A study of the bioengineered surgical sponge.

The postoperatively retained foreign body (PORFB) can induce complications leading to the need for follow-up surgery to ensure its removal, to treat or prevent the formation of an abscess, and to minimize the risk of death for the patient and liability for the surgeon and hospital. The most common cause of PORFB complications is the surgical sponge. Previously, PORFB prevention was focused on improved efficiency in RFB counting; however, because of the inability to entirely eliminate human error, cost, and the potentially unproven patient outcome improvement, new approaches have been sought.

Adjunctive sympathoplegic therapy to ACE inhibition in Blacks with congestive heart failure: a comparison of alpha-1 with beta-1 blockade on exercise tolerance and cardiac sympathovagal reflex activity.

Objectives: Congestive heart failure (CHF) is characterized by an initial compensatory, but subsequently deleterious, activation of both the renin-angiotensin (RAS) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Incomplete suppression of the SNS may contribute to the residual mortality during optimal ACE inhibitor therapy in CHF. Carvedilol, a mixed alpha and beta-blocker with antioxidant properties, and other pure beta-adrenoceptor blockers reduce morbidity and mortality in Caucasians with CHF.