Etiology, diagnosis and treatment of renal colic during pregnancy

To assess the incidence and causes of renal stones in pregnant women, investigate the reliability and accuracy of diagnostic investigations and to consider the various therapeutic options available

Relationship between sun exposure and kidney cancer : preliminary experience with the evaluation of recreational UV exposure

INTRODUCTION: Recent findings reported an inverse relationship between solar ultraviolet-B (UV-B) exposure and mortality from various types of cancers, including renal cancer. METHODS: We reviewed the literature concerning the relationship between sun exposure and incidence of kidney cancer. We performed a case-control study, evaluating recreational sun exposure in 50 kidney cancer patients and 50 controls.A questionnaire concerning sun exposure habits during childhood, adult life and in the previous 2 years was filled in by every patient. The questionnaire focused on: hours/day spent in the sun during summer; hours/day spent sunbathing (considering as well which kind of UV protection was used); sunburns; holidays in tropical countries. RESULTS: We found and analyzed few articles concerning the relationship between kidney cancer and sunlight exposure. The two cohorts of patients we evaluated were homogeneous for age, phototype, origin and living area.We found no statistically significant differences between sun exposure in patients affected by kidney cancer and controls, both during childhood and adult life; no differences were found in the use of sunscreens either. CONCLUSIONS: Recreational sunlight exposure does not differ in our cohorts of patients and controls; studies on greater cohorts are needed to evaluate the effect of recreational sun exposure in the development of kidney cancer

Concordance between biopsy and radical prostatectomy specimen Gleason score in internal and external pathology facilities

Biopsy Gleason score (bGS) is an important tool for staging and decision making in patients with prostate cancer. Therefore, the data from biopsy should be both reproducible across different pathologists and predictive of the true underlying tumour. We evaluated the agreement between bGS with prostatectomy Gleason score (pGS) comparing patients who underwent prostate biopsy at our hospital with those who did it at an outside facility

Predicting length of stay after robotic partial nephrectomy

Introduction: To investigate factors predictive of length of stay (LOS) after robotic partial nephrectomy (RPN) in an effort to identify patients suitable for RPN with overnight stay at outpatient surgical facilities. Materials and methods: Retrospective chart review of patients who underwent RPN at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center from January 2007 to July 2012 was conducted. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the main predictors of LOS. The discrimination of the multivariate model was measured using the area under the curve (AUC); tenfold cross-validation was performed to correct for over-fit. Results: One hundred and eighty-six patients were included in the analysis; 84 (45\ua0%) had LOS of 641\ua0day (median LOS 2\ua0day; interquartile range 1\u20132). On univariate analysis, preoperative variables associated with LOS\ua0>\ua01 included larger tumors (P\ua0\ua01\ua0day included greater estimated blood loss (P\ua0<\ua00.0001) and longer operative (P\ua0<\ua00.0001) and ischemia (P\ua0<\ua00.0001) times. The AUC of the preoperative model was 0.61 (95\ua0% CI 0.52\u20130.69) after tenfold cross-validation. Conclusions: LOS after RPN is influenced by age, gender, medical comorbidities, and tumor size. However, when analyzed retrospectively, these factors had limited ability to predict LOS after RPN with sufficient accuracy to develop a prediction tool

Posterior musculofascial reconstruction after radical prostatectomy: an updated systematic review and a meta-analysis

To evaluate the influence of posterior musculofascial plate reconstruction (PR) on early return of continence after radical prostatectomy (RP); an updated systematic review of the literature. A systematic review of the literature was performed in June 2015, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and searching Medline, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science databases. We searched the terms posterior reconstruction prostatectomy, double layer anastomosis prostatectomy across the 'Title' and 'Abstract' fields of the records, with the following limits: humans, gender (male), and language (English). The authors reviewed the records to identify studies comparing cohorts of patients who underwent RP with or without restoration of the posterior aspect of the rhabdosphincter. A meta-analysis of the risk ratios estimated using data from the selected studies was performed. In all, 21 studies were identified, including three randomised controlled trials. The overall analysis of comparative studies showed that PR improved early continence recovery at 3-7, 30, and 90 days after catheter removal, while the continence rate at 180 days was statistically but not clinically affected. Statistically significantly lower anastomotic leakage rates were described after PR. There were no significant differences for positive surgical margins rates or for complications such as acute urinary retention and bladder neck stricture. The analysis confirms the benefits at 30 days after catheter removal already discussed in the review published in 2012, but also shows a significant advantage in terms of urinary continence recovery in the first 90 days. A multicentre prospective randomised controlled trial is currently being conducted in several institutions around the world to better assess the effectiveness of PR in facilitating an earlier recovery of postoperative urinary continence