Distant metastasis, peritoneal recurrence and locoregional recurrence are the three major patterns of gastric cancer (GC) recurrence after surgery and the causes of patients'death. Among them, distant organ metastasis or peritoneal recurrence after surgery is more common and occurs earlier, while locoregional failure alone occurs later with a relatively lower incidence. Several studies have confirmed that preoperative radiotherapy can shrink tumors and increase R0 resection rates, and postoperative radiotherapy helps reduce local recurrence. However, whether perioperative radiotherapy can further improve patient survival is still controversial.. We believe that this is partly due to the characteristics of recurrence and metastasis. As a local treatment, radiotherapy is complement to the inadequacy of surgery. Thus, we believe that perioperative radiotherapy is not recommended for patients with standard R0 surgery and adequate lymph node dissection, but rather requires accurate prediction of their recurrence and metastasis patterns based on accurate clinical and pathological staging, and thus screening of those who may benefit from radiotherapy.

Distant metastasis, peritoneal recurrence and locoregional recurrence are the three major patterns of gastric cancer (GC) recurrence after surgery and the causes of patients'death. Among them, distant organ metastasis or peritoneal recurrence after surgery is more common and occurs earlier, while locoregional failure alone occurs later with a relatively lower incidence. Several studies have confirmed that preoperative radiotherapy can shrink tumors and increase R0 resection rates, and postoperative radiotherapy helps reduce local recurrence. However, whether perioperative radiotherapy can further improve patient survival is still controversial.. We believe that this is partly due to the characteristics of recurrence and metastasis. As a local treatment, radiotherapy is complement to the inadequacy of surgery. Thus, we believe that perioperative radiotherapy is not recommended for patients with standard R0 surgery and adequate lymph node dissection, but rather requires accurate prediction of their recurrence and metastasis patterns based on accurate clinical and pathological staging, and thus screening of those who may benefit from radiotherapy.

Background::It is crucial to improve the quality of care provided to ICU patient, therefore a national survey of the medical quality of intensive care units (ICUs) was conducted to analyze adherence to quality metrics and outcomes among critically ill patients in China from 2015 to 2019.Methods::This was an ICU-level study based on a 15-indicator online survey conducted in China. Considering that ICU care quality may vary between secondary and tertiary hospitals, direct standardization was adopted to compare the rates of ICU quality indicators among provinces/regions. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify potential factors for in-hospital mortality and factors related to ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs), and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs).Results::From the survey, the proportions of structural indicators were 1.83% for the number of ICU inpatients relative to the total number of inpatients, 1.44% for ICU bed occupancy relative to the total inpatient bed occupancy, and 51.08% for inpatients with Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II scores ≥15. The proportions of procedural indicators were 74.37% and 76.60% for 3-hour and 6-hour surviving sepsis campaign bundle compliance, respectively, 62.93% for microbiology detection, 58.24% for deep vein thrombosis prophylaxis, 1.49% for unplanned endotracheal extubations, 1.99% for extubated inpatients reintubated within 48 hours, 6.38% for unplanned transfer to the ICU, and 1.20% for 48-hour ICU readmission. The proportions of outcome indicators were 1.28‰ for VAP, 3.06‰ for CRBSI, 3.65‰ for CAUTI, and 10.19% for in-hospital mortality. Although the indicators varied greatly across provinces and regions, the treatment level of ICUs in China has been stable and improved based on various quality control indicators in the past 5 years. The overall mortality rate has dropped from 10.19% to approximately 8%.Conclusions::The quality indicators of medical care in China’s ICUs are heterogeneous, which is reflected in geographic disparities and grades of hospitals. This study is of great significance for improving the homogeneity of ICUs in China.

The incidence of fragility fractures of the pelvis (FFP) in elderly patients has been gradually increased. FFP has become another type of injury that threatens the lives of elderly patients because of high disability rate and mortality. The special physical condition of the elderly patients such as osteoporosis, chronic medical diseases and disability determines the specialty in diagnosis and treatment of FFP. The perioperative treatment is more difficult than other patients. FFP in elderly patients is different from the high violent mechanism of pelvis fractures in young patients, and its fracture morphology and classification are also varied. Surgical treatment is to stabilize the mechanical transmission structure of the pelvic ring, improve clinical symptoms, reduce long-term bed-related complications and restore painless daily self-care. In recent years, the surgical treatment of the pelvic fractures has made significant progress. However, there still remains controversy in treating FFP in elderly patients. The authors discuss the perioperative hot issues on FFP in elderly patients, hoping to realize the standard management of FFP.

BACKGROUNDElderly multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation have poor prognosis in intensive care units (ICUs). We studied the usefulness of four commonly used severity scores and extrapulmonary factors that affected weaning to predict outcome of such patients.

METHODSClinical data of 197 patients on admission to ICUs (from January 2009 to June 2012) were used retrospectively. The Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II, APACHE III, Sample Acute Physiological Score (SAPS) II and MODS scores were calculated. All the patients were grouped into survivors and nonsurvivors according to the prognosis. Patients, who weaned from ventilator (n = 154), were subdivided into a successful weaning group and a failed weaning group. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and Logistic regression was used for prognostic and weaning assessment.

RESULTSBased on the outcomes, the areas under the ROC of APACHE II, APACHE III, SAPS II, and MODS were 0.837, 0.833, 0.824, and 0.837, respectively. The Logistic regression analysis revealed that the odds ratio (OR) of underlying lung diseases, serum albumin and creatinine, and the number of organ failures was 2.374, 0.920, 1.003, and 1.547. APACHE II scores on admission performed excellent (ROC: 0.921) on the weaning assessments.

CONCLUSIONSAPACHE II and MODS systems were marginally better for evaluating the prognosis of elderly MODS patients who received invasive mechanical ventilation. Underlying lung diseases, serum albumin, serum creatinine and the number of organ failures were independent prognostic factors. Using the APACHE II scores on admission before weaning may increase the likelihood of successful weaning. (ClinicalTrial.gov identifier NCT01802983).

Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Multiple Organ Failure ; pathology ; therapy ; Prognosis ; Respiration, Artificial ; methods ; Retrospective Studies