Traumatic Bilateral Bronchial Injury Requiring Pneumonectomy.

High-energy blunt thoracic trauma is a highly morbid condition. When a pneumonectomy is required in such a setting, the mortality rate increases significantly. Here, we present a case of a motor vehicular crash (MVC) in which the patient suffered bilateral bronchial injuries requiring emergent thoracotomy, pneumonectomy, bronchial stenting, and initiation of venovenous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV ECMO).

Increased early graft failure in right-sided living donor nephrectomy.

Background: Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) is well established; however, there is concern about early graft loss because of technical issues with right-sided LDN. Prior studies on the subject were mostly single centered and not powered to detect clinically significant differences in allograft failure.

Method: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of recipients of live donor kidney transplants using national registry data.

Determination of urinary trace elements (arsenic, copper, cadmium, manganese, lead, zinc, selenium) in patients with Blackfoot disease.

To determine the relationship of arsenic, copper, cadmium, manganese, lead, zinc and selenium to Blackfoot disease (BFD, a peripheral vascular disorder endemic to areas of Taiwan, which has been linked to arsenic in drinking water) the authors measured the amount of these substances in urine from BFD patients, using atomic absorption spectrometry. Results indicate significantly higher amounts of urinary arsenic, copper, cadmium, manganese, and lead for BFD patients than for normal controls, also significantly lower urinary zinc and selenium.

Simultaneous determination of urinary cadmium, cobalt, lead, and nickel concentrations in steel production workers by differential pulse stripping voltammetry.

Screening for metals in urine is important because toxic levels of these elements are linked to disease. In the current study, the authors used differential pulse stripping voltammetry on a hanging mercury drop electrode for the simultaneous determination of cadmium, cobalt, lead, and nickel in the urine of 63 production and 63 quality control workers in a steel production plant, along with 63 matched normal controls. Urinary sampling is a noninvasive procedure, and in this study participants had good compliance.