Robotic versus laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy: an up-to-date meta-analysis.

Background: Laparoscopic distal pancreatectomy (LDP) reduces postoperative morbidity, hospital stay and recovery as compared with open distal pancreatectomy. Many authors believe that robotic surgery can overcome the difficulties and technical limits of LDP thanks to improved surgical manipulation and better visualization. Few studies in the literature have compared the two methods in terms of surgical and oncological outcome.

Clinical evaluation of a hyaluronan-based gel following microsurgical reconstruction of peripheral nerves of the hand.

A controlled clinical trial was performed to investigate the safety and efficacy of the hyaluronate-based gel polymer Hyaloglide after microsurgical reconstruction of peripheral nerves of the hand. Thirty patients were randomized to receive either no postsurgical treatment (n = 16) or Hyaloglide (n = 14) and were clinically evaluated at various intervals for 1 year. The application of Hyaloglide posed no safety concerns.