Antibiotic Prophylaxis and Spinal Infection After Gunshot Wounds to the Spine: A Retrospective Study.

Introduction: Spinal and paraspinal infections (SPIs) are a potential complication following traumatic spinal column injury, and we sought to determine the association of antibiotic prophylaxis on SPI development following a spinal gunshot wound (GSW).

Methods: A single-center retrospective cohort study was performed on adults who sustained a GSW to the spinal column over 11 y. Patients were excluded if they died within 24 h or had a mechanism other than GSW.

Trauma surgeon-performed peripheral arterial repairs are associated with equivalent outcomes when compared with vascular surgeons.

Background: Civilian extremity trauma with vascular injury carries a significant risk of morbidity, limb loss, and mortality. We aim to describe the trends in extremity vascular injury repair and compare outcomes between trauma and vascular surgeons.

Methods: We performed a single-center retrospective review of patients 18 years or older with extremity vascular injury requiring surgical intervention between January 2009 and December 2019.

Pediatric liver transplantation for hepatocellular cancer and rare liver malignancies: US multicenter and single-center experience (1981-2015).

A tenth of all pediatric liver transplantations (LTs) are performed for unresectable liver malignancies, especially the more common hepatoblastoma (HBL). Less understood are outcomes after LT for the rare hepatocellular carcinoma, nonhepatoblastoma embryonal tumors (EMBs), and slow growing metastatic neuroendocrine tumors of childhood. Pediatric LT is increasingly performed for rare unresectable liver malignancies other than HBL.

Host conditioning and rejection monitoring in hepatocyte transplantation in humans.

Background & Aims: Hepatocyte transplantation partially corrects genetic disorders and has been associated anecdotally with reversal of acute liver failure. Monitoring for graft function and rejection has been difficult, and has contributed to limited graft survival. Here we aimed to use preparative liver-directed radiation therapy, and continuous monitoring for possible rejection in an attempt to overcome these limitations.

The Role of ARF6 in Biliary Atresia.

Background & Aims: Altered extrahepatic bile ducts, gut, and cardiovascular anomalies constitute the variable phenotype of biliary atresia (BA).

Methods: To identify potential susceptibility loci, Caucasian children, normal (controls) and with BA (cases) at two US centers were compared at >550000 SNP loci. Systems biology analysis was carried out on the data.

The effect of nerve-sparing robot-assisted radical cystoprostatectomy on erectile function in a preoperatively potent population.

Objective: To evaluate the effects on the potency of a bilateral cavernosal nerve-sparing approach to robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) in a preoperatively potent population.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of 254 patients who underwent RARC between 2003 and 2012 at our single institution. We identified 33 men who were younger than 65 years and had evidence of preoperative erections on chart review.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic ureteral reimplantation: a single surgeon comparison to open surgery.

Objective: The aim was to report a single surgeon's experience comparing open and robot-assisted laparoscopic extravesical ureteral reimplantation (RALUR) to treat vesicoureteral reflux (VUR).

Subjects And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of RALUR and open extravesical ureteral reimplantations consecutively performed by a single surgeon between January 2008 and December 2010 using the da Vinci(®) Surgical System. Both groups of patients were subjected to identical pre- and postoperative care protocols.

Parent perspectives on decisions to participate in a phase I hepatocyte transplant trial.

We examined factors that affect decision-making for families presented with a phase I clinical trial of hepatocyte transplant as a potential alternative to liver transplant for their children among two groups: (i) families who were actually offered enrollment in the hepatocyte trial and; (ii) families whose children had liver transplants before the trial was available. We conducted semi-structured interviews about actual and hypothetical decision-making regarding trial participation and used grounded theory analysis to identify common themes. The most common motivator for participation was decline in the child's health.

The anterolateral thigh flap for groin and lower abdominal defects: a better alternative to the rectus abdominis flap.

Background: Historically, the mainstay of soft-tissue reconstruction in the groin and lower abdomen has been the anatomically consistent, easily elevated rectus abdominis flap, with variations. Insetting the rectus abdominis flap here requires creating an abdominal wall defect through which to pass the pedicle, which raises the risk of donor-site morbidity. Although popular as a free flap, the anterolateral thigh flap as a pedicled flap in the groin and lower abdomen has not been directly compared with the rectus abdominis flap.

Analysis of national and single-center incidence and survival after liver transplantation for hepatoblastoma: new trends and future opportunities.

Background: Liver transplantation (LTx) for hepatoblastoma appears to be increasing. Favorable tumor histology is increasingly linked to survival after surgical resection and could also determine posttransplantation outcomes.

Methods: To evaluate national trends in tumor and LTx incidence as the basis for observations at some LTx centers, and determinants of survival after LTx for hepatoblastoma, we queried the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registry representing 9.

Robot-assisted laparoscopic ipsilateral ureteroureterostomy for ectopic ureters in children: description of technique.

Purpose: We report our experience and present our technique with the robot-assisted laparoscopic ipsilateral ureteroureterostomy (IUU) in the management of ureteral duplication with ectopia in children.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed our institutional experience for all patients who underwent a robot-assisted laparoscopic IUU at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children's Hospital between December 2010 and October 2011. An intraoperative, three-port technique was used after a ureteral stent was placed into the ipsilateral lower pole.

Sacral neural crest-derived cells enter the aganglionic colon of Ednrb-/- mice along extrinsic nerve fibers.

Both vagal and sacral neural crest cells contribute to the enteric nervous system in the hindgut. Because it is difficult to visualize sacral crest cells independently of vagal crest, the nature and extent of the sacral crest contribution to the enteric nervous system are not well established in rodents. To overcome this problem we generated mice in which only the fluorescent protein-labeled sacral crest are present in the terminal colon.

A dual-channel flexible ureteroscope: evaluation of deflection, flow, illumination, and optics.

Background And Purpose: Despite the evolution and progressive improvements of ureteroscopes, problems related to visibility and maneuverability can still hinder the goals of surgical intervention. We evaluate the attributes of a dual-channel flexible ureteroscope compared with a single-channel device and discuss the implications for expanded techniques afforded by this new technology.

Materials And Methods: In vitro measurements of active deflection, irrigant flow through the working channel, luminescence, and optical resolution were performed between the single-channel Wolf Viper and the dual-channel Wolf Cobra ureteroscopes.

Effects of video digitization in pubic arch interference assessment for prostate brachytherapy.

Recently, it has been shown that prior to surgery a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) study of the prostate and pubic arch can effectively determine pubic arch interference (PAI), a major stumbling block for the prostate brachytherapy (radioactive seed implantation) procedure. This PAI determination is currently being done with digital images taken directly from an ultrasound (US) machine. However, 70-75% of US machines used in prostate brachytherapy do not have a method to save or transfer digital image data for external use.

Behavioral attraction of Leach's storm-petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) to dimethyl sulfide.

A recent model for olfactory foraging by procellariiform seabirds suggests that these birds use biogenic sulfur compounds to locate productive areas for foraging in the southern oceans. The present study refines a simple approach to test birds' responses to odors on land and extends our knowledge to a northern species, the Leach's storm-petrel (Oceanodroma leucorhoa). Rather than working at sea, we tested the behavioral response to dimethyl sulfide (DMS) at night in breeding colonies on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada.

Energy expenditure and fluid production in hyperbaric He-O2 environments using doubly labeled water.

Energy expenditure (EE), carbon dioxide production (rCO2), water turnover (rH2O), and urine production (UP) were measured to determine nutrient requirements of U.S. Navy divers during saturation dives.

Fluid and cation changes during head-out immersions in 25 degrees and 35 degrees C water.

To compare fluid and ion changes during cold (25 degrees C) and thermoneutral head-out immersion (HOI) 9 men were studied under 4 resting conditions lasting 3 h: 2 in 35 degrees C and 2 in 25 degrees C water. At each temperature, subjects consumed 250 ml of either water or a 7% glucose polymer solution every hour to evaluate possible differences in fluid composition. Plasma volume increased by 3.