Lung cancer is a common disease and the leading cause of cancer-related mortality, with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounting for the majority of cases. Following diagnosis of lung cancer, accurate staging is essential to guide clinical management and inform prognosis. Positron emission tomography (PET) in conjunction with computed tomography (CT)—as PET-CT has developed as an important tool in the multi-disciplinary management of lung cancer. This article will review the current evidence for the role of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET-CT in NSCLC diagnosis, staging, response assessment and follow up.

Pneumomediastinum is a rare clinical finding, but one which can be the source of significant concern for clinicians. By presenting 3 such cases, we highlight that pneumomediastinum can complicate the course of a severe coronavirus disease 2019 infection but emphasize that conservative management is the first-line method of treatment, with gradual resorption of the air from the tissues. It is important to be alert to the development of pneumothorax, which will require drainage.

Background and Objective: The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus has markedly risen in recent years. Consequently, there has been a rise in the number of patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery. Despite the existence of national and international guidelines to improve surgical outcomes in patients with diabetes, perioperative diabetes management optimisation remains inadequate resulting in these patients experiencing increased rates of surgical morbidity and mortality. This review aims to evaluate outcomes following cardiac surgery in patients with diabetes and assess strategies to enhance preoperative and perioperative optimization and postoperative outcomes. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed for articles concerning perioperative management of diabetes in patients undergoing cardiac surgery as well as postoperative complications related to diabetes in addition to interventions utilised to optimize outcomes. Key Content and Findings: Principle findings were extracted and synthesized. Patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery exhibit increased perioperative complications, higher in-hospital mortality rates and inferior long-term survival. A key facilitator is specifically poor glycemic control, with glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) serving as a predictive marker. However, measuring preoperative HbA1c is not routine, and there is no established threshold for deferring elective surgery. Preoperatively, emphasis should be placed on lowering the patient’s HbA1c through optimized medical management and continuous glucose monitoring. Intraoperatively, continuous insulin infusion therapy is recommended alongside postoperative continuation for critically ill patients. Prompt resumption of the patient’s routine medications post-surgery is also necessary. Conclusions: Optimal glycemic control, both pre-, intra- and perioperatively, correlates with improved outcomes that are comparable to those without diabetes. Targeted efforts are warranted for patients with diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery to ensure long-term benefits for the patients and healthcare systems.

The benefit of tocilizumab on mortality and time to recovery in people with severe COVID pneumonia may depend on appropriate timing. The objective was to estimate the impact of tocilizumab administration on switching respiratory support states, mortality and time to recovery. In an observational study, a continuous-time Markov multi-state model was used to describe the sequence of respiratory support states including: no respiratory support (NRS), oxygen therapy (OT), non-invasive ventilation (NIV) or invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), OT in recovery, NRS in recovery. Two hundred seventy-one consecutive adult patients were included in the analyses contributing to 695 transitions across states. The prevalence of patients in each respiratory support state was estimated with stack probability plots, comparing people treated with and without tocilizumab since the beginning of the OT state. A positive effect of tocilizumab on the probability of moving from the invasive and non-invasive mechanical NIV/IMV state to the OT in recovery state (HR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.2–5.2) was observed. Furthermore, a reduced risk of death was observed in patients in NIV/IMV (HR = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.1–0.7) or in OT (HR = 0.1, 95% CI = 0.0–0.8) treated with tocilizumab. To conclude, we were able to show the positive impact of tocilizumab used in different disease stages depicted by respiratory support states. The use of the multi-state Markov model allowed to harmonize the heterogeneous mortality and recovery endpoints and summarize results with stack probability plots. This approach could inform randomized clinical trials regarding tocilizumab, support disease management and hospital decision making.

Veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) support for ARDS treatment after cardiac surgery has progressed remarkably in the last 20 years. However, one of the limitations of a successful recover is age, being a powerful predictor of mortality. In this case report we discuss a 78-year-old man who underwent aortic valve and aortic root replacement. The postoperative period was complicated by ARDS following aspiration pneumonia treated with VV-ECMO weaned after 6 days. At two-year follow up, the patient made an excellent recover, being the second oldest person to survive VV-ECMO following cardiac surgery in the world. In the literature there is no consensus regarding a specific age limit and results, in the use of ECMO in the elderly are scarce and inconsistent. We do not think advanced age is a contraindication to the use of ECMO.

Background: Thymectomy for early thymic tumours is rarely performed by sternotomy in the current era of minimally invasive thoracic surgery. With standard video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) it can be difficult to visualise the entire thymus. Subxiphoid VATS (SVATS) has been developed as an alternative surgical approach which is particularly suited to performing thymectomy due to providing visualisation of both pleural cavities. This study reports a large case series of uniportal SVATS extended thymectomy. Methods: Over the period of study, 39 patients underwent uniportal SVATS extended thymectomy for a thymic nodule at the Shanghai Pulmonary Centre. Seventeen patients were female, and the mean age of the cohort was 60 years. The mean size of nodule was 30.27 mm. Results: The mean operative duration was 2.1 hours, with one conversion to thoracotomy for bleeding. The mean operative blood loss was 93 mL. The median length of hospital stay was 4 days. There were no episodes of phrenic nerve palsy and the 30-day survival was 100%. Comparing the first and second cohorts, there was reduced operative time (P=0.005), reflecting the learning curve. Conclusions: The uniportal SVATS technique is safe and feasible for performing extended thymectomy. It allows the surgeon to perform a radical oncological thymectomy with lower risk of damaging adjacent nerves and vessels. The procedure can be performed safely during the learning curve period.