Improving nutritional status of children with Cerebral palsy: a qualitative study of caregiver experiences and community-based training in Ghana.

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common childhood disability worldwide, and evidence shows that children with CP are at an increased risk of malnutrition due to feeding difficulties. This qualitative study explores caregiver experiences of feeding before and after a community-based training program in Ghana.

Methods: Thirteen caregivers of children with CP, who were severely undernourished, were interviewed at the start of the training program.

Current perspectives in robotic hernia repair.

The surgical treatment of hernias has developed throughout the evolution of surgery. The fascination with hernia surgery is in part driven by its prevalence and by the variety of treatment options. Minimally invasive hernia surgery has a goal of a robust repair with minimal complications, and new robotic techniques are being developed in complex abdominal wall hernias with promising results.

Feasibility of robotic inguinal hernia repair, a single-institution experience.

Background: With the growth of the discipline of laparoscopic surgery, technology has been further developed to facilitate the performance of minimally invasive hernia repair. Most of the published literature regarding robotic inguinal hernia repair has been performed by urologists who have dealt with this entity in a concomitant way during radical prostatectomies. General surgeons, who perform the vast majority of inguinal herniorrhaphies worldwide, have yet to describe the role of robotic inguinal hernia repair.

Robotic inguinal hernia repair.

Inguinal hernias have been described throughout the history of medicine with many efforts to achieve the cure. Currently, with the advantages of minimally invasive surgery, new questions arise: what is going to be the best approach for inguinal hernia repair? Is there a real benefit with the robotic approach? Should minimally invasive hernia surgery be the standard of care? In this report we address these questions by describing our experience with robotic inguinal hernia repair.

A comparative retrospective study of robotic sleeve gastrectomy vs robotic gastric bypass.

Background: The introduction of the robotic platform to bariatric surgery has brought forth a novel approach, with modifications to the standard laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) and laparoscopic gastric bypass (LGB). The purpose of this study was to match robotic gastric bypass (RGB) vs robotic sleeve gastrectomy (RSG) and compare them to those observed with the laparoscopic platform.

Methods: A retrospective data collection of RSGs and RGBs from a single institution was performed.

Single-incision cholecystectomy: a comparative study of standard laparoscopic, robotic, and SPIDER platforms.

Background: Many series have shown the feasibility and safety of single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SILC), but this technique still has limitations such as instrument collisions and lack of triangulation. Recently, two single-incision platforms, robotic and SPIDER, have attempted to ameliorate such problems. This study aimed to compare three different techniques of single-incision cholecystectomy: standard laparoscopic, robotic, and SPIDER approaches.

Robotic sleeve gastrectomy: experience of 134 cases and comparison with a systematic review of the laparoscopic approach.

Background: Robotic technology has recently emerged in different surgical specialties, but the experience with robotic sleeve gastrectomy (RSG) is scarce in the literature. The purpose of this study is to compare our preliminary experience with RSG versus the descriptive results of a systematic review of the laparoscopic approach.

Methods: Data from our RSG experience were retrospectively collected.

Closing the gap between insecticide treated net ownership and use for the prevention of malaria.

Background: Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in children younger than 5 years old and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) reduce clinical malaria by more than 50% and all cause mortality in young children by 15% to 30%. However, use of these nets is poor across sub-Saharan Africa, limiting the potential impact of this effective tool in the fight against malaria.

T cell infiltrate and outcome following resection of intermediate-grade primary neuroendocrine tumours and liver metastases.

Background: Tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have been shown to predict survival in numerous malignancies. The importance of TILs in primary pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) and NET liver metastases (NETLMs) has not been defined.

Methods: We identified 87 patients with NETs and 39 with NETLMs who had undergone resection.

Effects of obesity in rectal cancer surgery.

Background: Increased local recurrence after total mesorectal excision (TME) in obese rectal cancer patients has been attributed to technical difficulties associated with adiposity. In this study, we evaluate whether higher body mass index (BMI) compromises surgical resection in patients with locally advanced, mid-to-low rectal cancer after neoadjuvant therapy, adversely affecting long-term oncologic outcomes.

Study Design: Five-hundred and ninety-six patients with uT3/4 and/or uN1 rectal adenocarcinoma were treated from 1998 to 2007 with neoadjuvant therapy, followed by radical resection using TME.

Severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria is associated with circulating ultra-large von Willebrand multimers and ADAMTS13 inhibition.

Plasmodium falciparum infection results in adhesion of infected erythrocytes to blood vessel endothelium, and acute endothelial cell activation, together with sequestration of platelets and leucocytes. We have previously shown that patients with severe infection or fulminant cerebral malaria have significantly increased circulatory levels of the adhesive glycoprotein von Willebrand factor (VWF) and its propeptide, both of which are indices of endothelial cell activation. In this prospective study of patients from Ghana with severe (n = 20) and cerebral (n = 13) P.

von Willebrand factor propeptide in malaria: evidence of acute endothelial cell activation.

The pathogenicity of Plasmodium falciparum is thought to relate to the unique ability of infected erythrocytes to adhere to and subsequently activate the vascular endothelium. To study the state of endothelial activation during falciparum malaria, we measured plasma levels of both von Willebrand factor (VWF) and its propeptide, indices of chronic and acute endothelial cell perturbation, respectively. Results were correlated with clinical and biochemical markers of disease severity, including plasma lactate.