Neck Dissection for Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Subtotal esophagectomy with extended lymph node dissection is a standard procedure for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Three-field lymphadenectomy, including neck dissection, is a standard type of lymph node dissection for complete clearance of tumor cells. Based on various series of analyses for lymph node metastases, the appropriate indication for neck dissection has been clarified. Herein, we describe the established techniques of neck dissection and review recent topics of three-field lymph node dissection for thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Germline factor DDX4 functions in blood‐derived cancer cell phenotypes

DDX4 (the human ortholog of Drosophila Vasa) is an RNA helicase and is present in the germ lines of all metazoans tested. It was historically thought to be expressed specifically in germline, but with additional organisms studied, it is now clear that in some animals DDX4/Vasa functions outside of the germline, in a variety of somatic cells in the embryo and in the adult. In this report, we document that DDX4 is widely expressed in soma‐derived cancer cell lines, including myeloma (IM‐9) and leukemia (THP‐1) cells. In these cells, the DDX4 protein localized to the mitotic spindle, consistent with findings in other somatic cell functions, and its knockout in IM‐9 cells compromised cell proliferation and migration activities, and downregulated several cell cycle/oncogene factors such as CyclinB and the transcription factor E2F1. These results suggest that DDX4 positively regulates cell cycle progression of diverse somatic‐derived blood cancer cells, implying its broad contributions to the cancer cell phenotype and serves as a potential new target for chemotherapy

Standalone Percutaneous Vertebroplasty for Hyperextension Injuries of the Ankylosed Thoracolumbar Spinal Kyphosis

Hyperextension injuries of the ankylosed thoracolumbar spine, particularly those with preexisting kyphotic deformity, present significant therapeutic challenges. The authors viewed that such injuries without displacement or fractures of the posterior elements are reasonable candidates for standalone percutaneous vertebroplasty (PVP). In such cases, the posterior tension band is spared; thus, fractures are unstable not in the lateral direction, which would lead to the translation of the fracture, but in the vertical direction. Such vertical instability of the fracture can be stabilized if the open mouth-type vertebral cleft is adequately filled with a sufficiently large amount of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) cement. Our three patients receiving standalone PVP received injections of 12 mL, 16.5 mL, and 18 mL of PMMA cement. This minimally invasive surgical procedure achieved both short-term (immediate pain relief and mobilization) and long-term (fracture healing) goals

Ferromagnetism in a Hubbard model for an atomic quantum wire: a realization of flat-band magnetism from even-membered rings

We have examined a Hubbard model on a chain of squares, which was proposed by Yajima et al as a model of an atomic quantum wire As/Si(100), to show that the flat-band ferromagnetism according to a kind of Mielke-Tasaki mechanism should be realized for an appropriate band filling in such a non-frustrated lattice. Reflecting the fact that the flat band is not a bottom one, the ferromagnetism vanishes, rather than intensified, as the Hubbard U is increased. The exact diagonalization method is used to show that the critical value of U is in a realistic range. We also discussed the robustness of the magnetism against the degradation of the flatness of the band.Comment: misleading terms and expressions are corrected, 4 pages, RevTex, 5 figures in Postscript, to be published in Phys. Rev. B (rapid communication

Characteristics of patients hospitalised in an emergency department observation unit in Japan

In Japan, transporting elderly patients to emergency departments has recently posed serious problems, including a longer average time from patients’ initial emergency calls to their arrival at hospitals. To manage emergency departments more efficiently, many hospitals in the United States and some other developed countries, including Japan, introduced emergency department observation units (EDOU). However, because the usefulness of EDOUs in managing elderly patients remains uncertain, we analysed data of patients admitted to a Japanese university hospital’s EDOU to gauge its efficacy. We followed 1,426 patients admitted to the hospital’s EDOU from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2014. The average age of patients who stayed in the EDOU increased, whereas the average length of time that they spent there decreased. Although the percentage of patients older than 65 years increased slightly, from 36.42% (2011–2012) to 37.73% (2013–2014), the proportion of those patients between the two periods did not significantly change (P = .61). Moreover, their average length of stay was 2.16 ± 0.91 days, whereas patients younger than 65 years stayed for significantly less time (1.92 ± 0.82 days). By condition, approximately 36% of patients older than 65 years presented with non-neurosurgical trauma, approximately 59% presented with other forms of trauma, but proportions of both categories of trauma were significantly smaller in patients younger than 65 years (nonneurosurgical trauma, 23%; all trauma, 47%). Most elderly patients with limb trauma prepped for surgery were transferred to other hospitals after a few days. Results suggest that the EDOU at the university hospital has served to as a buffer for regional emergency medical systems in Japan, especially given the continued ageing of the Japanese population