Doctors at Lviv’s First Medical Association have performed a unique ALPPS operation on a 10-month-old boy’s liver, actually growing a part of it in the baby’s body.
According to the press service of the medical center, almost all of the baby’s organ was affected by a malignant tumor, and the proportion of healthy tissue was only 15%.
To save the patient, surgeons at St. Nicholas Children’s Hospital, which is part of Lviv’s First Medical Association, performed an extremely rare operation in world medicine – ALPPS, which involves cardinal resection, or almost complete removal of the liver.
The baby’s malignant tumor was detected at four months of age. The baby lost his appetite, stopped gaining weight, and his skin turned pale. Doctors at the St. Nicholas Hospital, which has the only Center for Cholestatic Diseases in Children in the western regions of Ukraine, found a huge 8 cm malignant liver tumor that had spread to all four sectors of the organ. Its main part was localized in the center, where the main vessels pass. Therefore, the boy was classified as a high-risk patient.
Preparation for the ALPPS surgery lasted about a month. During the first stage, the surgeons divided the liver into healthy and tumor-affected parts, and the vessels supplying the “diseased” area were compressed so that the tumor stopped growing, but the organ continued to perform its function. After the intervention, 15% of the separated healthy liver tissue quadrupled in size within a week after the surgery, so the doctors managed to grow enough tissue from a critical small volume for the next stage of the operation.
The neoplasm partially affected the inferior vena cava, which removes purified blood from the organ. During the second stage, the affected vein was replaced and the diseased part of the liver was completely removed. Now the boy continues to receive chemotherapy.
“The results of regular examinations are encouraging: the liver has regenerated to its full size and is working without fail. The boy finally regained his appetite and started to gain weight. In July, Demianchyk will celebrate his first birthday,” the medical center’s press service commented on the patient’s progress.
The decision to mix vaccines against COVID-19 will be made exclusively by the doctor who directs the person to vaccination, said Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin.
“The main recommendation was that, in fact, mixing of vaccines is allowed, but subject to the algorithm. Mixing one or another vaccine is not the choice of the patient, it is solely the decision of the doctor who directs for vaccination,” he said in an interview with the Ukrayinska Pravda publication.
According to Kuzin, the doctor can make such a decision only in a few cases: if after the first dose the patient had a severe adverse reaction; due to humanitarian problems. For example, if a person abroad received the first Moderna vaccination and, having returned to Ukraine, does not have the opportunity to be vaccinated with it for the second time.
The deputy minister added that it is possible to combine either mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer), or the first dose of AstraZeneca, and the second with mRNA vaccines. Mixing of other types of vaccines is not envisaged yet.
Nowadays fast food is an unavoidable part of nutrition of an average urban resident. It is being promoted by aggressive advertising of fast food restaurant chains whose main task is to attract as many customers as possible and increase sales. The hidden side of such policy is addiction of a large number of people to ill-balanced and unhealthy nutrition, which, in turn, causes general health deterioration and even dangerous diseases.
Doctor of Biological Sciences Sviatoslav Leonov, who is also a healthy nutrition expert, in his commentary to the Expert Club YouTube channel spoke about the most popular products sold by the largest fast food restaurant chains, giving detailed description of each of them in terms of the contents of various harmful substances in them.
According to the expert, almost all fast food products contain transfat and are high in calories. Consumption of such food causes obesity and other bad consequences.
“Hamburgers, for example, often contain flavor intensifiers. It’s quite simple: you ate it, you enjoyed it, and you felt full-bellied. That’s how a habit is formed which enhances the likelihood of the fact that the customer will buy more and more,” Leonov said.
According to the expert, margarine is often used in fast food as its cost value is much lower than that of natural butter or plant oil. Meanwhile, a part of molecules of fat are transformed into the so-called transfat, which in high amounts is extremely dangerous for human health.
The expert also said that beverages proposed to fast food consumers are rich in carbohydrates which are accumulated in human body and build up excess weight, while desserts, including milkshakes, create a medium for the development of numerous microorganisms that may cause eating disorders and diarrhea.
The full video is available on the Expert Club channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3VxYuY-lg
Tags: expert club, expert, healthy diet, nutrition, fast food, unhealthy eating, transfat, hamburger
Two million patients have signed declarations with doctors over the first month of the campaign for choosing a primary care physician, titled “Doctor for Each Family,” the press service of the Ukrainian Health Ministry has reported. The most active are patients from Kharkiv region, where 230,600 declarations were signed, Kyiv region (225,000), Vinnytsia region (over 186,000), as well as Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions (177,700 and 168,000 respectively).
A total of 1,245 medical institutions providing primary health care have currently been connected to the e-health system. As many as 19,000 doctors can sign declarations with patients. A thousand doctors joined the system last week. According to the report, 73% of patients have already signed declarations with primary care physicians, 15% with therapists, and 12% with pediatricians. Ukrainians at the age of 40-64 years are most actively choosing doctors.
