Prolonged interval in prophylactic heparin flushing for maintenance of subcutaneous implanted port care in patients with cancer.

The long-term use of subcutaneous implanted ports for chemotherapy in cancer patients has been associated with the occurrence of thrombosis and infection. In this study, we compared the safety and efficacy of administration of 1000 U of heparin flushes in prolonged interval (every 6 weeks) with standard dose and schedule (500 U every 4 weeks) for port-related infections and thrombosis during periods of non-use. Data were collected retrospectively from patients treated for various cancer types (matched as 2:1 for age, gender, stage of the disease). Patients who had diseases that could cause thrombosis or bleeding in their past medical history, or were taking oral anticoagulants, or had contraindications for heparin usage were excluded. After completing their chemotherapy, 59 patients received prolonged interval, while 30 patients received standard schedule. All patients were followed for at least 1 year. No clinically documented port-related infection or thrombosis has been found in both groups. Also, none of the devices was removed during this time. Prophylactic flushing of central venous ports with 1000 U of heparin in every 6 weeks might be a safe, easy, cheaper, comfortable and effective alternative to standard dose and schedule for preventing thrombosis and infections.

Neoplastic diseases prevalence in a turkish university hospital.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to register the different cancer cases diagnosed in our hospital with an aim to define the most common and treatable cancer types and help define accurate targets for the allocation of the already limited resources of the Ministry of Health. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We surveyed 12 months of the hospital's pathology records to determine the prevalence of various cancer types. RESULTS: Out of 9720 biopsy and cytology samples, 662 were cancer cases. Breast and gastric cancers were higher and colorectal cancers were lower than the series reported from the United States. Of the pulmonary malignancies, lung cancer in general was not particularly higher in proportion to other cases, something interesting for a country with smoking rates exceeding 60% of the adult population. Squamous cell lung cancer was more common compared to the rates reported in the western world statistics. CONCLUSION: Although biases may exist, as certain cancers are more amenable to surgical intervention and physician groups may have special interest toward a particular cancer, distribution of cancer cases in Turkey is probably similar to the western world.