Thighplasty after bariatric surgery: evaluation of lymphatic drainage in lower extremities.

Background: Bariatric surgery for morbid obesity achieves an accentuated weight loss, with skin and soft tissue redundancy in some corporal segments, including the thighs. The thigh lift is a plastic surgery that improves this redundant tissue in the medial thigh area, but this surgical procedure may have complications, such as inferior migration of the scar, delayed wound healing, vulvar distortion, and lymphatic system alterations.

Methods: To evaluate the effect of the thighplasty on the lymphatic system, 14 patients were prospectively included in this study.

Soft-x-ray laser interferometry of a plasma with a tabletop laser and a Lloyd's mirror.

We report what is believed to be the first demonstration of soft-x-ray interferometry of a plasma with a tabletop soft-x-ray laser. A Lloyd's mirror interferometer was used in combination with a very compact lambda = 46.9 nm capillary-discharge-pumped laser to map the electron density in the cathode region of a pinch plasma.

[Predictors of choledocholithiasis in patients sustaining acute biliary pancreatitis].

Background: To assess the role of alkaline phosphatase (AP), gamil-glutamyltransferase (gammaGT) and abdominal ultrasound (US) as predictors of choledocholithiasis in patients sustaining acute biliary pancreatitis.

Methods: Data was prospectively collected during a period of 31 months. Forty patients were included, 30 were female and the mean age was 49 +/- 16.

Soft-x-ray laser interferometry of a pinch discharge using a tabletop laser.

We have used a tabletop soft-x-ray laser and a wave-front division interferometer to probe the plasma of a pinch discharge. A very compact capillary discharge-pumped Ne-like Ar laser emitting at 46.9 nm was combined with a wave division interferometer based on Lloyd's mirror and Sc-Si multilayer-coated optics to map the electron density in the cathode region of the discharge.

Dynamics of a microcapillary discharge plasma using a soft x-ray laser backlighter.

We have used the new technique of soft x-ray laser shadowgraphy in combination with traditional plasma emission spectroscopy and theoretical modeling to study the dynamics of a plasma column created by a discharge through a 380 &mgr;m diameter evacuated microcapillary. The transient microcapillary plasma was imaged with high-spatial and temporal resolution using a tabletop discharge pumped 46.9-nm laser backlighter.

Finsterer-Bancroft operation: an option for the treatment of difficult duodenal ulcers.

Background: In the surgical management of duodenal ulcers, the most feared complications are related to the treatment of the duodenal stump after Billroth lI-type gastric resections. Such complications are more evident in so-called 'difficult duodenum' cases, whose identification is directly related to the surgeon's experience. Among available techniques to avoid those complications, one is the treatment of the antralduodenal stump by the method of pre-pyloric exclusion and removal of antral mucosa, as proposed by Finsterer in 1918 and diffused by Bancroft in 1932.

Operation and output pulse characteristics of an extremely compact capillary-discharge tabletop soft-x-ray laser.

We report on the operating parameters and laser output pulse characteristics of an extremely compact discharge-pumped 46.9-nm laser of a size comparable with that of many widely utilized visible and ultraviolet gas lasers. This capillary-discharge laser generated subnanosecond laser pulses with energies of as much as 25microJ by single-pass amplification in an 18.