Advising Mothers on the Use of Medications during Breastfeeding: A Need for a Positive Attitude

The use of medications by the nursing mother is a common reason for interrupting breastfeeding. Few drugs have been demonstrated to be absolutely contraindicated during breastfeeding. Excessive caution may lead health professionals to unnecessarily advise to interrupt breastfeeding, without assessing the latest evidence or considering the risk-benefit ratio of taking a medication versus terminating breastfeeding. To foster an appropriate approach toward the use of medications in breastfeeding women, the Italian Society of Perinatal Medicine created the following policy statement.

[A peculiar lead poisoning: a concern of team achievement]

We describe a case of lead poisoning in a worker after hand and forearm trauma with fracture of radius and multiple fractures of metacarpal bones and hand phalanges and tissue infiltration of lead oxide (PbO) paste. Orthopedic surgery was immediately performed. After 20 days the patient had abdominal colic pain episodes and severe stipsis and blood lead level (BLL) was 60 mcg/mL with urinary lead level (ULL) of 238 mcg/24 h. After mobilization test with calcium disodium edetate were observed a high increase of BLL (180 mcg/dL) and UBL (17,000 mcg/24h). An initial anemia was observed and became severe (Hb 7.6 g/dL). A NMR exam and echography showed forearm subcutaneous lead paste infiltration and the patient underwent to a second surgical debridement with local low temperature (5 degrees C) irrigation of saline and CaNa2EDTA made the removal of the hardened lead paste. The day after, oral succimer (DMSA) chelation treatment was started with recovery of lead poison.

Surveillance of toxic exposures: the pilot experience of the Poison Control Centers of Milan, Pavia and Bergamo in 2006

Between 1 February and 31 March 2006, the Poison Control Centers (PPC) active in Lombardy collaborated with an integrated surveillance system carried out in Piedmont during the Olympic Games 2006. The collaborating PPC notified to the system 697 human cases of exposure occurred in Piedmont during the observation period. Among these cases, 70% were exposed accidentally, 40% were 6 years old or younger, and 45% reported at least a clinical effect. The agents more frequently reported were: cleaning substances (household) (110 cases), fumes/gases/vapors (63 cases, comprising 38 cases accidentally exposed to carbon monoxide), and sedative/hypnotics/antipsychotics (53 cases). Although very limited, the available observations focused the attention on specific hazards and were able to highlight the potential of a toxic exposure surveillance system based on the information reported by the Italian PPC.

Results from the integrated surveillance system for the 2006 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Italy

An integrated epidemiological surveillance and response system was set up for the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino [1] between 1 February

Esophageal perforation and caustic injury: emergency management of caustic ingestion

Diagnosis and treatment of caustic ingestion injuries remain controversial. Based on experience with a wide spectrum of upper gastrointestinal tract injuries from caustic ingestion, prospectively observed in 58 adult patients treated in a teaching hospital in Milan, the authors suggest an early staging of the lesions by endoscopy, followed by resective surgery for high-degree esophagogastric lesions. Ingestion of a large amount of corrosive agent results in a life-threatening condition that requires a much more aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approach than was formerly recommended. Early surgery plays a fundamental role in the prevention of acute hemorrhagic and perforative complications as well as of development of scar tissue and neoplastic stricture over time. The multidisciplinary approach to the management of these patients is underlined, stressing the need of close cooperation between a number of different specialists.

Emergency management of caustic ingestion in adults

A study of 57 patients admitted to the Department of Emergency Surgery at the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan between 1980 and 1992 following the recent ingestion of a caustic substance is presented herein. Through this study, an aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approach has been employed, including early surgery which plays a fundamental role in the prevention of acute hemorrhagic or perforative complications as well as in the development of scar tissue and neoplastic strictures over time. The criteria for early emergency surgery were the presence of endoscopic grade 3 and 4 lesions as well as those on the borderline between grades 2 and 3 with clinical symptoms. In 11 patients with lesions of moderate severity, the treatment of choice was medical therapy, which required subsequent surgical intervention for strictures in 5 patients. In 13 patients with severe lesions, an early surgical approach was performed with a mortality rate of 23%.

Cerebrovascular events after myocardial infarction: analysis of the GISSI trial. Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Streptochinasi nell'Infarto Miocardico (GISSI)

OBJECTIVES

To describe the epidemiology of cerebrovascular events in patients given or not given fibrinolytic treatment and to assess the prognostic implications and risk factors.

DESIGN

Case series derived from the GISSI randomised trial.

SETTING

176 coronary care units in Italy giving various levels of care.

PATIENTS

5860 patients with acute myocardial infarction treated with 1.5 million units of intravenous streptokinase and 5852 patients not given fibrinolytic treatment.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Cerebrovascular event, sex, age, blood pressure, history of previous infarct, site of infarction, and Killip class.

RESULTS

99 of 11,712 patients (0.84%) had a cerebrovascular event. Older age, worse Killip class, and anterior location of infarction seemed to be risk factors for cerebrovascular events (40/3201 aged 65-75 v 42/7295 aged less than 65, odds ratio 2.18; 9/437 class 3 v 55/8277 class 1, 1.81; and 57/4878 anterior v 24/4013 posterior, 1.96). No significant difference was found in the rate of cerebrovascular events between patients treated with streptokinase and controls (45/5852 (0.92%) streptokinase v 54/5860 (0.77) control). More patients in the streptokinase group than in the control group had cerebrovascular events (especially haemorrhagic strokes) on day 0-1 after randomisation (27 streptokinase v 7, control), although this was balanced by late events in control patients (54 streptokinase v 45 control at one year). The mortality of patients who had a cerebrovascular event was higher than that of those who did not (47% (47/99) v 11.6% (1350/11,613].

CONCLUSIONS

Although the incidence of cerebrovascular events complicating myocardial infarction was low, they increased morbidity and mortality. Treatment with streptokinase did not significantly alter the incidence, but age and poor haemodynamic state were associated with an increased risk.

Clinical pharmacological and therapeutic considerations in general intensive care. A review

The application of clinical pharmacological concepts and therapeutic standards in intensive care settings presents particularly difficult problems due to the lack of adequately controlled background information and the highly variable and rapidly evolving clinical conditions where drugs must be administered and their impact evaluated. In this review, an attempt has been made to discuss the available knowledge within the framework of a problem-oriented approach, which appears to provide a more clinically useful insight than a drug-centred review. Following a brief discussion of the scanty data and the most interesting models to which reference can be made from a pharmacokinetic point of view (the burn patient being taken as an example), the review concentrates on the main general intervention strategies in intensive care patients. These are based mainly on non-pharmacological measures (correction of fluid and electrolyte balance, total parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, oxygenation and ventilatory management) and are discussed with respect to the specific challenge they present in various clinical conditions and organ failure situations. In addition, 4 major selected clinical conditions where general management criteria and careful use of prophylactic and therapeutic drug treatments must interact to cope with the variety of presentations and problems are reviewed. These include: acute cerebral damage; anti-infective prophylaxis and therapy; cardiovascular emergencies; and problems of haemostasis. Each problem is analysed in such a way as to frame the pharmacological intervention in its broader context of the underlying (established or hypothesised) pathophysiology, with special attention being paid to those methodological issues which allow an appreciation of the degree of reliability of the data and the recommendations which appear to be practiced (often haphazardly) in intensive care units. The thorough review of the published literature provided (up to mid-1986) clearly shows that in this field the quality of randomised controlled and epidemiological studies is rather unsatisfactory. It would be highly beneficial to research and to clinical care if larger multicentric protocols and prospective epidemiological comparative investigations could be carried out to investigate more timely and adequately the variables which determine drug action, and the final outcome in the many subgroups of patients which must be considered in a proper stratification of intensive care unit populations.

Prognosis of severe head injuries

The authors have analyzed retrospectively a series of 288 consecutive patients with severe head injury observed between January, 1977, and May, 1980. Seventy-three patients were excluded as not being compatible with those of the International Data Bank. The remaining 215 patients complied with the definition of coma given by Jennett. All patients, after appropriate cardiopulmonary resuscitation, diagnostic measures, and, when required, surgical treatment, were managed in the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Unit with endotracheal intubation, controlled hyperventilation, mild dehydration, dexamethasone in standard doses, and sedation. The mortality rate was 39.5%. Of the survivors, 59.2% made a good recovery, 18.4% remained moderately disabled, 6.1% were severely disabled, and 1.5% were in a persistent vegetative state. The most reliable predictive criteria were: absence of brain-stem reflexes, neurological status, abnormal motor patterns, arterial hypotension, and presence of mass lesions. It is concluded that no sign has an absolute prognostic value when considered independently of its time course.

A multicenter study of ICU drug utilization

As part of a view of hospital practice a sample of medical records of 15 intensive care units were analysed for the following items: reason for and origin of admission, age, sex, full pharmacological history, length of stay, clinical outcome, discharge diagnosis. Antibiotic therapy, steroid use for shock, problems of hemostasis, and cardiovascular drugs are areas where an active intervention appears to be specifically needed. Interhospital differences in diagnostic and general care criteria, documentation of inappropriate therapeutic practice, lack of reliable data registration gave occasion for an extensive discussion with clinicians leading to decisions on exclusion of drugs from hospital formularies, organization of information programs and of controlled clinical trials. The application of simple techniques of drug utilization review has proved a useful, inexpensive tool for creating favourable conditions for wide scale improvement of therapeutic practice.

Utilization of drugs active on the haemostatic system in intensive care units: a retrospective analysis

A retrospective analysis of 628 case reports for utilizing drugs affecting the haemostatic system is reported. Anticoagulants and drugs inhibiting platelet function were mainly used in cardiopulmonary patients. Antifibrinolytic treatment, often as a general 'haemostatic' treatment, was administered to patients with trauma or post-operatively.