Aging dysregulates neutrophil extracellular trap formation in response to HIV in blood and genital tissues.

Women acquire HIV through sexual transmission, with increasing incidence in women >50 years old. Identifying protective mechanisms in the female genital tract (FGT) is important to prevent HIV-acquisition in women as they age. Human genital and blood neutrophils inactivate HIV by releasing neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), an innate protective mechanism against HIV-infection.

Aging modifies endometrial dendritic cell function and unconventional double negative T cells in the human genital mucosa.

Background: Immune function in the genital mucosa balances reproduction with protection against pathogens. As women age, genital infections, and gynecological cancer risk increase, however, the mechanisms that regulate cell-mediated immune protection in the female genital tract and how they change with aging remain poorly understood. Unconventional double negative (DN) T cells (TCRαβ + CD4-CD8-) are thought to play important roles in reproduction in mice but have yet to be characterized in the human female genital tract.

Cancer Screening in Women.

Advancements in cancer screening techniques have allowed for earlier detection of cancer at premalignant or early stages of disease. Several organizations have guidelines for screening strategies for breast, cervical, colon, and lung cancer. Ovarian cancer remains the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive tract; however, guidelines have yet to be shown effective in identifying ovarian cancer at earlier stages.

Opioid use after laparoscopic hysterectomy: prescriptions, patient use, and a predictive calculator.

Background: In the setting of America's opioid epidemic, judicious postoperative opioid prescribing is important. Gynecologists lack standard guidelines about postoperative opioid prescriptions.

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to describe opioid prescribing practices by a group of minimally invasive gynecologic surgeons, to measure postoperative opioid use after minimally invasive hysterectomy, and to identify preoperative factors that could predict whether a patient will be a low or high postoperative opioid user.

Determining a Learning Curve for Contained Hand Tissue Extraction: Perioperative Outcomes and Operative Time.

Study Objective: To compare the operative time of contained hand tissue extraction with power morcellation and to quantify the learning curve required to develop this skill.

Design: A retrospective cohort study (Canadian Task Force classification II-3).

Setting: Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, a suburban academic tertiary care center serving a broad base of patients.

Contained tissue extraction using power morcellation: prospective evaluation of leakage parameters.

Background: Safe tissue removal is a challenge for minimally invasive procedures such as myomectomy, supracervical hysterectomy, or total hysterectomy of a large uterine specimen. There is concern regarding disruption or dissemination of tissue during this process, which may be of particular significance in cases of undetected malignancy. Contained tissue extraction techniques have been developed in an effort to mitigate morcellation-related risks.

Bilateral Bell palsy as a presenting sign of preeclampsia.

Background: Bell palsy is a facial nerve neuropathy that is a rare disorder but occurs at higher frequency in pregnancy. Almost 30% of cases are associated with preeclampsia or gestational hypertension. Bilateral Bell palsy occurs in only 0.

Suture compared with staple skin closure after cesarean delivery: a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: To compare the incidence of wound complications between suture and staple skin closure after cesarean delivery.

Methods: This prospective, randomized clinical trial conducted at three hospitals in the United States between 2010 and 2012 included women undergoing cesarean delivery at 23 weeks of gestation or greater through a low-transverse skin incision. Women were randomized to closure of the skin incision with suture or staples after stratifying by body mass index and primary compared with repeat cesarean delivery.