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Objectives: Knowledge of the prevalence and characteristics of medication errors in pediatric and neonatal patients is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the incidence and medication error characteristics in a pediatric hospital over 5 years and to determine whether serial error prevention programs to optimize a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system reduce error incidence., Methods: We retrospectively reviewed medication errors documented between January 2015 and December 2019., Results: A total of 2,591,596 prescriptions were checked, and 255 errors were identified. Wrong dose prescriptions constituted the most common errors (56.9%). Medications with the highest rate of errors were antibiotics/antiviral drugs (36.9%). Oral route medications comprised the highest portion (60.8%), followed by intravenous ones (28.6%). The most common stage for medication errors was physician ordering (93.3%). Junior residents were responsible for most errors (45.9%). Most errors occurred in the pediatric ward (53.7%). In total, 221 (86.7%) errors were near misses. Only 4 errors (1.6%) were considered significant and required active monitoring or intervention. Type of error, stage of error, staff composition, and severity level of errors were significantly related to the number of errors in different years. There was a statistically significant decrease in errors per 100,000 prescriptions across different years after optimizing the CPOE system., Conclusions: The incidence of medication errors decreased with extensive use of the CPOE system. Continuous application of the CPOE optimization program can effectively reduce medication errors. Further incorporation of pediatric-specific decision-making and support tools and error prevention measures into CPOE systems is needed., Competing Interests: The authors disclose no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Risk of pancreatic cancer between Helicobacter pylori infected and noninfected persons is controversial, and therefore a meta-analysis was performed., Methods: PubMed was searched up to September 2014. Only population-based nested case-control studies comparing the serological prevalence of Helicobacter pylori between pancreatic cancer cases and cancer-free controls were eligible. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for pancreatic cancer risk between Helicobacter pylori infected and noninfected persons were estimated., Results: Five eligible nested case-control studies were included, with 1446 pancreatic cancer cases and 2235 cancer-free controls. On the whole, the proportion of pancreatic cancer cases among those infected with Helicobacter pylori was not significant different from those noninfected (OR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.65-1.50; P = 0.96). Likewise, seropositivity of cytotoxin-associated gene A (CagA) showed nonsignificant association with pancreatic cancer (OR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.65-1.30; P = 0.63). The CagA-positive virulent strains of Helicobacter pylori did not increase the risk of pancreatic cancer (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.50-1.89; P = 0.93). However, CagA-negative nonvirulent strains of Helicobacter pylori had a significant increased risk for pancreatic cancer (OR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.11-1.96; P = 0.008)., Conclusions: The CagA-negative non-virulent strains of Helicobacter pylori may be a potential risk factor of pancreatic cancer. High-quality prospective large-scaled studies are required for more conclusive results.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of body mass index (BMI) on the short-term and long-term results of a large cohort of gastric cancer (GC) patients undergoing gastrectomy.Recently, the "obesity paradox" has been proposed, referring to the paradoxically "better" outcomes of overweight and obese patients compared with nonoverweight patients. The associations between BMI and surgical outcomes among patients with GC remain controversial.A single-institution cohort of 1249 GC patients undergoing gastrectomy between 2000 and 2010 were categorized to low-BMI (<18.49 kg/m), normal-BMI (18.50-24.99 kg/m), and high-BMI (≥25.00 kg/m) groups. The postoperative complications were classified according to the Clavien-Dindo system, and their severity was assessed by using the Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI). The impact of BMI on the postoperative complications and overall survival was analyzed.There were 908, 158, and 182 patients in the normal-BMI, low-BMI, and high-BMI groups, respectively. The overall morbidity in the high-BMI group (24.7%) was higher than that in either the low-BMI or the normal-BMI group (20.9% and 15.5%, respectively; P = 0.006), but the mean CCI in the low-BMI group was significantly higher (8.32 ± 19.97) than the mean CCI in the normal-BMI and high-BMI groups (3.76 ± 11.98 and 5.58 ± 13.07, respectively; P < 0.001). The Kaplan-Meier curve and the log-rank test demonstrated that the low-BMI group exhibited the worst survival outcomes compared with the normal-BMI group, whereas the high-BMI group exhibited the best survival outcomes (P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, BMI was identified as an independent prognostic factor. In the stage-specific subgroup analysis, a low BMI was associated with poorer survival in the cases of stage III-IV diseases.Low BMI was associated with more severe postoperative complications and poorer prognosis. Despite a higher risk of mild postoperative complications, the high-BMI patients exhibited paradoxically "superior" survival outcomes compared with the normal-BMI patients. These findings confirm the "obesity paradox" in GC patients undergoing gastrectomy.

Incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) has risen rapidly over the past decades in Western countries. As a premalignant lesion, Barrett's esophagus (BE) is an established risk factor of EAC. This study estimated the impact of surveillance endoscopy for BE on population's survival upon EAC by a whole-population cost-effectiveness analysis among modeled Western population. Possibilities and survival payoffs were retrieved through literature searching based on PubMed database. Patients with BE were classified as adequate surveillance (AS), inadequate surveillance (IAS), and no surveillance groups. Direct cost of endoscopy per person-year was estimated from diagnosis of BE to before diagnosis of EAC in the whole-population model, whereas the payoff was 2-year disease-specific survival rate of EAC. AS for patients with BE had lower cost-effectiveness ratio (CER) than that of IAS group, as well as lower incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (6116 ∈/% vs 118,347 ∈/%). Prolonging the surveillance years could decrease the yearly cost in whole population and also relevant CERs, despite increased total cost. Increasing the proportion of participants in AS group could improve the survival benefit. The maximal payoff was up to 2-year mortality reduction of 2.7 per 100,000 persons by spending extra ∈ 1,658,913 per 100,000 person-years. A longer endoscopic surveillance among BE subpopulation plan can reduce yearly budget. Attempt to increase the proportion of AS participants can induce decline in population mortality of EAC, despite extra but acceptable expenditure. However, regarding optimal cost-effectiveness, further studies are still required to identify a high-risk subpopulation out of BE patients for endoscopic surveillance.

A minimum of 15 lymph nodes (LNs) has been recommended as an adequate number for radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer (GC). This study aimed to investigate whether the harvesting of at least 25 LNs was a better criterion for stage N2-3 GC based on the 10-year experience of a high-volume hospital. A total of 1363 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer between 2000 and 2010 were included in this study. The relationship between the number of lymph nodes examined during gastrectomy and overall survival (OS) was analyzed. In multivariate analysis, the numbers of LNs examined (P = 0.001) and N stage were confirmed as 2 of the independent prognostic factors. A larger proportion of N2/N3a/N3b patients was observed in the group with ≥20 LNs examined. The cutoff of ≥25 LNs examined exhibited a significantly lower hazard ratio (HR) than other LN cutoffs among N2-N3 diseases, but the cutoff was not significantly superior to other cutoffs in patients with N0 and N1 disease (HR, 0.64, 0.62, and 0.53 for N2, N3a, and N3b, respectively). The 5-year OS rates were 58.59% and 32.77% for N2 and N3 diseases, respectively, with ≥25 LNs examined, which represents a significant improvement over 15-24 LNs examined (52.48% and 21.67% for N2 and N3 stages, respectively). Among patients with stage N2-N3 GC, harvesting at least 25 LNs may represent a superior cutoff for radical gastrectomy and could yield better survival outcomes.

Oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum, the exact genetic predisposition of which has not yet been resolved, is characterized by varying degrees of the prevalently unilateral underdevelopment of craniofacial structures and spinal anomalies. Here, we analyzed four cases exhibiting multiple features of oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum and one case with Treacher-Collins syndrome. The cranium was analyzed using three-dimensional computed tomography, which reliably identifies craniofacial malformations. We detected one typical oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum patient who had a missense mutation in exon 9 of the TCOF1 gene complex and two silent mutations in exons 10 and 23, three partial oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum patients who had no detectable mutations in the TCOF1 gene complex, and one Treacher-Collins syndrome patient who had a nonsense mutation in exon 14. All five patients had eight previously reported polymorphic changes in the TCOF1 exons 10, 11, 12, 16, 21, 22, and 23, and four unreported polymorphisms in exons 9, 17, and 22 that were also detected in 51 Taiwanese control patients. These observations strongly suggest that the TCOF1 genetic changes observed in these five patients might be related to oculo-auriculo-vertebral spectrum symptoms.