Antibiotic prophylaxis for abdominal hysterectomy.

Three different regimens of antibiotic treatment have been employed in order to evaluate their efficacy as a prophylaxis for abdominal hysterectomy. Two short term administrations (Cephtriaxone and Cephamandole plus Tobramycine) and a conventional full dose treatment (Cephazoline) have been compared over a group of homogeneous patients. No significant differences, except a reduction in postoperative time spent in hospital, have been found among the groups. A reduction in urinary tract infection has also been reported with a single-dose antibiotic prophylaxis

Maternal complications associated with cesarean section

Objective: To assess the prevalence of cesarean section (CS) related maternal complications and to evaluate post-CS complications in relationship with relative risk factors. Method: 3010 patients who had a CS in the University Hospital of Bari during the period 1988–98 were retrospectively included into the study and 1007 women delivered vaginally at the same institution and in the same period of time, were randomly selected as the control group. For each single patient delivered by CS, the following risk factors were taken into account: age, parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), and any disease antedating pregnancy or diagnosed during pregnancy. Additionally, therapeutic procedures such as blood transfusion, number of days in hospital, and admission into intensive care were followed. The prevalence of puerperal complications was assessed for vaginal deliveries and CS by Student's t-test and a correlation of CS complications with risk factors was performed by multivariate analysis. Results: In the cohort of abdominal delivery, puerperal complications were significantly more frequent compared with those following vaginal delivery (p < 0.05). In the group of CS, obese women have higher prevalence of maternal complications, particularly hypertension and intestinal complications (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Compared with vaginal delivery, CS delivery carries a higher number of postpartum complications, and the higher rate is mainly related to obesity

Analgesic properties of electromagnetic field therapy in patients with chronic pelvic pain.

AIM: Demonstration of analgesic effects of electromagnetic field treatment in cases of chronic refractory pelvic pain. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective non-controlled trial, 64 women complaining about pelvic pain of at least 6 months duration, resistant to standard therapies, submitted to electromagnetic field applications on both iliac regions by Thelf Systems apparatus by two applications daily lasting 2 hours each for 20-40 days. Control visit after 3 months. RESULTS: Complete subsidence of pain in 39 cases (61%), in 15 patients (23%) relief during treatment, then mild endopelvic tension after a 3-month control; in 10 cases (16%) symptoms reduced only during application hours, unchanged at follow-up. Outcome of treatment appears to be independent of pre-existent psychosocial variables. CONCLUSION: Magnetic therapy shows a real analgesic effect on pelvic pain, and seems to contribute to resolution of complex interactions between somatic nociceptive stimuli and psychosocial implications affecting pain perception in these patients

Expression of AgNORs in serous ovarian tumors.

The nosological nature of the borderline ovarian tumor has been investigated by several methodological approaches. The aim of our research was to verify how the study of the nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) may offer its contribution on this subject. We studied 18 cases of ovarian serous tumours, respectively 6 benign, 6 borderline and 6 malignant. A separate calculation for clusters (> 1 mu) and total NORs was performed on fifty neoplastic cells chosen at random from every tumour. The findings recorded were the following: 1) the quantity and shape of clusters, dots and total NORs were significantly increasing from benign to borderline to malignant tumours; 2) the number of the dots and total NORs was higher in the case of borderline tumour stage III than in other cases limited to the ovary; 3) the clusters of the poorly differentiated carcinomas were much less numerous than the clusters of those well differentiated; instead the dots and the total NORs were more numerous. These data suggest a correlation between the number of the NORs and the biological activity of the tumours. The borderline serous tumours of the ovary showed a median position between benign and malignant tumours

LA FERTILITÀ DOPO TERAPIA ORMONALE IN GIOVANI DONNE CON CARCINOMA ENDOMETRIALE

Endometrial cancer is the second more common tumor among women. Since women became pregnant in an older age than the past and because this disease is often evaluated in young patients who desire to maintain their fertility, conservative therapy has become of great interest. For these reasons, we reported two cases of women with apparent stage I who were young and nulliparous and desire to receive progestins instead of surgery. A review of the literature is also provide