FME is useful for reducing intraoperative bleeding.

O's-PNI may represent a useful indicator of the occurrence of complications and length of hospital stay, and may influence overall survival at 6 mo postsurgery. Nutritional management during the perioperative period could therefore contribute to satisfactory outcomes following esophagectomy in esophageal cancer patients.

BackgroundThe aim of the present study was to investigate the age-specific prognostic factors in patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer.MethodsThe medical records of 366 patients with gastric cancer who underwent surgical resection at our hospital between January 2007 and December 2014 were retrospectively reviewed. Of the 366 patients, 117 were aged 75 years or older and 249 were aged 74 years or younger. All factors that were identified as significant using univariate analysis were included in the multivariate analysis.ResultsThe median follow-up duration was 52.9 months (range, 1.0–117.5 months). We found that in patients aged 75 years or older, postoperative complications and the extent of cancer were independent prognostic factors of overall survival and disease-free survival. In contrast, in patients aged 74 years or younger, only the lymph node status and postoperative chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors for overall survival and disease-free survival, respectively.ConclusionsPathological outcomes and postoperative complications are important prognostic factors for survival in patients aged 75 years or older with gastric cancer, whereas pathological outcomes and postoperative chemotherapy are important prognostic factors for survival in patients aged 74 years or younger. Because the prevention of postoperative complications may contribute to improvements in the prognosis of elderly patients with gastric cancer, we suggest that it is necessary to consider limited surgery instead of radical surgery, depending on the patient’s general condition and co-morbidities.

A 49-year-old woman visited our emergency department because of exertional dyspnea due to severe left ventricular functional failure. It progressed to disseminated intravascular coagulation and disturbance of consciousness on day 67 of admission. Gram-positive bacilli were detected from two different blood culture samples on day 67 of admission. An API-Coryne test and sequencing (1~615 bp) of the 16S rRNA gene were performed, and the strain was identified as Corynebacterium striatum. The bacterium was detected from the removed central venous catheter tip too, and the patient was diagnosed with catheter-related bloodstream infection by C. striatum. However, treatment was not effective, and the patient died on day 73 of admission.

of the correlation coefficients and regression slopes were tested by t-tests. Differences in the average Sr:Ca ratios between the low and high phases were examined through a Mann Whitney-U test.