SUMMARYBackground: Dental caries as an infectious disease is still a major oral public health issue. As documented in some recent studies, it has been recognized as the most common chronic childhood disease.Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate caries prevalence, DMFT and dmft scores, as opposed to caries free children at the age of 6 years from a well developed western region of Primorsko-Goranska county. The purpose was also to evaluate a Significant Caries Index (SiC) and a Restoration Index (RI) in the same study sample of 6 year olds.Methods: Data for a sample of 1,825 (868 girls and 957 boys) children was collected and analyzed by using Chi-square and Mann-Whitney U Tests.Results: Results showed that the mean dmft was 4.68±4.19, and the mean DMFT was 0.22±0.69. D/d component constituted a major part of caries score (DMFT/dmft) in both primary and permanent dentitions in the population of 6 years old children. Caries prevalence was 74.5 in primary dentition and 11.9 in permanent dentition. Significant Caries Index value (SiC) was 0.66 for permanent and 9.6 for primary teeth, respectively. The Restoration Index (RI) was 20.1 for primary and 39.5 for permanent dentition. Conclusion:The results obtained in this study revealed that dental caries still appears to be quite a significant problem among 6 year olds. However, collected data, particularly considering the SiC Index, can be used for further planning of preventive and restorative dental treatments as well as setting up future goals for the prevention of dental caries in Croatian school children of Primorsko-Goranska county.

IntroductionNutrition education during adolescence has proven effective in increasing knowledge, attitudes, and practices in the diet. The Mediterranean diet has proven health benefits and is proposed as a model of a sustainable diet that is beneficial for health and the environment. Its promotion with the educational program can have a significant effect on improvements in nutrition knowledge, diet quality, and nutritive status of adolescents for their healthy adulthood.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the effect of the educational program on the nutrition knowledge, diet quality, lifestyle, and nutritional status of school children from the littoral part of Croatia.MethodsAn education-based intervention study was carried out on 2,709 schoolchildren aged 10–12 years (educated/control group: 2617/92). The questionnaire about sociodemographic, anthropometric, dietary, physical activity, screen time, sleep habits, and nutrition knowledge was assessed at the baseline and after a 6- to 9-month follow-up for the medium-term effect of education. Nutrition knowledge was provided after 3 weeks for the short-term education effect assessment.ResultsEducated schoolchildren achieved a significant increase in nutrition knowledge (+75.5%), expressed as a short-term effect of the education and maintained at the 6- to 9-month follow-up (+66.8%, p < 0.001). Follow-up of children significantly improved their nutritional status (underweight −56.6%, normal weight 24.8%, overweight −22.1%, and obesity −57.5%) and physical activity engagement (+13.2%). The proportion of children with a diet highly adhering to the Mediterranean diet significantly doubled (+105.0). Those children with the highest nutrition knowledge at the follow-up significantly improved their nutritional status (+218.9%), participated in organized sports (+204.7%), and had a diet that highly adhered to the MD (+291.8%).ConclusionA significantly good medium-term effect of education-based nutrition and lifestyle intervention program on nutrition knowledge, diet quality, lifestyle, and nutritional status of schoolchildren aged 10–12 years was shown. The educational program promoted a Mediterranean diet and lifestyle as a healthy and sustainable way of living, important for children's future health and wellbeing. New research-based approaches are needed for making children more aware and capable of handling the complexity of sustainable living.

Mallory-Weiss syndrome (MWS) accounts for 6–14% of all cases of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Prognosis of patients with MWS is generally good, with a benign course and rare recurrence of bleeding. However, no strict recommendations exist in regard to the mode of action after a failure of primary endoscopic hemostasis. We report a case of an 83-year-old male with MWS and rebleeding after the initial endoscopic treatment with epinephrine and clips. The final endoscopic control of bleeding was achieved by a combined application of clips and a nylon snare in a “tulip-bundle” fashion. The patient had an uneventful postprocedural clinical course and was discharged from the hospital five days later. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report showing the “tulip-bundle” technique as a rescue endoscopic bleeding control in the esophagus.

Gastric is considered neglected cancer in terms of stage at diagnosis and success of treatment worldwide. Early detection and quality of gastric cancer surgery remain the most important for successful treatment in terms of overall survival. In this paper, we focus on the overview of hospitals and volume of gastric cancer in Croatia as a possible baseline for quality assessment and implementation of existing quality guidelines. We accessed publicly available data from the Croatian Insurance Fund for the period between 1st January 2013 to 31st December 2018. For background information on gastric cancer incidence and mortality, we used Croatian Cancer Registry data available online. We obtained both the number of resected gastric cancer in all Croatian hospitals as well as the length of stay. Data analysis discovered that there is a clear volume difference between teaching hospitals and non-teaching hospitals; only the first have sufficient volume for quality audit. This overview stresses one of the most critical points in cancer surgery, volume of surgery as a quality indicator.

Background: Since its first description in 1992, laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become the gold standard for the surgical treatment of most adrenal conditions. We demonstrated the safety and feasibility of the laparoscopic technique in patients with primary hyperaldosteronism caused by solitary aldosteronoma treated by laparoscopic partial adrenalectomy.Aim: To demonstrate safety and feasibility of laparoscopic partial adrenalectomy in aldosterone-producing adenomas.Materials and methods: From 1992. to the present time, 13 patients presented with hyperaldosteronism and a single adrenal adenoma (Conn's syndrome) and were treated with laparoscopic partial adrenalectomy. The mean age was 65 years, and the average tumor size was 1.35 cm in diameter. The mean follow-up of our patients for hypertension and local reccurence was 36 months (range 6 -72 months). A transperitoneal approach was used in all patients, tumors were resected with safety margins by ultrasonic device.Results: All procedures were finished laparoscopically, and no conversion was necessary. The mean duration of the operations was 65 minutes, with a mean bleeding rate of 40 ml. No major intraoperative or postoperative complication was observed. Postoperative mean hospital stay was 4 days. In all the cases, hypertension improved totally or partially, and no local recurrence was observed. Conclusion:Laparoscopic partial adrenalectomy for aldosterone-producing adenomas is a minimally invasive procedure with a low complication rate. This procedure can be performed with good results for patients with small aldosteronomas of the adrenal gland, even with a healthy contralateral adrenal gland.