The effect of the lunar cycle on frequency of births and birth complications.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the lunar cycle on the frequency of deliveries and/or delivery complications.

Study Design: This was a retrospective cohort, secondary analysis of 564,039 births across 62 lunar cycles that were identified from North Carolina birth certificate data from 1997 to 2001.

Results: Using analysis of variance and t-tests, we found no significant differences in the frequency of births, route of delivery, births to multigravid women, or birth complications across the 8 phases of the moon or between documented high- and low-volume intervals of the lunar cycle.

A comparison of infraclavicular nerve block versus general anesthesia for hand and wrist day-case surgeries.

Background: General anesthesia (GA) and brachial plexus block have been used successfully for surgery on the upper extremities. Controversy exists as to which method is more suitable in outpatients undergoing hand and wrist surgery. The authors hypothesized that infraclavicular brachial plexus block (INB) performed with a short-acting local anesthetic would result in shorter time to discharge home as compared with "fast-track" GA.

Communicating bronchopulmonary pancreatic foregut malformation.

Bronchopulmonary foregut malformations include intralobar and extralobar pulmonary sequestrations, bronchogenic cysts, and communicating bronchopulmonary foregut malformations (CBPFM). These malformations, formes frustes, originate as developmental abnormalities of ventral foregut budding of the tracheobronchial tree or the gastrointestinal tract. The communication's patency with the parent viscus determines if a contained malformation occurs, or if an abnormal communication persists as a CBPFM.

Neonatal appendiceal perforation and Hirschsprung's disease.

The case of a boy infant with neonatal appendiceal perforation who presented at 9 years of age with Hirschsprung's disease is reported. A retrospective review of the microscopic sections of the appendix demonstrated periappendicitis without transmural inflammation. The importance of differentiating between true appendicitis and periappendicitis in a neonate with appendiceal perforation is stressed, in order to avoid a missed diagnosis of Hirschsprung's disease.

Massive thymic hyperplasia in an adolescent.

Massive thymic hyperplasia (weight, greater than 100 gm) is a rare lesion in adolescents, and most of the anterior mediastinal masses are true neoplasms. We present a case of massive thymic hyperplasia, in which a 680-gm thymus was resected from a 15-year-old boy. We also present the computed tomographic scan appearance of this lesion, which differed from that previously described, and correlate the histological and radiological findings.