An Approach to Prevent Frailty in Community Dwelling Older Adults: a pilot study performed in Campania region in the framework of the PERSSILAA project.

We developed and tested an innovative physical training method in older adults that embeds the gym program into everyday life in the most conservative way possible. Physical training was included in the activities of local parishes where older women from Southern Italy spend most of their free time and was delivered by trained physical therapists with the support of an ICT tool known as CoCo. 113 older women (aged 72.0 [69.0-75.0] years) noncompliant to conventional exercise programs participated to the study. 57 of them underwent the final anthropometric assessment and 50 the final physical tests. In study completers handgrip strength and physical performance evaluated with the chair-stand, the two minutes step and the chair-sit and -reach tests significantly improved. Quality of life as evaluated with the EuroQol-5dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire improved as well. In conclusion, a training program designed to minimally impact on life habits of older people is effective in improving fitness in patients noncompliant to other to physical exercise programs.

Innovative Approaches to Active and Healthy Ageing: Campania Experience to Improve the Adoption of Innovative Good Practices.

The demographic projections on the European population predict that people aged over 60 will increase by about two million/year in the next decades. Since 2012, the Campania Reference Site of the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing supports the innovation of the Regional Health System, to face up demographic changes and sustainability. Campania Reference Site provides the opportunity to connect loco-regional stakeholders in social and health care services (universities, healthcare providers, social services, local communities and municipalities), with international organizations, in order to adopt and scale up innovative solutions and approaches. This paper describes the building process of Campania Reference Site and the main results achieved, that have been allowing it to become a hub for open innovation in the field of active and healthy aging at regional, national and international level.

Quality evaluation of home nursing care: perceptions of patients, physicians, and nurses.

Perceptions of patients (n = 135), physicians (n = 99), and nurses (n = 20) regarding home nursing care were studied using a descriptive survey conducted over a 6-month period in a large, voluntary, nonprofit home health agency. An original instrument, based on the American Nurses Association standards of home nursing care within a nursing process framework, was developed for this study. Factor analyses (varimax rotation) yielded four subscales: technical, professional, communication/psychosocial, and teaching aspects of nursing care. Overall, patients and physicians rated their satisfaction with nursing care identically (20% were satisfied, 71% were undecided, 9% were dissatisfied), while 70 percent of the nurses were satisfied, 20 percent were undecided, and 10 percent were dissatisfied with their nursing care. Both physicians and patients were most satisfied with professional aspects of nursing care; nurses were most satisfied with teaching aspects. Patients and physicians were most dissatisfied with teaching; nurses were equally dissatisfied with technical skills and communication/psychosocial aspects of nursing care.

[Thymoma: diagnosis and surgical treatment]. / Timomi: diagnostica e terapia chirurgica.

Thymoma is the most common primary neoplasm of the tymus. The majority of thymomas are encapsulated masses and exhibit benign behavior. Less frequently they may be invasive, or rarely they may metastasize to distant sites. The usual clinical presentation is that of an anterior mediastinal mass found accidentally in an asymptomatic patient. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance may be helpful in the evaluation of adjacent structures. The histologic classification proposed by Muller-Hermelink is useful in predicting and defining the risk of invasiveness of thymomas showing a significant correlation between tumor cell type and stage. The treatment of choice is complete surgical excision; radiation therapy may be used adjunctively to surgery in the treatment of invasive tumors. The choice of surgical approach is conditioned by site and grading of thymoma. The prognosis of encapsulated thymoma is generally favorable; invasive tumors are associated with a worse prognosis but may respond to radical resection.

[Cystic lymphangioma: a case report of abdominal location]. / Linfangioma cistico: un caso a localizzazione addominale.

A case of cystic lymphangioma is reported, located on the mesentery of the jejunum in a fifty-seven year old patient. The lymphangioma is an extremely rare disease and it is often located in the neck and arm pit. An intra abdominal and mediastinal location takes place in just 5% of the examined cases. Pre operative exams are taken into account; computerized (Axial) tomography and echo tomography have made diagnosis possible. The surgical therapy is the preferred treatment; no therapeutic options exist. The radical extirpation of the mass becomes necessary to avoid relapses.