Francesco Negro, Liudmyla Maistat

Access to hepatitis C treatment for patients in drug substitution programmes: the fight is far from over

Swiss Med Wkly. 2017;147:w14570

More emphasis should be put on the advantages of providing HCV care for people who inject drugs in centralised rather than decentralised settings, possibly by expanding harm reduction programmes and integrating HCV services.

Simon Jung, Roland Wiest, Jan Gralla, Richard McKinley, Heinrich P Mattle, David Liebeskind

Relevance of the cerebral collateral circulation in ischaemic stroke: time is brain, but collaterals set the pace

Swiss Med Wkly. 2017;147:w14538

Poor cerebral collateral flow is associated with poor outcome after ischaemic stroke, and larger and faster infarct growth. Thus, therapeutic promotion of collateral flow may offer the chance to improve outcome.

Gregory Fleury, Sylvano Mania, Didier Hannouche, Cem Gabay

The perioperative use of synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Swiss Med Wkly. 2017;147:w14563

How to manage immunosuppressive agents in patients with rheumatoid arthritis who will require surgery, in order to avoid complications after surgery while limiting perioperative disease flares, is a critical question.

Tania Carron, Pierre-Olivier Bridevaux, Karin Lörvall, Rachel Parmentier, Jean-Bernard Moix, Vincent Beytrison, Raymond Pernet, Constance Rey, Pierre-Yves Roberfroid, Prashant N Chhajed, Thomas Dieterle, Ladina Joos Zellweger, Malcolm Kohler, Sabrina Maier, David Miedinger, Robert Thurnheer, Pascal Urwyler, Jean-Marie Tschopp, Emilie Zuercher, Jörg Daniel Leuppi, Bernard Burnand, Isabelle Peytremann-Bridevaux

Feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of integrated care for COPD patients: a mixed methods evaluation of a pilot community-based programme

Swiss Med Wkly. 2017;147:w14567

Integrated care programmes can improve health-related quality of life, exercise ­capacity and hospital admissions in COPD patients.

Supplementum 227: 49th Annual Meeting Swiss Society of Nephrology

Swiss Med Wkly. 2017;147:w20429