Full- versus partial-thickness sutures: experimental models of corneal injury repair.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of full-thickness (FT) versus partial-thickness (PT) sutures in a full-thickness corneal wound in an animal model. METHODS: This is a prospective, experimental, comparative, longitudinal study. A 6-mm linear, full-thickness corneal incision was performed on the right eye of eight domestic pigs. Eyes were randomly assigned for repair with interrupted PT (80-90% depth) sutures or FT 10-0 nylon sutures. Anterior segment OCT, corneal pachymetry and clinical photographs were obtained 1, 4 and 8 weeks postoperatively. Corneal thickness, depth of suture placement, perilesional edema, coaptation of wound edges and complications were noted. Histopathologic examination was performed at 8 weeks. RESULTS: 100% of the eyes with FT sutures developed a linear, less opaque scar. 100% of the eyes with PT developed a dense, opaque stromal scar (p = 0.02). Vascularization of the cornea was present in 75% of PT group and 25% in the FT group (p = 0.50). As the corneas healed, there was a marked trend toward thicker corneas in the PT group versus FT group with a median difference of - 63 µm at week 1 [median 788 µm vs. 725 µm, (p = 0.11)], - 38 µm at week 4, (724 µm vs. 686 µm, (p = 0.63)) and - 47 µm median difference at week 8 with (670 µm vs. 623 µm, (p = 0.06)). Histopathology showed disorganization of the collagen fibers and the formation of a retrocorneal fibrous membrane in the PT group. CONCLUSIONS: The FT group presented less corneal edema at week 8 with a more linear and less opaque scar. Histopathology showed a better-organized scar and endothelialization without the formation of a fibrous membrane.

Visual and Anatomic Results After Sole Full-Thickness Sutures for Acute Corneal Hydrops.

PURPOSE: To determine whether sole full-thickness corneal sutures are a feasible treatment for acute corneal hydrops, and if so, report the anatomic and visual results of this technique. METHODS: A retrospective case series was carried out in 17 patients, all of whom received sole full-thickness sutures as a treatment for corneal hydrops. RESULTS: The included patients reported symptom commencement a median of 15 days before the surgical intervention. The patients' median preoperative corneal pachymetry was 1235 µm, whereas 1 month after the surgery, the median corneal thickness was 830 µm, and after 3 months, it was 502 µm (P < 0001). Preoperative best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was 1.40 LogMAR and a final postsurgical BCVA of 1.00 LogMAR after 3 months of the follow-up (P < 0001). Deep neovascularization was present in 3 patients (17.6%); none of the patients developed cataract formations or pupillary blocks. CONCLUSIONS: Given the improvement of the corneal pachymetry and the BCVA, sole full-thickness sutures seem to be a feasible surgical option to treat severe acute corneal hydrops.

Motor and non-motor wearing-off and its impact in the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVES: The wearing-off phenomenon is common in patients with Parkinson's disease. Motor and non-motor symptoms can fluctuate in relation to the "on/off" periods. To assess the impact of motor and non-motor wearing-off on activities of daily living and quality of life of patients with PD. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out. All patients were evaluated using the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Wearing-off was assessed using the Wearing-Off Questionnaire-19, and quality of life was assessed using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8. RESULTS: A total of 271 patients were included; 73.4% had wearing-off; 46.8% had both motor and non-motor fluctuations. Patients with both motor and non-motor wearing-off had a worst quality of life compared with those with only motor fluctuations (p = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: Motor and non-motor fluctuations have an impact on activities of daily living and quality of life. Non-motor wearing-off may have a higher impact.

Motor and non-motor wearing-off and its impact in the quality of life of patients with Parkinson's disease / Flutuações motoras e não-motoras e seu impacto na qualidade de vida de pacientes com doença de Parkinson

ABSTRACT The wearing-off phenomenon is common in patients with Parkinson's disease. Motor and non-motor symptoms can fluctuate in relation to the "on/off" periods. Objective: To assess the impact of motor and non-motor wearing-off on activities of daily living and quality of life of patients with PD. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out. All patients were evaluated using the Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. Wearing-off was assessed using the Wearing-Off Questionnaire-19, and quality of life was assessed using the Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire-8. Results: A total of 271 patients were included; 73.4% had wearing-off; 46.8% had both motor and non-motor fluctuations. Patients with both motor and non-motor wearing-off had a worst quality of life compared with those with only motor fluctuations (p = 0.047). Conclusions: Motor and non-motor fluctuations have an impact on activities of daily living and quality of life. Non-motor wearing-off may have a higher impact.

RESUMO O fenômeno de encurtamento do fim de dose é comum em pacientes com doença de Parkinson. Tanto os sintomas motores quanto os não motores podem flutuar em relação aos períodos de "on/off". Objetivo: Avaliar o impacto das flutuações motoras e não-motoras nas atividades da vida diária e qualidade de vida em pacientes com doença de Parkinson. Métodos: Um estudo transversal foi realizado. Todos os sujeitos foram avaliados utilizando a escala unificada para a doença de Parkinson da Sociedade de Distúrbios do Movimento. O encurtamento do fim de dose foi avaliado através do questionário WOQ-19 e a qualidade de vida foi avaliada através do PDQ-8. Resultados: Um total de 271 pacientes foram incluídos, 73,4% tiveram deterioração de fim de dose. A maioria dos pacientes tiveram tanto flutuações motoras quanto não-motoras (46,8%). Os pacientes com ambos os tipos de flutuações motoras e não-motoras tiveram pior qualidade de vida do que pacientes apenas com flutuações motoras (p = 0.047). Conclusões: Pacientes com flutuações motoras e não-motoras tiveram impacto significativo nas atividades da vida diária e na qualidade de vida. As flutuações não-motoras parecem ter um impacto maior que as flutuações motoras sobre a qualidade de vida.

Premotor symptoms and the risk of Parkinson's disease: A case-control study in Mexican population.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence of pre-motor symptoms and estimate the risk for developing Parkinson's disease in Mexican population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A case-control study was carried out with consecutive subjects with Parkinson's disease from two different referral centers in Mexico. Gender- and age-matched controls were randomly selected from the participating hospitals. All subjects were assessed using a structured questionnaire for the assessment of pre-motor symptoms (hyposmia, depression, anxiety, constipation, and sleep disorders). Odds ratios (OR) were calculated using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: A total of 430 subjects with PD and 430 healthy subjects were included. Premotor symptoms prevalence was 77.7% (n=334) for the PD group, compared to 41.3% (n=178) in the control group (p<0.001). After logistic multivariate analysis, previous history of hyposmia (OR 2.02 [95% CI 1.33-3.06]), depression (OR 2.52 [95% CI 1.67-3.84]), anxiety (OR 4.37 [95% CI 2.73-6.98]) and sleep disorders (OR 2.03 [95% CI 1.41-2.93]) were independently associated with Parkinson's disease. Overall prediction success of the model was 81.2% for controls and 61.2% for subjects with PD. CONCLUSION: All five premotor symptoms assessed were more commonly reported in PD subjects than healthy controls. The presence of non-motor symptoms yield a prediction success of 71.2% to discriminate between PD subjects and healthy controls.

Prevalence of epilepsy, beliefs and attitudes in a rural community in Mexico: A door-to-door survey.

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to establish the prevalence of seizure history (SH) and epilepsy in a rural community in Hidalgo, Mexico and determine the patients' beliefs and attitudes towards the disease and its initial medical treatment. METHODOLOGY: A transverse, descriptive, door-to-door epidemiological study (April 2011-November 2012) was conducted with 863 inhabitants from Xocotitla, Huejutla, Hidalgo, Mexico (162 housing units). Patients with SH were identified with an adaptation of the WHO protocol for epidemiological studies of neurological diseases. Afterwards, the subjects identified with seizure history (SH) or epilepsy were interviewed with a 20-question Likert type questionnaire regarding the management and belief set of their SH. The interviews were conducted in Spanish and Nahuatl. RESULTS: The prevalence of epilepsy and isolated nonrecurring seizures was 38.2/1000 and 25.4/1000, respectively. Out of the total population of 863 inhabitants, 33/863 were identified with SH: only 39.3% were able to identify an epileptic seizure as such, 48.5% sought medical attention upon the first seizure, 33.3% used a traditional healer, 15.2% took no action, 3% sought a religious representative, 85% lacked any lab analysis, and 60% received no antiepileptic drugs. Only 39% received free local medical attention, 69.7% considered seizures and epilepsy to be a consequence of divine intervention, and 94% reported some type of discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: A high prevalence of epilepsy and SH was found in this rural community in Mexico. Divine/religious beliefs, discrimination, scarce access to basic health services and inadequate medical management of epilepsy and SH persist.

Utility of electrocorticography in the surgical treatment of cavernomas presenting with pharmacoresistant epilepsy.

AIM: To describe the general aspects of cavernomas and epilepsy and review the available literature on the utility of electrocorticography (ECoG) in cerebral cavernoma surgery. METHODS: We searched studies in PubMed, MedLine, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar (from January 1969 to December 2013) using the keywords "electrocorticography" or "ECoG" or "prognosis" or "outcome" and "cavernomas". Original articles that reported utility of ECoG in epilepsy surgery were included. Four review authors independently selected the studies, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the studies using the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, PRISMA guidelines, and Jadad Scale. A meta-analysis was not possible due to methodological, clinical, and statistical heterogeneity of included studies. We analysed six articles with a total of 219 patients. RESULTS: The most common surgical approach was lesionectomy using ECoG in the temporal lobe with Engel I outcome range from 72.7 to 100%. CONCLUSIONS: Small controlled studies suggest that ECoG-guided resection offers the best functional results in seizure control for subjects undergoing cavernoma surgery, especially in the temporal lobe.

[Health-related quality of life in children with epilepsy in a Mexican hospital]. / Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en niños con epilepsia de un hospital mexicano.

INTRODUCTION: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological syndrome that is accompanied by abnormal, synchronic and exaggerated discharges in the cerebral cortex. Epilepsy is inversely related to health-related quality of life (HRQL), although little has been published on this relationship in children in Latin America. AIM: To examine the relation between epilepsy and HRQL in a group of schoolchildren aged 8-12 years who were treated in a paediatric hospital in Sonora, Mexico. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the HRQL of children diagnosed with epilepsy with respect to the HRQL of two control groups. The validated questionnaire Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory was used to evaluate HRQL. Differences were examined by means of an ANOVA test and the association between epilepsy and HRQL was modelled by means of multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The children with epilepsy displayed the lowest HRQL score (62.4 ± 14.8) of the subjects studied and had 5.2 times as much risk of their HRQL deteriorating (95% confidence interval = 2.43-11.06) compared to healthy children. Deterioration was greater on the cognitive (54.6 ± 15.0) and emotional scales (55.9 ± 23.6). Polypharmacy, i.e. the concomitant ingestion of three or more drugs (p < 0.001), and the chronological progression of suffering (p < 0.001) are factors that significantly deteriorate the HRQL of children with epilepsy. CONCLUSIONS: Epilepsy gives rise to an overall deterioration in the HRQL of children, specifically in the cognitive and emotional spheres, which is related with the chronological progression of the disease and polypharmacy.

TITLE: Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en niños con epilepsia de un hospital mexicano.Introduccion. La epilepsia es un sindrome neurologico cronico que cursa con descargas anormales, sincronicas y exageradas de la corteza cerebral. La epilepsia se relaciona inversamente con la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud de los pacientes (CVRS); sin embargo, esta relacion se ha documentado poco en niños de Latinoamerica. Objetivo. Examinar la relacion entre epilepsia y la CVRS en un grupo de niños escolares de 8-12 años atendidos en un hospital pediatrico de Sonora, Mexico. Pacientes y metodos. Se comparo transversalmente la CVRS de niños con diagnostico de epilepsia con respecto a la CVRS de dos grupos control. Se utilizo el cuestionario validado Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory para evaluar la CVRS. Las diferencias se examinaron mediante la prueba de ANOVA, y la asociacion entre epilepsia y CVRS se modelo mediante regresion logistica multiple. Resultados. Los niños con epilepsia mostraron la menor puntuacion de CVRS (62,4 ± 14,8) entre los sujetos estudiados, y tuvieron 5,2 veces mas riesgo de deterioro de su CVRS (intervalo de confianza al 95% = 2,43-11,06) en comparacion con el de niños sanos. El deterioro fue mayor en las escalas cognitiva (54,6 ± 15,0) y emocional (55,9 ± 23,6). La polifarmacia ­ingestion concomitante de tres o mas farmacos­ (p < 0,001) y la progresion cronologica de la enfermedad (p < 0,001) son factores que deterioran significativamente la CVRS de niños con epilepsia. Conclusiones. La epilepsia provoca un deterioro global en la CVRS de los niños, especificamente en las esferas cognitiva y emocional, lo que se relaciona con la progresion cronologica de la enfermedad y la polifarmacia.

Calidad de vida relacionada con la salud en niños con epilepsia de un hospital mexicano / Health-related quality of life in children with epilepsy in a Mexican hospital

Introducción. La epilepsia es un síndrome neurológico crónico que cursa con descargas anormales, sincrónicas y exageradas de la corteza cerebral. La epilepsia se relaciona inversamente con la calidad de vida relacionada con la salud de los pacientes (CVRS); sin embargo, esta relación se ha documentado poco en niños de Latinoamérica. Objetivo. Examinar la relación entre epilepsia y la CVRS en un grupo de niños escolares de 8-12 años atendidos en un hospital pediátrico de Sonora, México. Pacientes y métodos. Se comparó transversalmente la CVRS de niños con diagnóstico de epilepsia con respecto a la CVRS de dos grupos control. Se utilizó el cuestionario validado Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory para evaluar la CVRS. Las diferencias se examinaron mediante la prueba de ANOVA, y la asociación entre epilepsia y CVRS se modeló mediante regresión logística múltiple. Resultados. Los niños con epilepsia mostraron la menor puntuación de CVRS (62,4 ± 14,8) entre los sujetos estudiados, y tuvieron 5,2 veces más riesgo de deterioro de su CVRS (intervalo de confianza al 95% = 2,43-11,06) en comparación con el de niños sanos. El deterioro fue mayor en las escalas cognitiva (54,6 ± 15,0) y emocional (55,9 ± 23,6). La polifarmacia -ingestión concomitante de tres o más fármacos- (p < 0,001) y la progresión cronológica de la enfermedad (p < 0,001) son factores que deterioran significativamente la CVRS de niños con epilepsia. Conclusiones. La epilepsia provoca un deterioro global en la CVRS de los niños, específicamente en las esferas cognitiva y emocional, lo que se relaciona con la progresión cronológica de la enfermedad y la polifarmacia (AU)

Introduction. Epilepsy is a chronic neurological syndrome that is accompanied by abnormal, synchronic and exaggerated discharges in the cerebral cortex. Epilepsy is inversely related to health-related quality of life (HRQL), although little has been published on this relationship in children in Latin America. Aim. To examine the relation between epilepsy and HRQL in a group of schoolchildren aged 8-12 years who were treated in a paediatric hospital in Sonora, Mexico. Patients and methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the HRQL of children diagnosed with epilepsy with respect to the HRQL of two control groups. The validated questionnaire Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory was used to evaluate HRQL. Differences were examined by means of an ANOVA test and the association between epilepsy and HRQL was modelled by means of multiple logistic regression. Results. The children with epilepsy displayed the lowest HRQL score (62.4 ± 14.8) of the subjects studied and had 5.2 times as much risk of their HRQL deteriorating (95% confidence interval = 2.43-11.06) compared to healthy children. Deterioration was greater on the cognitive (54.6 ± 15.0) and emotional scales (55.9 ± 23.6). Polypharmacy, i.e. the concomitant ingestion of three or more drugs (p < 0.001), and the chronological progression of suffering (p < 0.001) are factors that significantly deteriorate the HRQL of children with epilepsy. Conclusions. Epilepsy gives rise to an overall deterioration in the HRQL of children, specifically in the cognitive and emotional spheres, which is related with the chronological progression of the disease and polypharmacy (AU)