HYPOTHESIS Surgeon-directed institutional peer review, associated with positive physician feedback, can decrease the morbidity and mortality rates associated with carotid endarterectomy. DESIGN Case series. SETTING Tertiary care university teaching hospital. PATIENTS/INTERVENTIONS All patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy at our institution during a 5-year period ending August 1998. ...

Heatwaves (HWs) are one of the “natural” hazards with the greatest impact worldwide in terms of mortality and economic losses, and their effects may be exacerbated in large urban areas. For these reasons, more detailed analyses of urban HW trends represent a priority that cannot be neglected. In this study, HW trends were investigated during the warmest period of the year (May–September) by usi...

BACKGROUND Since the introduction of childhood vaccination for diphtheria in 1932 and the widespread use of vaccines to prevent tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough) and poliomyelitis in the 1950s, deaths in Australia from vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) have declined by more than 99%. It is important, however, that the downward trend in morbidity and mortality from VPDs is maintained and car...

At the end of my term of office as Editor-in-Chief of Acta Otorhinolaryngologica Italica, i should like to briefly recall some of the results achieved. The principal aim indicated by the Board of the italian Society of otorhinolaryngology – head and neck Surgery (Sio) was to work towards the journal which had then only recently been published in English under the Editor-in-Chief, at that time D...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Ischemic stroke after acute myocardial infarction is an important complication. It is unknown whether the risk has changed because the treatment of acute myocardial infarction has improved during the past decade. There is also conflicting data about predictors of stroke risk. METHODS To obtain the 1-year incidence of stroke after acute myocardial infarction, the Registe...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is the major contributor to excess morbidity and mortality in winter. With the rise in temperatures through global warming, and the use of central heating and air conditioning, this seasonal variation may be declining. AIM To study possible changes in seasonal variation in case-fatality rates of myocardial infarction (MI), in men and women, over a 20-year per...

OBJECTIVE In Denmark, the strategy for treatment of cancer with metastases to the liver has changed dramatically during the period 1998 to 2009, when multidisciplinary care and a number of new treatments were introduced. We therefore examined the changes in survival in Danish patients with colorectal carcinoma (CRC) or other solid tumors (non-CRC) who had liver metastases at time of diagnosis. ...