Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy versus placebo surgery for a degenerative meniscus tear: a 2-year follow-up of the randomised controlled trial.

Objective: To assess if arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM) is superior to placebo surgery in the treatment of patients with degenerative tear of the medial meniscus.

Methods: In this multicentre, randomised, participant-blinded and outcome assessor-blinded, placebo-surgery controlled trial, 146 adults, aged 35-65 years, with knee symptoms consistent with degenerative medial meniscus tear and no knee osteoarthritis were randomised to APM or placebo surgery. The primary outcome was the between-group difference in the change from baseline in the Western Ontario Meniscal Evaluation Tool (WOMET) and Lysholm knee scores and knee pain after exercise at 24 months after surgery.

Small-scale slow glucose feed cultivation of Pichia pastoris without repression of AOX1 promoter: towards high throughput cultivations.

Recombinant protein synthesis in Pichia pastoris is generally controlled by the strong methanol inducible AOX1 promoter which is repressed by glucose and glycerol. In shake flasks, commonly one or two methanol pulses are added per day for induction. Such pulse feeding procedure leads to carbon starvation phases, which may enhance proteolytic activities and, therefore, cause product losses.

Long-term survival and quality of life after cardiac resuscitation following coronary artery bypass grafting.

Objective: Follow-up studies of patients surviving emergency resternotomy, open cardiac massage, and additional emergency cardiac surgery following coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) remain sparse and studies focusing on health-related quality of life are lacking. Our aim was to elucidate the long-term course of patients experiencing this hazardous complication.

Methods: Between 1988 and 1999, 76 patients suffered sudden hemodynamic collapse following isolated CABG.

Medico-legal autopsy in postoperative hemodynamic collapse following coronary artery bypass surgery.

Sudden unexpected postoperative hemodynamic collapse with a high mortality develops in 1-3% of patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG). The contribution of surgical graft complications to this serious condition is poorly known and their demonstration at autopsy is a challenging task. Isolated CABG was performed in 8,807 patients during 1988-1999.

Predictive factors of hemodynamic collapse after coronary artery bypass grafting: a case-control study.

Objective: Sudden hemodynamic collapse after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is a complication with high morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to explore factors possibly predictive of this major complication.

Design: Retrospective case-control study.

N-acetylcysteine as an additive to crystalloid cardioplegia increased oxidative stress capacity in CABG patients.

Objective: This prospective, randomized study was designed to assess the effects of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients.

Design: Thirty-five consenting CABG patients with normal myocardial function were randomly divided into control (C) patients (N = 20) who received crystalloid (Plegisol) cardioplegia, and NAC patients receiving NAC in a 0.04 mol/l solution (N = 15) in Plegisol.