WSES Jerusalem guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis

Acute appendicitis (AA) is among the most common cause of acute abdominal pain. Diagnosis of AA is challenging; a variable combination of clinical signs and symptoms has been used together with laboratory findings in several scoring systems proposed for suggesting the probability of AA and the possible subsequent management pathway. The role of imaging in the diagnosis of AA is still debated, with variable use of US, CT and MRI in different settings worldwide. Up to date, comprehensive clinical guidelines for diagnosis and management of AA have never been issued. In July 2015, during the 3rd World Congress of the WSES, held in Jerusalem (Israel), a panel of experts including an Organizational Committee and Scientific Committee and Scientific Secretariat, participated to a Consensus Conference where eight panelists presented a number of statements developed for each of the eight main questions about diagnosis and management of AA. The statements were then voted, eventually modified and finally approved by the participants to The Consensus Conference and lately by the board of co-authors. The current paper is reporting the definitive Guidelines Statements on each of the following topics: 1) Diagnostic efficiency of clinical scoring systems, 2) Role of Imaging, 3) Non-operative treatment for uncomplicated appendicitis, 4) Timing of appendectomy and in-hospital delay, 5) Surgical treatment 6) Scoring systems for intra-operative grading of appendicitis and their clinical usefulness 7) Non-surgical treatment for complicated appendicitis: abscess or phlegmon 8) Pre-operative and post-operative antibiotics.Peer reviewe

Plasma lipid profiles discriminate bacterial from viral infection in febrile children

Fever is the most common reason that children present to Emergency Departments. Clinical signs and symptoms suggestive of bacterial infection ar

New Families in the Netherlands (NFN): Wave 1

The longitudinal survey New Families in the Netherlands (NFN) was held among parents with minor children who divorced or separated from a cohabiting union after 2009. At that time (March 2009) a new law came into effect that gave children the right to equal care by both parents and that obliged parents to construct a parenting plan. NFN aimed to collect information about parents’ legal arrangements at the time of divorce, in particular children’s residence arrangements and parenting plans, and how these arrangements affect parents and children. NFN was based on a random sample of parents who divorced/separated after 2009 from the Dutch population registers (main sample). In addition, data among two control groups were collected: parents who divorced prior to 2009 and cohabiting/married parents (intact families). The control samples were also based on random samples from the registers. The first wave took place in 2012-2013. Respondents filled in a web-survey and were sent a paper-and-pencil questionnaire at the final reminder. In total, 4481 parents from the main sample participated, 2173 from the control group of intact families and 792 form the control group of divorced parents

New Families in the Netherlands (NFN): Wave 2

In wave 2 of the longitudinal survey New Families in the Netherlands (NFN) we re-approached: (1) parents with minor children who divorced or separated from a cohabiting union after 2009 (main sample); and (2) a control group of cohabiting/married parents (intact families). In addition, we approached a (3) refreshment sample of parents who divorced/separated after 2009. These samples were randomly drawn from Dutch population registers. The second wave took place about three years after the first wave, i.e. in 2015-2016. The aim was to study changes in parent’s legal arrangements (i.e., child residence arrangements) and longer term outcomes for parents and children. In addition, some new topics specific to postdivorce family living were covered. Respondents filled in a web-survey and were sent a paper-and-pencil questionnaire at the final reminder. In total, 2544 parents from the main sample participated, 1336 from the control group of intact families and 920 from the refreshment sample