Managing Career Transitions in Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Transitions during a career in cardiothoracic surgery include transition to practice following residency, multiple transitions over the course of the career, and transition to retirement. Each carries some degree of uncertainty and stress, and early preparation for each transition is key to success. A clear understanding of both professional and personal goals drives decisions and choices along the course of a career.

Management of Native Lung Malignancy in a Lung Transplant Recipient.

A 75-year-old male patient with a history of previous right lung transplant presented with left upper lobe squamous cell carcinoma. Endobronchial ultrasound and positron emission tomography displayed no mediastinal lymphadenopathy. A ventilation-perfusion scan displayed minimal perfusion to the native lung.

Social Disparities in Benign Lung Diseases.

The many socioeconomic disparities in the myriad of diagnoses that make up benign lung diseases are unfortunately a global issue that was most recently highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. In this chapter, we will be reviewing the socioeconomic disparities in benign lung disease from both a United States perspective as well as a global perspective. We will cover the spectrum of infectious, obstructive, and restrictive lung disease and review the evidence on how social disparities affect these populations and their access to medical care.

Unusual Presentation of a Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor in a Small Intestine Diverticulum.

A 50-year-old female with no significant medical history initially presented to an urgent care center with symptoms of acute onset abdominal pain, nausea, and emesis. Chest and abdominal X-ray revealed free air under the diaphragm, prompting immediate transfer to the emergency department. Continued abdominal tenderness and pain were concerning for perforated viscus.

Donor quality assessment and size match in lung transplantation.

Careful donor quality assessment and size match can impact long-term survival in lung transplantation. With this article, we review the conceptual and practical aspects of the preoperative donor lung quality assessment and size matching.

The EPIC procedure (Endoscopic-assisted Pilonidal Irrigation and Cleaning): a simple and effective treatment for pilonidal disease.

Background: Pilonidal disease (PD) is a common condition of the sacrococcygeal region leading to inflammation and abscess formation. PD is a topic of renewed interest due to the lack of satisfactory management options. Minimally invasive techniques have recently been investigated, with promising results in adult and pediatric populations.

Women and Minorities Underrepresented in Academic Cardiothoracic Surgery: It's Time for Next Steps.

Background: Women and racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented among U.S. physicians, but are limited data on cardiothoracic surgery diversity.

Trends in surgery and disparities in receipt of surgery for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in the US: 2005-2014.

Background: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC) is a malignancy with an increasing incidence. Surgery is the only treatment modality associated with long term survival. The objective of this study is to utilize a nationwide representative database to quantify the trends in incidence, and surgery for IHC in the United States from 2004-2014, as well as identify any disparities in the receipt of surgery.

A Retrospective Review of Clinical Admissions to Afghan National Security Forces Health Care Institutions.

Background: Few published reports have examined the numbers of civilian injuries treated at Military Treatment Facilities in the Afghan Theater of Operations. However, review of Department of Defense Trauma Registry revealed a persistent percentage of civilians treated by NATO, and this study compares the proportion of civilians served by Afghan and Coalition military hospitals between 2009 and 2013.

Methods: A retrospective review of records from Department of Defense trauma Registry for Coalition data, and Afghan data from the Office of the Inspector General.

An unusual case of jaundice: Biliary tumor thrombus in fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FL-HCC) is a rare and unique variant of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) whose presentation remains inadequately described. We present a resectable case of FL-HCC which involved tumor thrombus of the common bile duct.

Presentation: A 27 year-old male presenting with jaundice, abdominal pain, vomiting, hepatic dysfunction and hyperbilirubinemia was found to have a large liver mass and lymphadenopathy on preoperative imaging.

Population model of bladder motion and deformation based on dominant eigenmodes and mixed-effects models in prostate cancer radiotherapy.

In radiotherapy for prostate cancer irradiation of neighboring organs at risk may lead to undesirable side-effects. Given this setting, the bladder presents the largest inter-fraction shape variations hampering the computation of the actual delivered dose vs. planned dose.

Cortical surface reconstruction based on MEG data and spherical harmonics.

Estimates of coefficients of a spherical harmonic Fourier decomposition of the cortical surface can be obtained solely using MEG/EEG data and free energy as objective function. A stochastic methodology based on a Metropolis Search followed by a Bayesian Model Averaging is proposed to reconstruct cortical anatomy based functional information.

Random location of multiple sparse priors for solving the MEG/EEG inverse problem.

MEG/EEG brain imaging has become an important tool in neuroimaging. Current techniques based in Bayesian approaches require an a-priori definition of patch locations on the cortical manifold. Too many patches results in a complex optimisation problem, too few an under sampling of the solution space.

Protein network prediction and topological analysis in Leishmania major as a tool for drug target selection.

Background: Leishmaniasis is a virulent parasitic infection that causes a worldwide disease burden. Most treatments have toxic side-effects and efficacy has decreased due to the emergence of resistant strains. The outlook is worsened by the absence of promising drug targets for this disease.