Risk Factors for Post-cardiac Surgery Infections.

Background Cardiac surgery infection is a life-threatening complication associated with high morbidity and mortality. One of the main types of these infections, surgical site infections (SSIs), also called postoperative wound infections basically delayed the post-surgical recovery in many patients. These infections rarely happen within 30 days after surgery due to different risk factors.

Placental pathology as a marker of brain injury in infants with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.

Background: Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) can lead to devastating consequences for the affected infant. Although therapeutic cooling benefits infants with moderate and severe HIE, differentiating mild from moderate-severe HIE may be challenging. The placenta reflects the fetal intrauterine environment and may reveal underlying processes that affect brain injury.

Effect of Nigella sativa supplementation to exercise training in a novel model of physiological cardiac hypertrophy.

Exercise training is employed as supplementary therapy to patients with heart failure due to its multiple beneficial cardiac effects including physiological remodeling of the heart. However, precautions might be taken for the concomitant high oxidant release. Nigella sativa (NS) has been found to induce cardiac hypertrophy and enhance cardiac function.

Comparison of Nigella sativa- and exercise-induced models of cardiac hypertrophy: structural and electrophysiological features.

Exercise training is employed as supplementary therapeutic intervention for heart failure, due to its ability to induce physiological cardiac hypertrophy. In parallel, supplementation with Nigella sativa (N. sativa) was found to enhance myocardial function and induce cardiac hypertrophy.

A comparison of the Laryngopharyngeal Examination blade and the English Macintosh laryngoscope blade using an intubating manikin: a prospective randomized crossover study.

Background And Objective: To compare the new design laryngoscope blade, Laryngopharyngeal Examination blade, with the English Macintosh blade for examination of the laryngopharynx and placement of a nasogastric tube in the presence of a tracheal tube, time taken to insert the nasogastric tube and for tracheal intubation in an adult intubation manikin.

Methods: A prospective randomized and crossover trial with 81 anaesthetists of different expertise taking part in the study. Ease of laryngoscopy and tracheal intubation, examination of hypopharynx and time taken to insert the nasogastric tube were measured using the new design laryngoscope blade compared with the Macintosh blade in a manikin.

Comparison of three disposable extraglottic airway devices in spontaneously breathing adults: the LMA-Unique, the Soft Seal laryngeal mask, and the Cobra perilaryngeal airway.

Background: The authors compared three disposable extraglottic airway devices in spontaneously breathing anesthetized adults: the LMA-Unique (LMA-U; The Laryngeal Mask Company, San Diego, CA), the Soft Seal laryngeal mask (SS-LM; Portex Ltd., Hythe, United Kingdom), and the Cobra perilaryngeal airway (Cobra-PLA; Engineered Medical Systems, Inc. Indianapolis, IN).

Medical ethics and tomorrow's physicians: an aspect of coverage in the formal curriculum.

Medical ethics has created contentious issues and requires reforms in medical education such as renewed emphasis on formal instruction. The aim here was to review the current status of bioethics teaching in medical schools, determine Saudi students' perception of its coverage in the formal curriculum and make recommendations. Using a self-administered questionnaire in a cross-sectional study, undergraduate students' opinion about medical ethics coverage was obtained.

Comparison of cuff-pressure changes in LMA-Classic and the new Soft Seal laryngeal masks during nitrous oxide anaesthesia in spontaneous breathing patients.

Background And Objective: There are concerns over the intra-cuff pressure of the laryngeal mask and laryngopharyngeal morbidity. In a randomized study, the authors compared cuff-pressure changes in the LMA-Classic and the new disposable Soft Seal laryngeal mask during nitrous oxide anaesthesia.

Methods: Two-hundred adult patients were randomly assigned to a size 4 laryngeal mask in two equal-sized groups for airway management: (a) the re-usable LMA-Classic, or (b) the new disposable Soft Seal laryngeal mask.

Comparison of the LMA-classic with the new disposable soft seal laryngeal mask in spontaneously breathing adult patients.

Background: The laryngeal mask airway LMA-Classic has been used widely in clinical practice. A new disposable supraglottic airway device, the Soft Seal LM, has been introduced recently. In a randomized study, the authors compared the LMA-Classic and the disposable Soft Seal LM in terms of their clinical performance, cuff pressures during nitrous oxide anesthesia, position of the laryngeal mask in situ by fiberoptic evaluation, and morbidity in a wide range of routine general surgery procedures.

Evaluation of pressure changes in a new design tracheal tube cuff, the Portex Soft Seal, during nitrous oxide anaesthesia.

We have measured pressure changes in a newly designed tracheal tube cuff, the Portex Soft Seal, during nitrous oxide anaesthesia compared with a Mallinckrodt Lo-Contour tube and a Portex Profile tube. The pressure increases in both control groups were significantly greater than those with the new design (P < 0.0001 in each case).