L’utilizzo del Lat Gel nell’anestesia locale delle ferite pediatriche in Pronto Soccorso

Sedation and analgesia are common strategies to manage acute procedural pain and anxiety in Emergency Department, but no standardized protocol in children is approved. Application of topical LATgel (Lidocaine 4%, Adrenaline 0,05%, Tetracaine 0,5%) on wounds before painful procedures seems to be as effective as intradermal infiltrations in reducing procedural pain. A review of 34 paediatric cases from Pavullo Hospital (MO, Italy) presenting with laceration requiring suture was conducted. Pain assessment was performed in triage and, after 30mins of LATgel application, from parents, children and doctors during the suture. LATgel administration improves children’s compliance, minimizing pain and related fear during procedures. Our findings are consistent with international literature

Quality of Reporting on the Vegetative State in Italian Newspapers. The Case of Eluana Englaro

Background: Media coverage of the vegetative state (VS) includes refutations of the VS diagnosis and describes behaviors inconsistent with VS. We used a quality score to assess the reporting in articles describing the medical characteristics of VS in Italian newspapers. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our search covered a 7-month period from July 1, 2008, to February 28, 2009, using the online searchable databases of four major Italian newspapers: Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, La Stampa, and Avvenire. Medical reporting was judged as complete if three core VS characteristics were described: patient unawareness of self and the environment, preserved wakefulness (eyes open), and spontaneous respiration (artificial ventilator not needed). We retrieved 2,099 articles, and 967 were dedicated to VS. Of these, 853 (88.2%) were non-medical and mainly focused on describing the political, legal, and ethical aspects of VS. Of the 114 (11.8%) medical articles, 53 (5.5%) discussed other medical problems such as death by dehydration, artificial nutrition, neuroimaging, brain death, or uterine hemorrhage, and 61 (6.3%) described VS. Of these 61, only 18 (1.9%) reported all three CORE characteristics and were judged complete. We found no differences among the four investigated newspapers (Fisher’s exact = 0.798), and incomplete articles were equally distributed between journalistic pieces and expert opinions (x 2 = 1.8854, P = 0.170). Incorrect descriptions of VS were significantly more common among incomplete articles (13 of 43 vs. 1 of 18; Fisher’s exact P = 0.047)