The best marketing strategy in aesthetic plastic surgery: evaluating patients' preferences by conjoint analysis.

Background: To provide the best marketing strategy for a private clinic, knowledge of patients' preferences is essential. In marketing, conjoint analysis has been frequently used to calculate which attributes of a product are most valuable to consumers.

Methods: This study investigates the relative importance of attributes that influence the selection and decision-making process when choosing an aesthetic private clinic, using conjoint analysis.

"Scarless" umbilicoplasty: a new umbilicoplasty technique and a review of the English language literature.

Many techniques have been described for umbilicoplasty after abdominoplasty, but none of these techniques seems ideal. In this report, we wish to report a new "scarless" umbilicoplasty technique, which bears many of the characteristics of an ideal technique: it is easy to perform and results in the complete absence of visible scars and with a preferred vertical orientation. The aesthetic results of this technique are subjectively and objectively evaluated as compared with the classic umbilicoplasty and these results are discussed among the English language literature.

Long-term follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of suture versus mesh repair of incisional hernia.

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the best treatment of incisional hernia, taking into account recurrence, complications, discomfort, cosmetic result, and patient satisfaction.

Background: Long-term results of incisional hernia repair are lacking. Retrospective studies and the midterm results of this study indicate that mesh repair is superior to suture repair.

Randomized clinical trial of non-mesh versus mesh repair of primary inguinal hernia.

Background: The optimum method for inguinal hernia repair has not yet been determined. The recurrence rate for non-mesh methods varies between 0.2 and 33 per cent.

A comparison of suture repair with mesh repair for incisional hernia.

Background: Incisional hernia is an important complication of abdominal surgery. Procedures for the repair of these hernias with sutures and with mesh have been reported, but there is no consensus about which type of procedure is best.

Methods: Between March 1992 and February 1998, we performed a multicenter trial in which we randomly assigned to suture repair or mesh repair 200 patients who were scheduled to undergo repair of a primary hernia or a first recurrence of hernia at the site of a vertical midline incision of the abdomen of less than 6 cm in length or width.

The low transverse Pfannenstiel incision and the prevalence of incisional hernia and nerve entrapment.

Objective: The authors determined the prevalence of incisional hernia and nerve entrapment in patients with a low transverse Pfannenstiel incision.

Summary Background Data: The literature on the Pfannenstiel incision suggests an incisional hernia rate of 0.0% to 0.

Incisional hernia recurrence following "vest-over-pants" or vertical Mayo repair of primary hernias of the midline.

A series of 68 primary midline incisional hernias with a vertical Mayo repair was evaluated retrospectively. Patients without documented hernia recurrence following this repair were invited for physical examination. Life-table methods were used for statistical analysis.

Foreign material in postoperative adhesions.

Objective: The authors determined the prevalence of foreign body granulomas in intra-abdominal adhesions in patients with a history of abdominal surgery.

Patients And Methods: In a cross-sectional, multicenter, multinational study, adult patients with a history of one or more previous abdominal operations and scheduled for laparotomy between 1991 and 1993 were examined during surgery. Patients in whom adhesions were present were selected for study.

[Intra-abdominal adhesions and foreign-body granulomas following earlier laparotomy].

Objective: To determine the prevalence of foreign body granulomas in intra-abdominal adhesions in patients subjected to relaparotomy.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: University Hospital Rotterdam-Dijkzigt, the Netherlands.

An evaluation of risk factors in incisional hernia recurrence.

In the present study, generally accepted risk factors for developing a primary incisional hernia are reviewed for their influence on the development of recurrent incisional hernia. The records of 417 patients undergoing an incisional hernia repair between 1980 and 1989 at the University Hospital Rotterdam were reviewed retrospectively, and in the event no hernia recurrence was documented, patients were asked to visit the outpatient department for physical examination. Patients having a primary incisional hernia (n = 302) were selected and patient related factors of gender, age, obesity, chronic cough, prostatism, constipation, diabetes mellitus and the use of corticosteroids were analyzed.

Oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate for premedication in paediatric outpatients.

Two doses (10-15 micrograms.kg-1, Group I, and 15-20 micrograms.kg-1, Group II) of oral transmucosal fentanyl citrate (OTFC) plus a placebo (Group III) were evaluated for premedication in 105 healthy children, aged 2 to 13 yr, undergoing short (less than 1 hr) operations in the hospital short-stay unit.