Objective To investigate the role of clinical pharmacists in warfarin therapy. Methods A total of 134 patients underwent prosthetic heart valve replacement and had warfarin for life from March 2013 to October 2013 in Fujian Medical University Union Hospital. All patients were equally divided into two groups (an intervention and a non-intervention group) crosswise by sequence. There were 67 patients in each group. The anticoagulant effects of the two groups were compared. Results There was no statistical difference in the patients' demographic information between the two groups. However, the time for the patients to reach the target international normalized ratio(INR) values for the first time (7.1±3.3 dvs. 10.5±5.0 d,P=0.000) and time of INR in the therapy range (46.3%±18.8%vs.19.0%±16.2%,P=0.000) during their hospitalization, proportion of time of under anticoagulation (47.5%±19.5%vs. 71.2%±22.9%,P=0.000), proportion of time of anticoagulation overdose (5.3%±8.2%vs. 9.9%±16.7%,P=0.002) were significantly different. While there was no statistical difference in postoperative hospitalization time between the two groups (19.9±6.6 dvs. 18.1±7.0 d,P=0.137). There were 4 patients (6.0%) with minor hemorrhage and no severe complication was found in the intervention group. There were seven patients (10.4%) with mild hemorrhage, two patients with stroke, one patient with mild pulmonary embolism, and severe complication rate of 4.5% in the non-intervention group. Conclusion With clinical pharmacists involved in the whole anticoagulation therapy progress of patients after mechanical heart valve replacement, the time to achieve the therapeutic window for the first time is effectively shorten, and the time of the INR value controlled in therapeutic range is highly improved during hospitalization time. Moreover, the patients' risk of thrombosis and bleeding is eventually reduced.
Objective To evaluate the cl inical outcomes of the wide resection and the functional reconstruction for treating mal ignant tumors of the proximal femur. Methods The cl inical data were analysed from 62 patients with mal ignant tumors of the proximal femur treated between January 1987 and December 2007. There were 29 males and 33 females with a median age of 35 years (range, 14-73 years). In 41 patients with primary mal ignant tumors having a disease course of 0.5-14.0 months, there were 16 cases of osteosarcoma, 7 cases of fibrosaroma, 6 cases of chondrosarcoma, 6 cases of mal ignant fibrous histiocytoma, 4 cases of mesenchymal sarcoma,1 case of Ewing sarcoma, and 1 case of angiosarcoma, including 3 cases of type IB, 2 cases of type IIA, 35 cases of type IIB, and 1 case of type III according to Enneking stage. In 21 patients with metastatic tumors, 16 had a mal ignant tumor history; the disease course was 0.1-28.0 months (3.4 months on average). Radical resection was performed in 9 cases, extensive resection in 39 cases, and marginal resection in 14 cases. After resection, 39 cases underwent reconstruction with prostheses (prostheses group) and 14 cases underwent reconstruction with allograft-prosthetic composites (APC, APC group). Results All incision healed by first intention. Twenty-six cases died of tumor metastasis,their postoperative survive time was 16-56 months (28 months on average). The average follow-up time was 64 months (range, 28-221 months) in 36 survival patients. The local recurrence rate of primary mal ignant tumors was 4.88% (2/41). In prostheses group, dislocation of femoral head occurred in 2 cases, fracture of prosthetic stem in 1 case, hip pain in 3 cases, acetabular wear in 3 cases, and stem loosening in 5 cases. In APC group, nonunion of APC occurred in 3 cases and acetabular wear in 1 case. At last follow-up, the average Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) functional scores were 77.69% ± 6.50% in prostheses groupand 85.71% ± 7.45% in APC group, showing significant difference (P lt; 0.001). Conclusion When the wide resection isperformed for mal ignant tumors of the proximal femur, better local control could be achieved. Compared with econstruction of the prosthesis, the APC reconstruction can provide better function.