Randomized clinical trial comparing TVT Secur system and trans vaginal obturator tape for the surgical management of stress urinary incontinence.

Introduction And Hypothesis: This prospective randomized study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of the TVT-Secur (TVT-S) with the trans vaginal obturator tape (TVT-O) for the treatment of stress urinary incontinence.

Methods: We set out to enroll 136 patients in our study. 106 patients with stress urinary incontinence were randomized to either the TVT-S (n = 56) or TVT-O (n = 50) procedure.

Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the cultured rabbit intervertebral disc: a novel cell source for disc repair.

Objective: Back pain associated with symptomatic disc degeneration is a common clinical condition. Intervertebral disc (IVD) cell apoptosis and senescence increase with aging and degeneration. Repopulating the IVD with cells that could produce and maintain extracellular matrix would be an alternative therapy to surgery.

Volume imaging in the abdomen with ultrasound: how we do it.

Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate the feasibility of volumetric acquisition of the abdominal organs using performance guidelines that we developed in our preliminary experience.

Materials And Methods: Mechanical volumetric acquisitions of each abdominal organ, including the liver, gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, spleen, bowel, and aorta, were performed in 200 consecutive patients.

Results: One thousand four hundred fifty-four volume data sets were graded for feasibility of performance and technical adequacy from I (impossible, incomplete) to V (excellent, complete).

Palliative treatment of painful bone metastases with MR imaging--guided focused ultrasound.

Purpose: To evaluate the safety and initial efficacy of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging-guided focused ultrasound for the palliation of pain caused by bone metastases in patients in whom standard available treatments had been ineffective or not feasible.

Materials And Methods: Informed consent was obtained in 11 patients (seven women, four men; average age, 58.6 years) with pain related to non-weight-bearing bone metastases who were subsequently treated with MR imaging-guided focused ultrasound in this research and ethics board-approved study.

Ethical issues associated with the introduction of new surgical devices, or just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

Surgical devices are often marketed before there is good evidence of their safety and effectiveness. Our paper discusses the ethical issues associated with the early marketing and use of new surgical devices from the perspectives of the six groups most concerned. Health Canada, which is responsible for licensing new surgical devices, should amend their requirements to include rigorous clinical trials that provide data on effectiveness and safety for each new product before it is marketed.

Tension-free vaginal tape procedure is an ideal treatment for obese patients.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of obesity on the success of the tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) procedure for stress urinary incontinence. Specifically, do patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 kg/m(2) or greater have a lower cure rate of stress urinary incontinence?

Study Design: This retrospective cohort study identified 35 patient pairs who had undergone TVT in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, for stress urinary incontinence from November 1999 to July 2001. Obese patients (defined as BMI greater than or equal to 35 kg/m(2)) were paired with nonobese patients (defined as BMI less than or equal to 30 kg/m(2)).