Beware the inhaled steroids or corticophobia?

Inhaled corticosteroids have been the cornerstone of atopic, allergic asthma management for more than half a century. They have side effects (as does every medication), but they have transformed the control of asthma and saved many lives since their introduction. The current review revisits local and systemic side effects of inhaled corticosteroids and explores the prevalence and nature of parental fears (“corticophobia”) in different parts of the world. The empathetic physician treating asthma should bear in mind the impact of parental concerns on the management of this potentially life-threatening disease and try to dispel myths at every opportunity by emphasising the well-established benefits and excellent safety profile of inhaled corticosteroids.

COVID-19 Inmate Risk Appraisal (CIRA): development and validation of a screening tool to assess COVID-19 vulnerability in prisons

Although medical doctors make evaluations of COVID-19 mortality risk in certain custodial settings, there is no available tool to quantify prisoners’ vulnerability and classify them into risk categories. To address this gap and assist custodial staff taking early measures to protect detained persons, the present study collected data from the two largest prisons in Switzerland to develop a screening tool to identify prisoners at increased mortality risk and to classify them in risk categories and to test its validity when compared with national recommendations and clinical evaluation of COVID-19 vulnerability.

Gestational trophoblastic disease in Switzerland: retrospective study of the impact of a regional reference centre

The European Society of Medical Oncology recommends that countries should have reference centres to provide adequate diagnosis and treatment of gestational trophoblastic disease. This study reflects the activity of the Swiss trophoblastic disease centre from the French-speaking part of Switzerland created in 2009, and its role as local and national reference centre, in terms of global health, for women with gestational trophoblastic disease.

Swiss family physicians and home visits: a 10-year retrospective analysis and typology based on billing data

In the context of an aging population, homecare visits by family physicians may contribute to maintaining older patients at home; however, home visits by family physicians have decreased in number in the last decade with the emergence of homecare-oriented healthcare services. The authors aimed to describe the diversity of activities and evolution over time of home visits by Swiss family physicians. From 2006 to 2015, Vaud family physicians made 451,634 home visits. Most home visits were routine visits while emergency home visits were rare.

Association of in-hospital multimorbidity with healthcare outcomes in Swiss medical inpatients

Multimorbidity poses a worldwide health- and socio-economic challenge, exacerbated by changing demographics. The association of multimorbidity with healthcare outcomes in hospitalised medical inpatients remains incompletely understood. This cross-sectional study analysed Swiss hospital discharge records from 2012 to 2017. Multimorbidity was highly prevalent in medical inpatients and had a relevant association with poor healthcare outcomes.

Impact of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on organ donation in Switzerland

This study reveals that a substantial proprotion of deceased organ donors in Switzerland underwent CPR in context of their hospitalisation. CPR donors are different from non-CPR donors with respect to age, cause of death and donation type. However, when carefully selected according to their haemodynamic condition, donor and organ utilisation and average organ yield, CPR donors are comparable to non-CPR donors. Thus, all patients who are resuscitated from cardiac arrest but who subsequently progress to death should be evaluated for organ donation. How CPR donors compare with non-CPR donors regarding transplant outcomes should be studied further.

Lymphovascular invasion is an independent prognostic factor for survival in pathologically proven N2 non-small cell lung cancer

Lymphovascular invasion was identified as the only independent prognostic factor for 5-year overall survival and recurrence-free survival in this pathologically proven N2 NSCLC cohort when controlled for adjuvant therapy. This study extends the current evidence of an adverse prognostic effect of lymphovascular invasion on a stage III population, confirms the adverse prognostic effect of lymphovascular invasion detected by immunohistochemistry, and thereby reveals another subgroup within the pN2 population with worse prognosis regarding 5-year overall survival and recurrence-free survival.