Search

Purpose: To support the wellbeing of both patients and their families, our aim was to investigate the satisfaction of non-COVID in- and out-patients regarding safety measures implemented at our radiology unit of a transplant institute against COVID infection., Materials and Methods: Over a five-month period, adult patients' feedback was obtained by a questionnaire on the fear of contracting COVID-19 during a radiology examination, the perceived delay in treatment, and the following safety measures implemented: modified schedules to limit the number of patients in the waiting area and to maximize social distancing; assistance by staff when visitors were not admitted; cleaning and disinfection of machines; mask wearing and hand hygiene of staff; and staff advice on hand hygiene and infection control precautions., Results: Over a five-month period, our preliminary results (387 patients) showed general patient satisfaction (99.1%) with safety measures applied at our radiology unit. Patients were satisfied with distancing and assistance by staff (100%), cleaning and disinfection (91%), mask wearing and hand hygiene of the staff (97%), and staff advice (94%). There was some criticism of the perceived delay in treatment (7.3%) and in the scheduling of the waiting list (5.4%), with 5.4% fearing contracting the virus. Patients' awareness of safety measures and confidence in the hospital preparedness policy was perceived by all interviewers, and 100% appreciated being questioned., Conclusion: The feedback given by the non-COVID patient helps to measure the quality in health care, to improve the quality service, and to protect and satisfy more vulnerable patients, also during the COVID-19 pandemic., (© 2022. Italian Society of Medical Radiology.)

Background: This study aims to evaluate radiation exposure in patients with complete portal vein thrombosis (CPVT) or portal cavernoma (PC) undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation using real-time ultrasound guidance for portal vein targeting., Materials and Methods: This is a single institution retrospective analysis. Between August 2009 and September 2018, TIPS was attempted in 49 patients with CPVT or PC. Radiation exposure (dose area product [DAP], air KERMA (AK) and fluoroscopy time [FT]), technical success, clinical success, complications and survival were analyzed., Results: In total, 29 patients had CPVT and 20 patients had PC. 41/49 patients had cirrhosis. TIPS indications were refractory ascites (n =  25), variceal bleeding (n = 16) and other (n = 8). TIPS was successfully placed in 94% (46/49) of patients via a transjugular approach alone (n = 40), a transjugular/transhepatic approach (n = 5) and a transjugular/transsplenic approach (n = 1). Median DAP was 261 Gy * cm 2 (range 29-950), median AK was 0.2 Gy (range 0.05-0.5), and median FT was 28.2 min (range 7.7-93.7). Mean portosystemic pressure gradient decreased from 16.8  ±  5.1 mmHg to 7.5  ±  3.3 mmHg (P <  0.01). There were no major procedural complications. Overall clinical success was achieved in 77% of patients (mean follow-up of 21.1 months). Encephalopathy was observed in 16 patients (34%), grade II-III encephalopathy in 7 patients (15%). TIPS revision was performed in 15 patients (32%). Overall survival rate was 75%., Conclusion: In our experience, the use of real-time ultrasound guidance allowed the majority of the TIPS to be performed via a transjugular approach alone with a reasonably low radiation exposure considering the high technical difficulties of the selected cohort of patients with CVPT or PC.