A theory-based educational intervention targeting nurses' attitudes and knowledge concerning cancer-related pain management: A study protocol of a quasi-experimental design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pain is one of the most frequent problems among patients diagnosed with cancer. Despite the availability of effective pharmacological treatments, this group of patients often receives less than optimal treatment. Research into nurses' pain management highlights certain factors, such as lack of knowledge and attitudes and inadequate procedures for systematic pain assessment, as common barriers to effective pain management. However, educational interventions targeting nurses' pain management have shown promise. As cancer-related pain is also known to have a negative effect on vital aspects of the patient's life, as well as being commonly associated with problems such as sleep, fatigue, depression and anxiety, further development of knowledge within this area is warranted.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>A quasi-experimental study design will be used to investigate whether the implementation of guidelines for systematic daily pain assessments following a theory-based educational intervention will result in an improvement in knowledge and attitude among nurses. A further aim is to investigate whether the intervention that targets nurses' behaviour will improve hospital patients' perception of pain. Data regarding nurses' knowledge and attitudes to pain (primary outcome), patient perception regarding pain (secondary outcome), together with socio-demographic variables, will be collected at baseline and at four weeks and 12 weeks following the intervention.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Nursing care is nowadays acknowledged as an increasingly complicated activity and "nursing complexity is such that it can be seen as the quintessential complex intervention." To be able to change and improve clinical practice thus requires multiple points of attack appropriate to meet complex challenges. Consequently, we expect the theory-based intervention used in our quasi-experimental study to improve care as well as quality of life for this group of patients and we also envisage that evidence-based guidelines targeting this patient group's pain will be implemented more widely.</p> <p>Trial Registration Number</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01313234">NCT01313234</a></p

Ectopic spleen and left-sided vena cava in Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome

Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome (BWS) is a congenital overgrowth syndrome characterized by anterior abdominal wall defects, macroglossia, and gigantism. A variety of other abnormalities have been described, however association with ectopic spleen and left-sided vena cava has not been reported previously. We report ectopic spleen, left-sided vena cava and the other abdominal imaging findings of an adult BWS case who came up to date without any follow-up from the early childhood. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Water soluble distyryl-boradiazaindacenes as efficient photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy

We introduce a novel class of water soluble, extended conjugation boradiazaindacene dyes which are efficient singlet oxygen generators and have spectacular photoinduced cytotoxicity when excited in the "therapeutic window" of the electromagnetic spectrum

Tumor-free distance from outermost layer of cervix is of prognostic value in surgically treated cervical cancer patients: A multicenter study

PubMedID: 24435497Objective: This study aimed at determining if tumor-free distance (TFD) from outermost layer of cervix predicts surgicopathologic factors and outcome in surgically treated cervical cancer patients. Materials and methods: One hundred sixteen surgically treated cervical squamous cell carcinomas between 1991 and 2010 with FIGO stage IB/2A were identified and reevaluated histologically regarding the TFD. TFD was defined as the distance between outermost layer of cervix and deepest cervical stromal invasion. Depth of invasion (DOI) and TFD were expressed as continuous variables and compared with traditional surgicopathologic variables and survival to determine their prognostic significance. Results: The mean DOI was 10.3 mm and the mean TFD was 4.2 mm. The most common stage was IB1 (60 patients, 51.7%). The mean number of removed pelvic lymph nodes was 32.2 (median 30; range 8-78). Positive pelvic lymph nodes were found in 27 (23%) of the patients. Sixty-eight patients had lymphovascular space involvement (LVSI). Sixty-eight patients (59%) received postoperative radiotherapy where the following items were present: tumor diameter >4 cm, positive lymph nodes, LVSI and positive surgical margins. With the median fol-low- up of 53 months (3-219 months); 14 patients had local and 13 patients had distant metastases (5 of the patients had both at the time of recurrence). With logistic regression analysis, TFD was a predictor of pelvic lymph involvement ( p=0.028) and LVSI (p=0.008) while DOI was a predictor of LVSI (p=0.044). In Cox regression analysis, increased TFD was associated with improved disease-free survival (DFS) (p=0.007). DFS curves (for TFD cut off value 2.5 mm) according to Kaplan-Meier were found to be statistically significant (log rank test=0.002). Conclusion: The results indicate that TFD is predictive of pelvic lymph node involvement, LVSI and patient outcome in surgically treated cervical cancer patients. However, prospective measurement of TFD is still necessary to determine its value in clinical practice. © Springer-Verlag 2014

The effect of high-dose cytarabine followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation on the outcome of patients with mantle cell lymphoma

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of high-dose cytosine arabinoside (HDAC)-containing treatments followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation on the survival of patients with mantle cell lymphoma. Material and methods: The data of 27 MCL patients who were followed-up between January 2009 and December 2015 were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The median age of the patients was 63 (range, 45–82) with 22 (81.4%) males and 5 (18.6%) females. Eight of 27 patients were treated with HDAC-containing regimens either as induction or salvage chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT). The patients who received HDAC-containing regimen followed by AHSCT were found to have better one-year survival compared to others (p = 0.03). Median follow-up of patient cohort was 27.6 months and median overall survival (OS) was not reached. The probability of one-year OS for all patients was 76.8%. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that HDAC treatment followed by AHSCT seems to provide the best outcome for young-fit patients presenting with mantle cell lymphoma

Hypoglycemia induced by long-acting somatostatin analogues in a patient with nonfunctional neuroendocrine tumor

Somatostatin and its long-acting analogues are effective in symptom control in patients with functional neuroendocrine tumors; they are also able to control tumor growth. Somatostatin analogues are safe and generally well tolerated. In some cases they may cause serious complications