550 research outputs found

    Lipid emulsions in parenteral nutrition: does one size fits all?

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    Dietary lipids significantly contribute to preserve the efficiency of human metabolism and restore it during disease. Therefore, in the absence of absolute contraindications, it would not appear reasonable to exclude lipid emulsions when prescribing parenteral nutrition (PN). The metabolic role of lipids has been elucidated, and is far more complex than a mere energy-dense source. Indeed, it is now clear that fatty acids impact differently on the inflammatory and immune responses, either promoting or blunting them. Omega-6 fatty acids are the substrate for the production of potent mediators of inflammation, whereas omega-3 fatty acids promote the synthesis of less active factors. Omega-9 fatty acids exert a more neutral impact on immune and inflammatory responses. These specific metabolic activities should therefore be considered when prescribing lipid emulsions in PN. Ideally, the metabolic profile of patients should guide the prescription of lipid emulsions in order to promote the inflammatory response or blunt it according to the clinical needs. This new approach would wholly exploit the metabolic activities of lipid emulsions by providing patients not only with an energy-dense source, but also by priming and/or modulating the immune and inflammatory responses in order to favour healing.Keywords: lipid emulsions; metabolism; parenteral nutrition; immune response; inflammatio

    Interventional radiology techniques in the treatment of complications due to videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy

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    The development of videolaparoscopic cholecystectomy (VLC) has represented an important achievement in the search for minimally invasive surgical procedures, and especially in the surgical management of such a common and costly disease as cholelithiasis. However, the literature shows that, while VLC carries a similar mortality rate to open surgery, it has a greater incidence (2-5 times) of iatrogenic injury to the biliary tract and hepatic hilum [3, 5, 10, 25, 28]; this incidence further increases in cases of so-called "hard cholecystis" [10, 13, 25, 28, 30]. An equally minimally invasive technique is therefore needed to treat these lesions; this technique should be effective and safe, allow for shorter hospital stays and lower costs, and be made available at all the centres where VLC is performed
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