With advances in medicine and technology, treatment modalities for diseases have evolved. Consequently, physicians’ roles have also changed. Because of advances in endovascular treatment, neurosurgeons specializing in cerebrovascular surgery are increasingly using endovascular techniques. Accordingly, the number of so-called “hybrid neurosurgeons” who perform both traditional craniotomy cerebrovascular surgeries and endovascular treatments is on the rise. This phenomenon is also occurring in department of neurology, traditionally a non-surgical specialty, and the number of neurologists using endovascular treatments is also increasing. Nowadays endovascular treatments become more common across medical specialties such as neurointerveional radiology, neurosurgery, and neurology. In this time, what should be the role of neurosurgeons? Standardized hybrid surgeons should contribute to society by treating hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke, maintaining a proper number of hybrid-neurosurgeons to ensure demand for such treatments is met. Further, more neurosurgeons should be trained to perform sophisticated traditional surgeries, as these surgeries cannot be performed by anyone else. Finally, neurosurgery patients often require a combination of surgical and medical treatment. In these situations, primary and secondary prevention are also crucial. And, many neurosurgery patients also have psychoneurotic symptoms. Within neurosurgery backgrounds, we, neurosurgeons, need to be intensivists for critical care medicine, hospitalization experts, epidemiologists, neuropsychiatry experts, and basic researchers. Because we have to be in charge of neurosurgical patients with various problems in our healthcare environment. Therefore, advancing beyond hybrid neurosurgeons and beginning an era of convergence neurosurgeons should be our role in the future.
, Geon Woo Lee, Jae-Joon Kim, Sang-Bo Oh, So Yeon Oh, Eun-Ju Park, Jin Hyeok Kim, Joo Yeon Jang, Ung-Bae Jeon Terminally ill cancer patients in hospice palliative care unit are reluctant to undergo repetitive invasive procedures due to coagulopathies and poor performance or condition, while catheter management such as regular irrigation during hospitalization is easy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety and efficacy of indwelling intraperitoneal (IP) catheter in hospitalized terminally ill cancer patients with recurrent ascites.
A retrospective review was conducted in patients who underwent IP catheter at the hospice palliative care unit of Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital between August 2016 and June 2018. All catheters were inserted by interventional radiologists with radiological guidance. The primary end-points were functional IP catheter maintenance rate, which is catheter maintained with patency for drainage until the intended time.
A total of 25 terminally ill cancer patients underwent IP catheters placements during the study period. All catheters were successfully inserted without major complications, but one patient had trivial bleeding and one other patient had temporary pain. The median time from admission to catheter insertion was 5 days (range, 1 to 49 days). Twenty-one catheters were maintained with function until the intended time, three cases were maintained without function, and the last one was removed early due to obstruction and pain. Finally, the functional IP maintenance rate was 84% (21/25) and the median functional catheter life span was 15 days (95% confidence interval, 10.8 to 17.2).
Our study showed relatively favorable results for IP catheter maintenance and safety in hospitalized terminally ill cancer patients with malignant ascites.
, Hae Il Cheong, Jung Won Lee Idiopathic renal hypouricemia is a hereditary disease characterized by abnormally high renal uric acid clearance. A defect in the
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