It was February 2007 that the pediatric surgery department was established in our hospital. Since then, the number of surgical cases of inguinal hernia has been increasing year after year. During 2013, a total of 48 patients underwent hernia surgery. Operations were performed mostly on the day the patients were hospitalized. Before the surgery, the patients and their relatives were told about the nature of the disease and treatment by word of mouth. Actually, however, we were to busy to take much time to talk with them. After surgery, members of patients’ families, being all anxiety, frequently asked us such questions as: - how soon will the patient be allowed to have a cup of tea or juice?; when can the patient do without the IV drip?; and how should the family take care of the patient at home? We presumed that the anxiety might stem from the inadequate explanation given orally by inexperienced nurses. To improve the situation, we, staffers in charge of pediatric inpatient care, and physicians in the outpatient clinic of the pediatric surgery department teamed up to prepare a pamphlet including a list of standardized answers to supposedly most frequently asked questions in the hospitalization setting. The draft of the pamphlet was shown to ward nurses to sound out their opinion on the contents. Based on the results of this survey, the pamphlet was completed. This paper deals with the pamphlet and a summary of nurses’s views on it.

PURPOSE: Plasma neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) levels are associated with several neural disorders. We previously reported that neurotrophins were released from salivary glands following acute immobilization stress. While the salivary glands were the source of plasma neurotrophins in that situation, the association between the expression of neurotrophins and the salivary gland under chronic stress conditions is not well understood. In the present study, we investigated whether NT-3 levels in the salivary gland and plasma were influenced by chronic stress. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Expressions of NT-3 mRNA and protein were characterized, using real-time polymerase chain reactions, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunohistochemistry, in the submandibular glands of male rats exposed to chronic stress (12 h daily for 22 days). RESULTS: Plasma NT-3 levels were significantly increased by chronic stress (p<0.05), and remained elevated in bilaterally sialoadenectomized rats under the same condition. Since chronic stress increases plasma NT-3 levels in the sialoadenectomized rat model, plasma NT-3 levels were not exclusively dependent on salivary glands. CONCLUSION: While the salivary gland was identified in our previous study as the source of plasma neurotrophins during acute stress, the exposure to long-term stress likely affects a variety of organs capable of releasing NT-3 into the bloodstream. In addition, the elevation of plasma NT-3 levels may play important roles in homeostasis under stress conditions.
Animals ; Male ; Neurotrophin 3/*blood/genetics ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Stress, Physiological/*physiology ; Submandibular Gland/*metabolism