Neonatal cutaneous disseminated aspergillosis in a preterm extremely-low-birth-weight infant with favourable outcome at 3-year follow-up: a case report.

Invasive disseminated neonatal aspergillosis is an uncommon disease, with only scattered reports in literature in the last few years. Here we report on a 25-week gestational age, 730 g at birth preterm female infant who developed on day-of-life 10 multiple cutaneous exhulcerative lesions in her right arm, trunk and abdomen. Early recognition and diagnosis of these lesions as a due to cutaneous initial symptom of cutaneous disseminated aspergillosis, as well as prompt treatment with Liposomal amphotericin B + Itraconazole, secured successful recovery from the systemic infection. Skin lesions healed without any surgical treatment. The infant was discharged in good health. Long-term follow-up at three years of age revealed normality of all neurodevelopmental and cognitive parameters. To our knowledge, this is one of the very few cases of survival, free from sequelae, for a preterm infant affected by neonatal cutaneous disseminated aspergillosis.

[A traumatic brain injury patient: from rehabilitation to social-familial re-integration. Case report focusing on quality of life aspects]. / Dalla riabilitazione al reinserimento socio-familiare nel paziente con trauma cranio-encefalico. Lettura di un caso clinico attraverso i dati di qualità di vita.

WHO recommends that the biopsychosocial model be adopted in the rehabilitation and, particularly, in the multidisciplinary care of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients. The neuropsychological, psychological, and Quality of Life (QoL) assessment of TBI patients follows the evolution of their clinical conditions. The following evaluation battery is administered in our Unit: Specific Neuropsicological Tests, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales Revised (WAIS-R), and the Short Form-36 (SF-36) and Satisfaction Profile (SAT-P), two generic questionnaires measuring respectively health status and subjective aspects of QoL. Mauro is an 18-year old patient with TBI, complicated after one and a half years by epilepsy. The clinical report is divided into three phases (3, 5 and 18 months post-TBI)--ranging from the first psychological-neuropsychological assessment to the patient's socio-educational re-integration--and includes self-reports by the patient and/or his mother, a discussion of the QoL and neuropsychological data, and a presentation of the work carried out in the cognitive behavioural rehabilitation. The psychological topics that emerged are: memories of the traumatic event and the hospitalization period, enthusiasm about the "return to life", and difficulties and suffering due to the fact of "being different". This paper offers an example of both the assessment and treatment of TBI patients--following its course from where it begins in the Rehabilitation Center to its continuation in the patient's social environment. The purpose of such a global clinical management is to effectuate a psychosocial re-integration that is adequate in terms of the patient's cognitive resources and residual behavioural abilities.

[Neuropsychological course of patients with craniocerebral injuries in rehabilitation]. / Percorso neuropsicologico del paziente con trauma cranio-encefalico in riabilitazione.

The aim of the present paper is to describe a neuropsychological assessment and intervention model in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) patients. The theoretical and methodological frameworks are described and the following diagnostic and rehabilitative flowchart is fully explained: 1. first visit with patient and his relatives; 2. clinical and testing assessment; 3. diagnostic balance and its communication to patient and his relatives; 4. neuropsychological rehabilitation and psychological counseling. Whenever necessary, patient's relatives are involved. Furthermore, TBI patients' health related quality of life is outlined as an important clinical and scientific issue deserving more attention, in spite of the objective methodological difficulties which its evaluation implies.

Incidence of nosocomial rotavirus infections, symptomatic and asymptomatic, in breast-fed and non-breast-fed infants.

Rotavirus is one of the most important aetiological agents of nosocomial infections in childhood. We studied the incidence of nosocomial rotavirus infections in 420 patients (age range 1-18 months) consecutively admitted from 1 December 1999 to 31 May 2000 to the infant ward of the Department of Paediatrics, University of Turin. We also evaluated the protective effect of breast feeding. Faecal specimens were collected from every child (whether developing diarrhoeic symptoms or not) and tested for rotavirus during hospitalization and 72 h after discharge. The incidence of rotavirus nosocomial infections was 27.7%. The incidence of symptomatic nosocomial infections was 16.8%, and the incidence of asymptomatic infections was 10.9%. The attack rate of the infections that occurred during hospitalization was 11.8%, while for those occurring after discharge, it was 15.9%. Rotavirus infection, on average, prolonged hospital stay from 5.2 to 6.4 days. 10.6% of breast-fed infants and 32.4% of non-breast-fed infants contracted rotavirus infection (P<0.005). None of the breast-fed infants who contracted rotavirus infection developed diarrhoeic symptoms.