Laparoscopic assistance by operating room nurses: Results of a virtual-reality study.

Background: Laparoscopic assistance is often entrusted to a less experienced resident, medical student, or operating room nurse. Data regarding laparoscopic training for operating room nurses are not available.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to analyse the initial performance level and learning curves of operating room nurses in basic laparoscopic surgery compared with medical students and surgical residents to determine their ability to assist with this type of procedure.

Indometacin-induced gastrointestinal lesions in relation to tissue concentration, food intake and bacterial invasion in the rat.

The effect of food intake and gut bacterial flora on gastrointestinal lesions caused by oral indometacin (IND) was studied in rats. A dose of 10 mg/kg IND caused no intestinal lesions when the animals were starved before and after treatment; it produced moderate lesions when the animals were continuously fed and maximal lesions when the animals were fed in the postdrug period after starvation in the predrug period. Under germ-free conditions, 15 mg/kg IND induced significantly less intestinal lesions than under specific pathogen-free conditions.

Effect of oral 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 on gastric mucosal salicylate concentration in the rat.

The effect of 16,16-dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (DmPGE2), in doses subthreshold for antisecretory activity, were examined in female rats. The aims were to determine if DmPGE2 alters the disposition of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) within the gastric mucosa and if DmPGE2 could attenuate the ulcerogenic effect of oral ASA. Gastric lesions occurred after an oral, but not an intravenous dose of 150 mg/kg ASA.