Medical ethics has a long history and rich connotations. It has developed from the simple morality of ancient times to the modern medical ethics. The basic principles of medical ethics include autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, justice, and so on. Researchers often conduct clini-cal researches in the balance between achievements and ethical norms. Clinical researchers of surgery should have a deep understanding of medical ethical principles and strictly abide by medical ethics. Ethics committee should strictly perform their duties and play the role of inspection and supervision. Modern medical knowledges should be popularized throughout the society to make clinical research correctly understood. Adhering principles of ethics first, people orientation and cooperation practice, with patients′ benefit as evaluation criteria, balance of surgical Dao and Shu can be achieved.
Key words:
Clinical research; Surgery; Ethics; Bioethics; Decision
Purpose An end-of-fast insulin level ≥ 3 µIU/ml, C-peptide level ≥ 0.6 ng/ml, and proinsulin level ≥ 5 pmol/l with end-of-fast glucose level ≤ 3.0 mmol/l have been established as the criteria for endogenous hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. However, all these criteria have been proposed based on patients in Western populations. This study aimed to determine the optimal criteria using a large series of Chinese patients. Methods This retrospective study comprised 144 patients with surgically proven insulinoma and 40 controls who underwent a 72-h fasting test at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital(PUMCH) from 2000 to 2020. Receiver operating characteristic curves were used for analysis. Results In this series of patients, the optimal diagnostic criteria for endogenous hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia were insulin ≥ 5.5 μIU/ml, C-peptide ≥ 0.7 ng/ml, and proinsulin ≥ 12 pmol/l with end-of-fast glucose ≤ 2.8 mmol/l; the sensitivity and specificity were 99% and 100% for insulin, 100% and 100% for C-peptide, and 93% and 100% for proinsulin, respectively. The diagnostic efficacy of the criteria based on Western populations was then tested. The sensitivity and specificity of end-of-fast insulin ≥ 3 μIU/ml, C-peptide ≥ 0.6 ng/ml, and proinsulin ≥ 5 pmol/l with end-of-fast glucose ≤ 3.0 mmol/l were 100% and 83%, 100% and 80%, and 97% and 78%, respectively. Conclusions New and optimized diagnostic criteria for endogenous hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia in Chinese populations have been proposed, and these criteria yield satisfactory accuracy.
Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) is an enzyme involved in estrogen metabolism. Proteomic and immunoproteomic screens suggested COMT might be an immunogenic membrane antigen in human pancreatic cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the dynamic expression of COMT in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and noncancerous pancreatic tissue, and to determine the relationship between COMT expression and clinicopathologic parameters. COMT expression was analyzed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot in five pancreatic cell lines and five pairs of PDAC and noncancerous pancreatic tissue. Immunohistochemistry was used to evaluate COMT expression in tissue microarrays and 20 cases of paraffin-embedded clinical specimens. The results indicated that COMT expression was detected in AsPC-1, BxPC-3, MIA PaCa-2, Capan-1 and SW1990 pancreatic cell lines, and in five pairs of PDAC and noncancerous pancreatic tissue, at the mRNA and protein levels. Immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that COMT expression was significantly higher in PDAC than in nonmalignant pancreatic tissue. High expression of COMT significantly correlated to early T stages. Therefore, we conclude that COMT might serve as a potential biomarker for applied clinical pathology in PDAC.
To study surgical methods and techniques to reduce complications in carotid body tumors (CBT).A total of 36 patients with CBT treated by the same surgeon between 2004 and 2012 was reviewed. Clinical presentation, imaging, surgery techniques, postoperative complications and outcomes as well as follow-up evaluations were analyzed.Of 36 patients, 13 males and 23 females, with a median age of 42 years (range 9-61 years). Nineteen patients had a CBT on the left side, 14 on the right side and 3 on both sides. All patients (36 patients with 38 tumors) received surgical treatment. Twenty nine tumors were excised completely. Kudo clamp was used in 6 cases with solid firm tumors and potentially high risks of intracranial complications, with common carotid artery compression exercise before tumor excision. Blood loss in operation were less than 80 ml(n = 17), 100-550 ml(n = 18), 800 ml (n = 1), 1000 ml(n = 1) and 1500 ml(n = 1) respectively. There were more blood loss in cases used embolization (median of 200 ml) than in those without embolization (median of 60 ml) . Post-operative local nerve impairment occurred in 10 patients (26.3%) including persistence of preexisting deficits (n = 8) and newly developed deficits (n = 2). Twenty-seven patients were followed up for 10 month to 6 years with a mean period of 24 months and 9 patients lost of follow-up. One patient with malignant CBT survived with tumor and other 26 patients were alive with no recurrence.Surgery is the first choice of treatment for CBT. Soft CBT often can be excised completely with preservation of the internal carotid artery (ICA), whereas solid firm CBT encasing the ICA should be evaluated with DSA preoperatively to determine the presence of communicating branches of cerebral vessels, due to the high risk of major vessel compromise. Two-stage operation is often required, in which the ICA is gradually closed following ligation of the external carotid to establish collateral circulation, followed by excision of the tumor and IAC, so that serious intracranial complications can be avoided.
To investigate the prevention and rescuing measures of postoperative fatal bleeding induced by carotid blowout in head and neck tumors.Seven cases with postoperative carotid bleeding treated from October 2003 to August 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. Of the patients, 6 were with common carotid blowout and one with internal carotid artery blowout. All patients underwent pre- or post-operative radiotherapy for primary head and neck tumours and 3 patients had neck defect repair with deltopectoral skin flap, frontal flap or free radial arm flap respectively. After carotid blowout bleeding, the patients were treated in time with X ray transcatheter intervention including transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) and self-expanding covered stent implantation, followed by repairing the carotid region with appropriate myocutaneous flaps.Of 7 patients with carotid blowout, 5 patients were successfully rescued with X ray transcatheter intervention, of them 2 with self-expanding covered stent implantation and 2 with TAE respectively, and other 2 patients died due to rapid bleeding. Of the successfully rescued patients, 2 patients were with the repair of carotid area by pectoralis major myocutaneous flap, one by submental flap and one by local flap, but another one not with flap repair. Follow-up showed the 3 patients rescued with self-expanding covered stent implantation were survival for 6, 12, and 20 months, respectively, and the 2 patients rescued with TAE died of repeated carotid blowout in 2 and 13 months later, respectively.The planned and timely X ray transcatheter intervention is an effective method to treat carotid blowout bleeding in the patients underwent head and neck tumour surgeries. Compared with TAE, self-expanding covered stent implantation may be more reliable for restoring the blood supply of head and neck region, with less complications. One-stage repair of carotid region with myocutaneous flap is of great importance to protect the carotid and to promote the wound healing.
Pancreatic cancer has poor prognosis and lymph node metastasis is a poor prognostic factor in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer. The metastatic prevalence of para-aortic lymph node (PALN) ranges from 9.1% to 26.5% and it is listed as the distant metastatic group in pancreatic cancer. Nevertheless, it is controversial whether PALN metastasis is the contraindication of surgery in resectable pancreatic cancer for the shortage of level Ⅰ evidence.This study concluded that PALN metastasis indicated poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer, but some patients with PALN metastases could benefit from surgery and their survival could be much improved after the combination of surgery and adjuvant therapy. Therefore, it is not wise to refuse surgery for all pancreatic cancer patients with PALN metastasis and the clinicians can cautiously choose the patients to do surgery. Besides, there are mainly retrospective studies rather than prospective and multicenter studies to explore the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients with PALN metastasis. Thus, more prospective and multicenter studies are needed to decide whether PALN metastasis is an independent prognostic factor in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.淋巴结转移是胰腺癌患者预后差的一个重要因素,主动脉旁淋巴结在可切除胰腺癌中的转移率为9.1%~26.5%,其在胰腺癌中被列为远处转移。但主动脉旁淋巴结转移是否为可切除胰腺癌的绝对手术禁忌尚缺乏Ⅰ级证据支持。目前已发表的文献显示,主动脉旁淋巴结转移患者总体预后差,但部分患者可从手术中获益,手术治疗联合辅助治疗可明显延长患者生存期。因此,可切除胰腺癌发生主动脉旁淋巴结转移时,临床医师可谨慎地为部分患者选择手术治疗。此外,目前研究胰腺癌主动脉旁淋巴结转移预后的文献主要为回顾性研究,尚需要更多前瞻性多中心研究为临床治疗决策提供强有力的证据。.
To summarize experience of using screws and cement to rebuild tibial bone defect in primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and to discuss the relationship between the number of required screws and the severity of tibial bone defects.From July 2009 to May 2015, 34 patients (40 knees) with varus knees underwent TKA, and the screw and cement technique was used to rebuild medial tibia plateau during operation. There were 8 males (8 knees) and 26 females (32 knees), and the average age was (65.00 +/- 7.25) years old (ranged,55 to 82 years old). One to 6 screws were used in each case. Extension stems were used in 2 cases (4 and 5 screws was used respectively). The area percentages of the bone defects measured as defect area/tibia plateau area, depth of each defect, the number of screws needed in each case, were all used to determine the relationship between the number of screws and the area percentage in certain depth of bone defect by statistic methods, as well as the relationship between screw number and defect depth.All the patients were followed up and the average duration was 24 months (ranged, 1 to 72 months). The average preoperative HSS score was 43.33 +/- 6.11 (ranged, 32 to 51 scores). Whereas the average postoperative HSS score was 92.15 +/- 4.64 (ranged,83 to 96 scores). The preoperative individual scores including pain, function, activity, nuscle strength, flexion deformity and stability were all improved compared with preoperation,and the differences were statistically significant. All the patients received normal alignment postoperatively, femoraltibial angle was improved from (167.00 +/- 6.39) degrees preoperatively to (175.00 +/- 2.69) degrees postoperatively, the tibial angle was improved from (78.09 +/- 4.51) degrees preoperatively to (88.75 +/- 1.24) degrees postoperatively. Both area percentage and depth of bone defect in a fitting Ologistic model had a significant statistical relationship with the screw number, and a rectangular coordinate system could be formed according to the relationship.Screws and cement technique is a simple, safe and convenient method to rebuild tibial bone defects in primary TKA and its short-term and midterm effect are both reliable. During opera- tion, according to the rectangular coordinate system, the screw number needed in the operation can be inferred form th area and depth of tibia defect, which could have a guiding function in surgery.