Immediate effect of manual therapy techniques on the limitation of ankle dorsiflexion: a randomized, controlled, blind clinical trial protocol.

Background: The range of motion (RoM) of dorsiflexion (DF) plays an important role in human mobility, such as absorption of body weight during gait deceleration, jump landings, balance, and eccentric movements. This limitation can generate potentially damaging movements. This way, evaluating techniques for DF RoM increase could help improve immediate performance in such functional activities.

Percutaneous solutions for biliary stent dysfunction: pictorial essay.

Plastic and metal biliary stents can fail to function properly, such failure being due to a positioning error or to the migration, occlusion, or fracture of the stent. An obstructed biliary stent can act as a nidus, causing complications such as recurrent persistent cholangitis. It can also cause vascular complications (such as bleeding and the formation of pseudoaneurysms), perforate the liver capsule (causing biloma or abscess), or, in rare cases, cause intestinal obstruction or perforation.

Does the Approach of the Lateral Platysmal Bands Widen the Gap between the Medial Bands?

Background: The first visible change in an aging face and neck is the loss of neck contour, which can be corrected by treating the platysmal bands; however, it remains unclear as to which is the best strategy to approach these bands. The aim of the present study is to verify whether the lateral platysmal bands approaches, before the medial ones, cause widening of the gap between them.

Methods: This is a prospective, randomized, comparative study involving 30 individuals presenting various stages of neck and facial flaccidity and sagging.

Impeller geometry definition of the transventricular assist device.

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death worldwide, except Africa, where Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome is the leading cause of death. In this scenario, the ventricular assist device (VAD) remains the unique alternative to extend patient life until heart transplantation. At Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology, the research and development of an axial flow VAD to be fully implantable within the heart was started.

[Expansive laminoplasty: an alternative for the treatment of cervical spondyloarthrosis].

We describe the surgical technique of expansive cervical laminoplasty and analyse the results in 28 patients treated by this method for cervical spondylotic myelopathy with a minimum follow-up of six months. Twenty-four patients (86%) had clinical improvement according to the Nurick scale while three (10%) had no improvement and one patient died on the first days post-operatively. The good results achieved demonstrate that this technique is simple, effective and has few complications on the treatment of spondylotic myelopathy.