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Background: Avoidance of food allergens requires adapting dietetic habits, changing nutritional approach. A restriction of food choice can result in a monotonous diet and impact social life. This study investigated the impact of food allergy on nutritional behavior and attitudes of patients and their families., Methods: A survey involving mothers of food allergic children aged 0-16 years was carried out. We primarily studied the variables related to the child (age, gender, clinical history, food and social events attitudes). In addition, Spielberg Trait-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T) test was applied to the mothers. We assessed separately the associations between characteristics of child-mother pairs and diet monotony, and attendance to social events, by means of proportional odds regression models., Results: Nearly 10% of the 124 participants completely banned allergenic foods at home and 15.3% consumed their meals separately. More than one fourth attended parties rarely or never. Most of the participants reported a "monotonous diet". Model results suggested significant associations between child age (p = 0.05), mother age (p = 0.05), number of excluded foods (p = 0.003) and monotony of the diet. The attendance of social events was inversely associated with the number of excluded foods (p = 0.04) and the mother's STAI-T T-score (p = 0.04)., Conclusions: The results highlighted the impact of food allergy in reducing interest about food and influencing patients' approach to social life. It is important to support families in managing allergens avoidance.

Background. Xenon-in-oxygen is a high density gas mixture and may improve PaO2/FiO2 ratio in morbidly obese patients uniforming distribution of ventilation during anesthesia. Methods. We compared xenon versus sevoflurane anesthesia in twenty adult morbidly obese patients (BMI > 35) candidate for roux-en-Y laparoscopic gastric bypass and assessed PaO2/FiO2 ratio at baseline, at 15 min from induction of anaesthesia and every 60 min during surgery. Differences in intraoperative and postoperative data including heart rate, systolic and diastolic pressure, oxygen saturation, plateau pressure, eyes opening and extubation time, Aldrete score on arrival to the PACU were compared by the Mann-Whitney test and were considered as secondary aims. Moreover the occurrence of side effects and postoperative analgesic demand were assessed. Results. In xenon group PaO2-FiO2 ratio was significantly higher after 60 min and 120 min from induction of anesthesia; heart rate and overall remifentanil consumption were lower; the eyes opening time and the extubation time were shorter; morphine consumption at 72 hours was lower; postoperative nausea was more common. Conclusions. Xenon anesthesia improved PaO2/FiO2 ratio and maintained its distinctive rapid recovery times and cardiovascular stability. A reduction of opioid consumption during and after surgery and an increased incidence of PONV were also observed in xenon group.