grafting is generally performed through a posterior transpedicular approach, combined with pedicle screw fixation. An autologous bone is ideal to treat this disorder. However, harvesting autologous bones from the elderly with osteoporosis is limited by the amount and quality of available autologous bone. Thus, we developed a bone-grafting substitute. The newly developed unidirectional porous β-tricalcium phosphate, with a porosity of 57% (UDPTCP; Affinos®, Kuraray Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), is used in the bone-grafting procedure. This is the first report of UDPTCP used as an artificial bone graft in patients with an acute vertebral burst fracture.Materials and Methods: UDPTCP (mean: 4.2 g) was implanted through the pedicle, and posterior instrumentation was achieved with pedicle screws in five elderly patients. Resorption of UDPTCP and substitution with the autologous bone were evaluated on computed tomography (CT) and plain X-ray performed immediately and at 3, 6, and 12 months after the operation.Results: In case 1, the pedicle screws did not loosen, and UDPTCP was completely resorbed and replaced with the autologous bone at 3 postoperative months. In the other four cases, although the pedicle screws or the caudal part loosened because of osteoporosis, resorption of UDPTCP was observed at 3 postoperative months. At 6 postoperative months, progressive substitution with the autologous bone was confirmed, and at 12 postoperative months, formation of the good autologous bone was confirmed.Conclusion: This preliminary case series demonstrated that the newly developed UDPTCP shows good clinical potential as a bone-graft substitute for acute vertebral burst fractures in the elderly, including patients with osteoporosis.