Editorial de la revista número 2 del año 2016

Abstract

This issue includes two contributions from the Otorhinolaryngology Service. Dr. Carlos S. Ruggeri analyzes the Service’s experience in the surgical resection of parapharyngeal space tumors using transoral and endonasal approaches. Based on a patient case, Dr. Elián García Pita reviews the clinical characteristics of squamous cell carcinoma of the external ear, as well as its treatment with surgery and radiotherapy.

The Psychiatric Inpatient Ward is a setting where the complexity of mental pathology requires group-based thinking. Dr. Daniel León Matusevich recounts the process of learning psychiatry in the inpatient setting, drawing an analogy with the Seven Principles of Learning by David Perkins, professor of Teaching and Learning at Harvard University.

The “Hospital Italiano in Medline” section includes commentary on two publications. Ultrasonography is sensitive for detecting synovitis and assessing disease activity. Dr. Javier Rosa, from the Rheumatology Section, discusses the clinical experience using a simplified ultrasound score in the follow-up of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Patients over 60 years old with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a worse prognosis than younger patients. Dr. Alberto Giménez Conca retrospectively analyzes mortality predictors in patients over 60 years with non-promyelocytic AML who began treatment in the Hematology Section between 1991 and 2014.

Dr. Julio C. Montero, from the Argentine Society of Obesity and Eating Disorders (SAOTA), analyzes the apparent relationship between the voluntary or inadvertent consumption of artificial sweeteners in foods and beverages and undesired consequences on nutrition, metabolism, and gut microbiota. These pleiotropic effects could even favor weight gain and glucose intolerance.

Dr. Romina D. Albite, from the Anesthesiology Service of our Hospital, reviews the influence of genetic polymorphisms on the metabolism and response to drugs used in the anesthetic procedure, postoperative care, and pain management. Examples include genetic polymorphisms affecting pain sensitivity or linked to opioid response.

Dr. María Luz Bollea Garlatti, from the Dermatology Service, presents the case of an elderly woman with scabies, an underdiagnosed ectoparasitosis due to low clinical suspicion stemming from the prejudice that it is associated with poor hygiene. Low clinical suspicion and treatment with glucocorticoids favor progression to severe forms such as Norwegian or erythrodermic scabies.

In the Humanities section, Carlos G. Musso and Paula A. Enz address chronic boredom and the frantic search for self-destructive distractions in the character Emma from Gustave Flaubert’s work Madame Bovary.