Limitations in Medical Research: Recognition, Influence, and Warning.

Background: As the number of limitations increases in a medical research article, their consequences multiply and the validity of findings decreases. How often do limitations occur in a medical article? What are the implications of limitation interaction? How often are the conclusions hedged in their explanation?

Objective: To identify the number, type, and frequency of limitations and words used to describe conclusion(s) in medical research articles.

Methods: Search, analysis, and evaluation of open access research articles from 2021 and 2022 from the and 2022 for type(s) of limitation(s) admitted to by author(s) and the number of times they occurred.

Reference Hygiene and Death on the Internet - Decay, Rot, Half-Life, Deterioration, and Corruption.

Background And Objectives: References for medical articles are not always retrievable. This eliminates the ability to check on the validity of statements, methodologies, data collection, and conclusions.

Methods: References of review, scientific, and research articles published in the 2019 and 2020 were evaluated for ability to retrieve the reference cited.

Words Representing Numeric Probabilities in Medical Writing Are Ambiguous and Misinterpreted.

Background And Objective: Words of estimative probability are used in medical writing. Authors know the number they intend the word to mean, readers do not. The objective of this study is to assess the variability of words having numeric meaning to medical doctors.

A Novel Individual Mentored Methodology to Peer Review for Residents/Fellows.

Individualized guidance and assistance with constructive criticism as a mentored activity to peer review an article helps instill required rudiments, eliminate bad habits, and is shown to be beneficial to all participants. The Society of Laparoscopic & Robotic Surgeons initiated the R/F article mentoring review opportunity in 2014. The intimacy of actively debated discourse allows exposure to various peer review techniques and debate in tandem with education regarding the merits and faults of an article's hypothesis and conclusions, and how they are evaluated for publication and responses to authors.

Abdominal Compliance and Laparoscopy: A Review.

Background And Objectives: Creating and maintaining a pneumoperitoneum to perform laparoscopy is governed by gas laws and the limiting physical constraints of the abdomen.

Methods: A review of how gas, biomechanical and physical properties affect the abdomen and a systematic structured Medline and PubMed search was conducted to identify relevant studies related to the topic.

Results: Abdominal compliance is a measure of ease of abdominal expansion and is determined by the elasticity of the abdominal wall and diaphragm.

Hedging, Weasel Words, and Truthiness in Scientific Writing.

Background And Objectives: Words in scientific discourse must be truthful. Introducing ambiguity or creating a false narrative by insinuating close counts or almost statements as facts that appeal to a truth the writer wants to exist doesn't make it true. A reader's personal interpretation because of hedging or weasel words creates an opportunity for truthiness as a belief to become a fact when it isn't.

Subcutaneous emphysema--beyond the pneumoperitoneum.

Background: Subcutaneous emphysema and gas extravasation outside of the peritoneal cavity during laparoscopy has consequences. Knowledge of the circumstances that increase the potential for subcutaneous emphysema is necessary for safe laparoscopy.

Methods: A literature review and a PubMed search are the basis for this review.

Shakespeare's view of the laparoscopic pneumoperitoneum.

Background: The laparoscopic pneumoperitoneum is created and maintained in a physiologically homeostatic potential space that is 37-degrees Centigrade (°C) and covered by a wet film of peritoneal fluid. The currently used gas is carbon dioxide that is instilled at 21°C and extremely dry. Altering this privileged space is a violation of surgical safety, principles, and reason.

Laparoscopy and adhesion formation, adhesions and laparoscopy.

Laparoscopic peritoneal adhesion formation follows a pathway similar to laparotomy, both of which are only partially understood. Laparoscopic adhesion formation is complicated and influenced by pressure, dry gas desiccation, and hypoxia caused and superimposed by the pneumoperitoneum. It may further be affected by products of tissue combustion and inappropriate irrigation.

Desertification of the peritoneum by thin-film evaporation during laparoscopy.

Objective: To assess the effects of gas flow during insufflation on peritoneal fluid and peritoneal tissue regarding transient thermal behavior and thin-film evaporation. The effects of laparoscopic gas on peritoneal cell desiccation and peritoneal fluid thin-film evaporation were analyzed.

Methods: Measurment of tissue and peritoneal fluid and analysis of gas flow dynamics during laparoscopy.

Terminal gas velocity during laparoscopy.

Study Objective: To assess the effect of port size in relation to laparoscopic gas flow and to determine the terminal velocity of gas flow during insufflation.

Design: Analysis and mathematical modeling of gas flow characteristics.

Setting: University biomedical engineering department.