Reply to Theodorou et al. Comment on "Umemoto et al. Management of Migraine-Associated Vestibulocochlear Disorders. 2023, , 528-545".

We thank the authors for their insightful and thoughtful commentary on our recent publication [...

A Novel Technique of Reduction Meatoplasty for Correction of Very Large Meatus from a Previous Canal Wall-Down Mastoidectomy.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of reduction meatoplasty, a novel technique aiming to improve the usage of molded hearing aids and ear plugs in patients undergoing mastoid obliteration of a previous canal wall-down (CWD) mastoidectomy, complicated with a very large meatus.

Patients: Twenty-six patients from a tertiary care neurotology clinic with a very large meatus from a previous CWD mastoidectomy, who were unable to use molded hearing aids or ear plugs for water protection.

Intervention: Reduction meatoplasty after mastoid obliteration (cartilage strips and bone pate) of the CWD mastoidectomy.

Medical Therapies to Conquer Surgical Diseases: Gallstone Disease May Be the Next Frontier.

Over the past half century, diseases that were predominantly treated surgically have transitioned to less invasive medical therapies. Such diseases that are now effectively treated with medicine are (1) peptic ulcer disease (PUD), (2) coronary artery disease (CAD), and (3) gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Likewise, gallstone disease may soon follow this trend.

Water, a powerful tool in surgery.

Inflammation of the gallbladder, also known as acute cholecystitis, may be caused by infection and inflammation of the gallbladder wall due to bile stasis, with or without gallstones. It is one of the most common surgical procedures that are performed laparoscopically. Gangrenous gallbladders are one of the most difficult conditions to treat clinically and surgically, being the cause of many medical malpractice litigations.

National Survey of Sharps Injuries Incidence Amongst Healthcare Workers in the United States.

Purpose: Reporting sharps injuries is crucial for healthcare worker occupational safety. However, these incidents are often underreported, thus posing potentially dangerous working environments. Previous small and limited studies have quantified this underreporting in specific groups of healthcare workers.

Novel Application of Hydrodissection in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy for Gangrenous Gallbladders.

Introduction: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) for gangrenous gallbladders (GGBs) can be challenging and represent a significant number of LC cases, necessitating more efficacious surgical techniques. Currently, the standard treatment for GGBs is blunt dissection which can have high iatrogenic complication rates. To our knowledge, this is the first large retrospective study conducted on the novel application of hydrodissection (HD) in LCs for GGBs.

Hydrodissection in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomies for Gangrenous Gallbladders.

To improve the quality of patient care for cholecystectomies for gangrenous gallbladders, multiple innovations have been introduced including laparoscopic and robotic surgery. However, laparoscopic cholecystectomies for gangrenous gallbladders performed by blunt dissection still represents one of the most technically challenging general surgery procedures, with a high rate of iatrogenic complications and suboptimal measures for key surgical parameters such as length of stay, operating time, and blood loss. For this reason, the novel use of surgical techniques such as hydrodissection, which involves the expulsion of normal saline streams at a predetermined pressure, for cholecystectomies for gangrenous gallbladders are of utmost importance.

Procedure room innovation during the COVID-19 crisis: Protecting healthcare workers while learning from history.

The impact of the recent pandemic on healthcare workers highlights the need to improve the working environment in hospitals. This is especially true in procedural rooms such as the operating and delivery rooms, which inherently require extended exposure to the virus, allows no social distancing, and generates aerosolized virus into the room through the use of the equipment. While reviewing the history of the development of the current Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC), we identified inadequacies in the architecture and regulations of the system that resulted in insufficient protection during the current pandemic.

Evidence for DNA-mediated nuclear compartmentalization distinct from phase separation.

RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) and transcription factors form concentrated hubs in cells via multivalent protein-protein interactions, often mediated by proteins with intrinsically disordered regions. During Herpes Simplex Virus infection, viral replication compartments (RCs) efficiently enrich host Pol II into membraneless domains, reminiscent of liquid-liquid phase separation. Despite sharing several properties with phase-separated condensates, we show that RCs operate via a distinct mechanism wherein unrestricted nonspecific protein-DNA interactions efficiently outcompete host chromatin, profoundly influencing the way DNA-binding proteins explore RCs.

Evaluating the Utility of Canine Mdr1 Knockout Madin-Darby Canine Kidney I Cells in Permeability Screening and Efflux Substrate Determination.

Permeability assays are commonly conducted with Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells to predict the intestinal absorption of small-molecule drug candidates. In addition, MDCK cells transfected to overexpress efflux transporters are often used to identify substrates. However, MDCK cells exhibit endogenous efflux activity for a significant proportion of experimental compounds, potentially leading to the underestimation of permeability and confounded findings in transport studies.