Seven years after surgical treatment with DBBMC, patients, in an adequate SPT, maintained sufficient peri-implant conditions in many cases, particularly around SLA implants. Nevertheless, some patients required further treatment and some lost implants. The clinical decision on whether implants should be treated or removed should be based on several factors, including implant surface characteristics.

This study confirms that Group Care improves QoL in people with T1DM, but suggests that specific educational and psychological supports are needed to modify adaptation to the disease. The CCP we developed appears effective in promoting change, also in patients with poor schooling.

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Objective. To describe and compare the decisions critical for survival or quality of life (CDs) made for patients with advanced dementia in nursing homes (NHs) and home care (HC) services.Design. Prospective cohort study with a follow-up of 6 months.Setting. Lombardy Region (NHs) and Reggio-Emilia and Modena Districts (HC), Italy.Participants. Patients (496 total; 315 in NHs and 181 in HC) with advanced dementia (Functional Assessment Staging Tool score >7) and expected survival >2 weeks.Measurements. At baseline, the patients' demographic data, date of admission and of dementia diagnosis, type of dementia, main co-morbidities, presence of pressure sores, ongoing treatments, and current prescriptions were abstracted from clinical records. At baseline and every 15 days thereafter, information regarding the patients' general condition and CDs (deemed critical by the doctor or team) was collected via interview with the doctor. For each CD, the physician reported the problem that led to the decision, the decision that was eventually made, the purpose of the decision, whether the decision had been discussed with and/or communicated to the family, who made the final decision, whether the decision was maintained after one week, whether it corresponded to what the doctor would have judged appropriate, and the expected survival of the patient (≤15 days).Results. For 267 of the 496 patients (53.8%; 60.3% in NHs and 42.5% at home), 644 CDs were made; for 95 patients, more than one CD was made. The problems that led to a CD were mainly infections (respiratory tract and other infections; 46.6%, 300/644 CDs); nutritional/hydration problems (20.6%; 133 CDs) and the worsening of a pre-existing disease (9.3%; 60 CDs). The most frequent type of decision concerned the prescription of antibiotics (overall 41.1%, 265/644; among NH patients 44.6%, 218/488; among HC patients, 30.2%, 47/156). The decision to hospitalize the patient was more frequently reported for HC than NH patients (25.5% vs. 3.1%). The most frequent purposes of the CDs in both settings were reducing symptoms or suffering (more so in NHs; 81.1 vs. 57.0% in HC) and prolonging survival (NH 27.5%; HC 23.1%; multiple purposes were possible). For 26 decisions (3.8%), the purpose was to ease death or not to prolong life. Conclusions.Decisions critical for the survival or quality of life of patients with advanced dementia were made for approximately half of the patients during a 6-month time frame, and such decisions were made more frequently in NHs than in HC. HC patients were more frequently hospitalized, and a sizeable minority of these patients were treated with the goal of prolonging survival. Italian patients with advanced dementia may benefit from the implementation of 5 palliative care principles, and HC patients may benefit from the implementation of measures to avoid hospitalizing patients near the end of life.

ObjectivesTo analyze absenteeism among healthcare workers (HCWs) at a large Italian hospital and to estimate the increase in absenteeism that occurred during seasonal flu periods.DesignRetrospective observational study.MethodsThe absenteeism data were divided into three “epidemic periods,” starting at week 42 of one year and terminating at week 17 of the following year (2010–2011, 2011–2012, 2012–2013), and three “non-epidemic periods,” defined as week 18 to week 41 and used as baseline data. The excess of the absenteeism occurring among HCWs during periods of epidemic influenza in comparison with baseline was estimated. All data, obtained from Hospital’s databases, were collected for each of the following six job categories: medical doctors, technical executives (i.e., pharmacists), nurses and allied health professionals (i.e., radiographers), other executives (i.e., engineers), nonmedical support staff, and administrative staff. The HCWs were classified by: in and no-contact; vaccinated and unvaccinated.Results5,544, 5,369, and 5,291 workers in three years were studied. The average duration of absenteeism during the epidemic periods increased among all employees by +2.07 days/person (from 2.99 to 5.06), and the relative increase ranged from 64–94% among the different job categories. Workers not in contact with patients experienced a slightly greater increase in absenteeism (+2.28 days/person, from 2.73 to 5.01) than did employees in contact with patients (+2.04, from 3.04 to 5.08). The vaccination rate among HCWs was below 3%, however the higher excess of absenteeism rate among unvaccinated in comparison with vaccinated workers was observed during the epidemic periods (2.09 vs 1.45 days/person).ConclusionThe influenza-related absenteeism during epidemic periods was quantified as totaling more than 11,000 days/year at the Italian hospital studied. This result confirms the economic impact of sick leave on healthcare systems and stresses on the necessity of encouraging HCWs to be immunized against influenza.