Automatic retrieval of bone fracture knowledge using natural language processing.

Natural language processing (NLP) techniques to extract data from unstructured text into formal computer representations are valuable for creating robust, scalable methods to mine data in medical documents and radiology reports. As voice recognition (VR) becomes more prevalent in radiology practice, there is opportunity for implementing NLP in real time for decision-support applications such as context-aware information retrieval. For example, as the radiologist dictates a report, an NLP algorithm can extract concepts from the text and retrieve relevant classification or diagnosis criteria or calculate disease probability.

Porcine intact and wounded skin responses to atmospheric nonthermal plasma.

Thermal plasma is a valued tool in surgery for its coagulative and ablative properties. We suggested through in vitro studies that nonthermal plasma can sterilize tissues, inactive pathogens, promote coagulation, and potentiate wound healing. The present research was undertaken to study acute toxicity in porcine skin tissues.

Safety of ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy of neck lesions in patients taking antithrombotic/anticoagulant medications.

We examined records of patients who underwent ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (USGFNAB) of neck lesions to determine whether there was a significantly increased incidence of bleeding complications in patients on antithrombotic and/or anticoagulant (AT/AC) medications compared to patients not receiving AT/AC therapy. Our institutional review board approved this Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant retrospective examination of patients' medical data without requiring informed consent. The records of 593 patients (422 women and 171 men ranging from 18 to 91 years of age) who underwent USGFNAB of 788 total neck lesions over an 18-month period were reviewed to determine AT/AC medication used and evidence of USGFNAB-related bleeding complications.

Initial surgeon training for single port access surgery: our first year experience.

Background: We have developed a single port access (SPA) surgical technique that allows for procedures to be done through a single umbilical port incision <20 mm in length. For a new approach to be universally beneficial, it needs to be easily learned and applied.

Methods: Single port access abdominal procedures are performed through one umbilical incision where skin and soft tissue flaps are raised from the underlying fascia to allow insertion of up to 4 instruments.

Single-port-access (SPA) cholecystectomy: a multi-institutional report of the first 297 cases.

Background: An important aspect of a new surgical technique is whether it can be performed by other surgeons in other institutions. The authors report the first 297 cases in a multi-institutional and multinational review of laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed via a single portal of entry.

Methods: Data were collected retrospectively for the initial patients undergoing single-port cholecystectomy by 13 surgeons who performed these procedures in their institutions after training by the authors.

Single Port Access (SPA) laparoscopic ventral hernia repair: initial report of 30 cases.

Background: Laparoscopic ventral hernia repair has been demonstrated to be an acceptable and successful technique. Aside from similar, albeit fewer, complications compared to open hernia repair, the laparoscopic technique has the additional complication of port site hernia to its follow-up criteria. Our initial experience with reduced port surgery in hernias was described as a two-port one-stitch repair technique in 2002.

Evaluation of negation and uncertainty detection and its impact on precision and recall in search.

Radiology reports contain information that can be mined using a search engine for teaching, research, and quality assurance purposes. Current search engines look for exact matches to the search term, but they do not differentiate between reports in which the search term appears in a positive context (i.e.

CT pulmonary angiography: quantification of pulmonary embolus as a predictor of patient outcome--initial experience.

Purpose: To determine whether quantification of pulmonary embolus (PE) with computed tomographic (CT) pulmonary angiography by using a standardized index is a predictor of patient outcome.

Materials And Methods: Multi-detector row CT was performed in 59 hospitalized patients (mean age, 61 years; age range, 22-89 years). PE was identified retrospectively by two radiologists who were blinded to patient outcome.