The relationship between time to first defibrillation attempt and success of resuscitation was investigated in a cohort of 6789 patients in the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. Patients for whom the time to defibrillation was more than 2 minutes had a significantly reduced likelihood of return of spontaneous circulation, survival to 24 hours, and survival to hospital discharge, as well as poorer neurologic and functional outcomes.

In this series of 250 patients with gliomas, tumor resection was guided by cortical stimulation and language testing to avoid resection of language areas. In contrast to traditional practice, testing outside the field of exposure was not required when no positive language sites were identified within the field. This “negative language mapping” strategy achieved acceptable outcomes; only 4 of 243 surviving patients had language deficits at 6 months.

Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is an anaphylactic mediator that is degraded in the blood by the enzyme PAF acetylhydrolase. In this study, patients with anaphylactic reactions were found to have higher levels of circulating PAF and lower levels of PAF acetylhydrolase activity than were patients without anaphylaxis. PAF-acetylhydrolase levels were low in patients who died as a result of an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts.

The triple chemotherapy with epirubicin plus cisplatin and fluorouracil is standard for advanced esophagogastric cancer. The fluorouracil must be infused through an ambulatory infusion pump, which impairs the quality of life; cisplatin, which is nephrotoxic, requires intravenous hydration. In this randomized trial, capecitabine, an oral fluoropyrimidine, plus oxaliplatin, a platinum compound that does not require hydration, was as effective in prolonging overall survival as was fluorouracil plus cisplatin.