Periprosthetic joint infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis are associated with higher complication and mortality rates.

Introduction: Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) remains the most devasting complication after total joint arthroplasty (TJA). There has been a significant focus on this topic in recently-published medical literature. However, relatively little has been published about PJI in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which are often physiologically frail and immunocompromised.

Excessive tryptophan catabolism along the kynurenine pathway precedes ongoing sepsis in critically ill patients.

It has recently been shown that an increased plasma level of the tryptophan catabolite kynurenine is an early indicator for the development of sepsis in major trauma patients. We examined the predictive value of kynurenine pathway activity for ongoing sepsis in patients being admitted to a surgical intensive care unit for different reasons. In addition, we asked whether an accumulation of kynurenines in patients' plasma depends on reduced renal clearance.

Laser ablation of metastatic lesions of the lung: long-term outcome.

Objective: Pulmonary metastatic lesions are present in 20-54% of all patients who die of cancer. Surgical studies have shown that local management of distant tumor metastasis as part of multimodal cancer therapy improves survival. Minimally invasive procedures such as thermal ablation are still to prove their clinical relevance.

Implantation of alloplastic material increases survival of mice subsequently exposed to polymicrobial sepsis.

Purpose: Major surgery can modulate the immune system and by this the clinical course of following complications. Effects of minor surgical treatments on the immune system and septic complications are poorly understood.

Materials And Methods: We investigated the effect of a minor surgical procedure--the implantation of an osmotic pump--on the outcome of experimental polymicrobial sepsis (colon ascendens stent-induced peritonitis, CASP) in mice.

Selective depletion of alveolar macrophages in polymicrobial sepsis increases lung injury, bacterial load and mortality but does not affect cytokine release.

Background: Resident tissue macrophages exert important functions during severe systemic infection and contribute to changes in local as well as systemic immune responses. Alveolar macrophages (AM) play a crucial role in airway diseases and in the defense against microorganisms invading the body via the bronchopulmonary tract. It has been postulated that AM are involved in the development of acute local disorders as a consequence of extrapulmonary stimuli like pancreatitis, peritonitis, or trauma.