Fifteen patients were enrolled in a pilot study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of acupuncture for the treatment of menopausal symptoms in tamoxifen-treated patients. Patients were evaluated before treatment and after one, three and six months with the Greene Menopause Index and were treated according to the traditional Chinese medicine. Anxiety, depression, somatic and vasomotor symptoms were improved by the treatment; libido was not modified. Acupuncture seems to be safe and effective for the treatment of menopausal symptoms in women with previous breast cancer taking tamoxifen. Confirmatory studies with a larger number of patients and with a placebo-treated group are warranted.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiplaque effect of a new alcohol free essential oil mouthwash with respect to a control of an essential oil with alcohol mouthwash, using an in vivo plaque regrowth model of 3-days.

Burnout is a work-related mental health impairment, which is now recognized as a real problem in the context of the helping professions due to its adverse health outcomes on efficiency. To our knowledge, the literature on the postdisaster scenario in Italy is limited by a focus on mental health professionals rather than other health-care workers. Our cross-sectional study aims to evaluate the prevalence of burnout and psychopathological distress in different categories of health-care workers, i.e., physicians, nurses, and health-care assistants, working in different departments of L’Aquila St. Salvatore General Hospital 6 years after the 2009 earthquake in order to prevent and reduce work-related burnout. With a two-stage cluster sampling, a total of 8 departments out of a total of 28 departments were selected and the total sample included 300 health-care workers. All the participants completed the following self-reporting questionnaires: a sociodemographic data form, a Maslach Burnout Inventory and a General Health Questionnaire 12 Items (GHQ-12). Statistically significant differences emerged between the total scores of the GHQ-12: post hoc analysis showed that the total average scores of the GHQ-12 were significantly higher in doctors than in health-care assistants. A high prevalence of burnout among doctors (25.97%) emerged. Using multivariate analysis, we identified a hostile relationship with colleagues, direct exposure to the L’Aquila earthquake and moderate to high levels of distress as being burnout predictors. Investigating the prevalence of burnout and distress in health-care staff in a postdisaster setting and identifying predictors of burnout development such as stress levels, time-management skills and work-life balance will contribute to the development of preventative strategies and better organization at work with a view to improving public health efficacy and reducing public health costs, given that these workers live in the disaster-affected community as survivors and serve as disaster relief workers at the same time.

To assess the prognostic value of the APACHE II score and the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification system in preoperative evaluation of patients. Prospective study. University hospital, Italy. 187 consecutive patients undergoing elective or emergency major general surgical operations. Patients were evaluated preoperatively using both indices. Morbidity and mortality within 30 days. Logistic regression and ROC curve analyses showed that the APACHE II score predicted morbidity and mortality well; it was superior to the ASA system in predicting outcome (area under the curve 0.894 for the APACHE II index, 0.777 for the ASA system; p < 0.001). The APACHE II score without its age points (area 0.888) had the same prognostic value as the complete score (area 0.894; p = 0.55). The APACHE II score may help clinicians to evaluate preoperatively the risk of postoperative morbidity and death after major general surgical operations. Age does not seem to have a specific weight.

To evaluate the antiplaque effects of an alcohol-free mouthrinse containing essential oils—Listerine Zero (LZ)—and an alcohol-based essential oils mouthrinse (EO+) compared with a positive control of 0.20% chlorhexidine mouthrinse (CHX) and a negative control of a placebo solution (saline), using an in vivo plaque regrowth model of three days. The study was designed as a double-masked, randomized, crossover clinical trial, involving 21 volunteers to compare four different mouthrinses, using a three-day plaque regrowth model. After receiving thorough professional prophylaxis at baseline, over the next three days each volunteer refrained from all oral hygiene measures and performed two daily rinses with 15 mL of the test mouthrinses. EO+ was compared with LZ. CHX rinse served as a positive control and a placebo solution as a negative control. At the end of each experimental period, the Plaque Index (PI) was assessed and a panelist completed through a visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaire evaluating the organoleptic properties of each product. Each participant underwent a 14-day washout period and then there was another allocation. LZ showed the same inhibitory activity on plaque regrowth compared with EO+ in the whole mouth (PI = 1.72 versus 1.65, respectively), but there was less of an effect compared to the CHX (overall PI of 1.07) and a more efficient activity than the saline solution negative control (PI = 2.31). The difference of 0.07 between LZ and EO+ was not statistically significant. LZ seems to have the same inhibiting effect on plaque regrowth as EO+ and a less inhibiting effect than the CHX control. Both LZ and EO+, as well as the CHX control, show a better inhibiting effect on plaque regrowth than the placebo solution. ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02894593 . Registered on 4 September 2016.