Transeptal suturing - a cost-efficient alternative for nasal packing in septal surgery.

Introduction: Nasal packing is routinely used in septal surgery to prevent postoperative bleeding.

Objective: To demonstrate the possibility of transeptal suture as a safe and effective way to avoid nasal packing and to improve efficiency.

Methods: This is a prospective, descriptive, inferential cost study comprising 92 patients.

Cochlear implants in adults over 60: a study of communicative benefits and the impact on quality of life.

Objectives: Quantifying the improvement in quality of life (QoL) of cochlear implant (CI) patients over 60, its relation to audiometric benefits and the subjective impact on specific areas of life.

Methods: An observational retrospective study was conducted on 26 individuals (17 male and 9 female) older than 60, all implanted in our unit between 1 January 1999 and 31 January 2009. And 10 patients (5 male and 5 female) aged between 40 and 60 were the control group.

Analysis of polymorphisms in interleukin-10, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist in Mexican-Mestizo women with pre-eclampsia.

Due to the fact that studies seeking associations of polymorphisms in regulatory regions of cytokine genes with pre-eclampsia (PE) have not always been consistent in different population analyses, the aim of this study was to investigate the possible association between rs1800896 of interleukin-10 (IL-10), rs1800795 of interleukin-6 (IL-6), and the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) in intron 2 of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), as well as gene-gene interactions between these three polymorphisms with the presence of PE in Mexican-Mestizo women and one Amerindian population from México (Maya). A case-control study was performed where 411 pre-eclamptic cases and 613 controls were genotyped. For the rs1800896 of IL-10 and rs1800795 of IL-6, we used real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) allelic discrimination and for the VNTR of IL-1Ra, PCR.

Use of telemedicine in the remote programming of cochlear implants.

Conclusion: Remote cochlear implant (CI) programming is a viable, safe, user-friendly and cost-effective procedure, equivalent to standard programming in terms of efficacy and user's perception, which can complement the standard procedures. The potential benefits of this technique are outlined.

Objectives: We assessed the technical viability, risks and difficulties of remote CI programming; and evaluated the benefits for the user comparing the standard on-site CI programming versus the remote CI programming.