Hospitals and health care providers are striving to reduce health care cost without compromising the quality of health care and appropriate medical diagnosis. They are becoming more aware of the importance of medical devices calibration in their health care facilities, and the impact it has on both the quality of health services provided to the patients, and patient's safety. Healthcare providers are beginning to realize that the maintenance of medical devices alone, without assuring proper calibration, may not be sufficient enough to ensure proper function, adequate and reliable measurements. Accurate and reliable measurements are crucial for appropriate medical decisions. On the contrary, un-calibrated medical devices may lead to imprecise measurements. These measurements will have a significant negative impact on the quality of the healthcare provided to patients and might increase the healthcare cost by subjecting patients to excessive medical treatment. The study was conducted on a representative sample of 20.5% from total asset (1034) of high risk medical devices representing 6 devices categories. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of calibration of medical devices on performance and patient's safety by investigating devices performance against international standard reference or manufacturer recommendations. 34% of the sample failed the visual test, 5% failed the safety test, and 58% failed the performance test. However, it is important to note that there was no death or serious incidents associated with these devices. In conclusion, these devices do not meet the international standard and continued use of such devices can compromise patient's safety.

Background and AimTo investigate the effect of preoperative circulation tumor cells (CTCs) on postoperative recurrence and overall survival prognosis of pancreatic head cancer after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).MethodsFrom March 2014 to January 2018, 73 patients with pancreatic head cancer underwent radical resection (R0) in Zhongshan People's Hospital. CTCs in peripheral blood of patients with pancreatic head cancer were detected by “Cyttel” method before PD. Seventy-three patients were divided into positive and negative groups according to the positive criteria. To explore the relationship between the clinical data of CTCs and disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazards model was used to analyzing the risk factors affecting the postoperative recurrence and the survival prognosis of patients.Results41 patients (56.2%) were in the CTC-positive group. Preoperative CTCs were correlated with tumor vascular invasion, CA199 level and postoperative liver metastasis (P < 0.05). Preoperative CTC-positive, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, and nerve invasion were independent risk factors for DFS (P < 0.05). Preoperative CTC-positive, tumor diameter > 2 cm and vascular invasion were independent risk factors for OS of patients (P < 0.05).ConclusionThe detection of CTCs before PD is an important factor affecting the DFS and OS of pancreatic head cancer, which is significant in guiding clinical work.

BackgroundLarge hepatocellular carcinoma (LHCC) is highly malignant and prone to recurrence, leading to a poor long-term prognosis for patients. There is an urgent need for measures to intervene in postoperative recurrence. Preoperative Transcatheter Arterial Embolization (TACE) is an effective treatment. However, there is a lack of reliable preoperative indicators to guide the application of preoperative TACE. We, therefore, investigated whether the preoperative status of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could be used to guide preoperative TACE for HCC treatment.MethodsThis study recruited 361 HCC patients and compared recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients treated with TACE prior to surgery and those not treated with TACE. Patients were divided into CTC-positive group and CTC-negative group according to CTC status, and the effect of preoperative TACE on RFS and OS was compared in each subgroup.ResultsIn CTC-positive patients, preoperative TACE reduces early recurrence and improves long-term survival. However, HCC patients did not benefit from preoperative TACE for the overall population and CTC-negative patients.ConclusionsPreoperative CTC testing is a reliable indicator of whether HCC patients received TACE preoperatively. CTC positivity was associated with early tumor recurrence, and preoperative TACE could reduce early recurrence and long-term prognosis in CTC-positive patients.

Objectives: Large hepatocellular carcinoma (LHCC) is prone to short-term recurrence and poor long-term survival after hepatectomy, and there is still a lack of effective neoadjuvant treatments to improve recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). We retrospectively analyzed the efficacy of preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in solitary LHCC (≥5 cm). Materials and Methods: A multicenter medical database was used to analyze preoperative TACE's effects on RFS, OS, and perioperative complications in patients with solitary LHCC who received surgical treatment from January 2005 to December 2015. The patients were divided into Group A (5.0-9.9 cm) and Group B (≥10 cm), with 10 cm as the critical value, and the effect of preoperative TACE on RFS, OS and perioperative complications was assessed in each subgroup. Results:In the overall population, patients with preoperative TACE had better RFS and OS than those without preoperative TACE. However, after stratifying the patients into the two HCC groups, preoperative TACE only improved the survival outcomes of patients with Group B (≥10 cm). Multivariate Cox-regression