Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open
February 2024
Background: The keystone perforator island flap (KPIF) was described almost a decade ago. However, this flap has only recently been recognized for its advantages in various clinical applications in plastic surgery. A better understanding of the versatility of KPIFs can help promote the widespread adoption of this technique for complex wounds in various anatomical regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLOS Glob Public Health
September 2023
PLOS Glob Public Health
July 2023
Academic global surgery is a rapidly growing field that aims to improve access to safe surgical care worldwide. However, no universally accepted competencies exist to inform this developing field. A consensus-based approach, with input from a diverse group of experts, is needed to identify essential competencies that will lead to standardization in this field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hospital price transparency is federally mandated to improve consumer accessibility. We aimed to evaluate how hospitals were complying with these regulations for elective hernia repairs.
Methods: Searches were performed for different hospital systems in attempt to find a price for the procedure using author's own health insurance.
Background: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) mandate that every US hospital provide public online pricing information for services rendered. This allows patients to compare prices across hospital systems before establishing care. The goal of this project was to evaluate hospital compliance and patient-level accessibility to price transparency for common breast cancer surgical procedures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine the prevalence of COVID-19 postmortem setting in Lusaka, Zambia.
Design: A systematic, postmortem prevalence study.
Setting: A busy, inner-city morgue in Lusaka.
Unlabelled: Recently, a new liver allocation policy called the acuity circles (AC) framework was implemented to decrease geographic disparities in transplant metrics across donor service areas. Early analyses have examined the changes in outcomes because of the AC policy. However, perceptions among transplant surgeons and staff regarding the new policy remain unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the pre-mRNA leakage 39-kDa protein (ScPml39) was reported to retain unspliced pre-mRNA prior to export through nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Pml39 homologs outside the Saccharomycetaceae family are currently unknown, and mechanistic insight into Pml39 function is lacking. Here we determined the crystal structure of ScPml39 at 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Oncoplastic breast reduction mammoplasty (ORM) is an excellent treatment option for women with breast cancer and macromastia undergoing breast conservation therapy. Here, we aim to better understand the risks associated with ORM compared to standard reduction mammoplasty (SRM).
Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed of patients undergoing ORM or SRM from 2015 to 2021.
Introduction: We aimed to search the literature for global surgical curricula, assess if published resources align with existing competency frameworks in global health and surgical education, and determine if there is consensus around a fundamental set of competencies for the developing field of academic global surgery.
Methods: We reviewed SciVerse SCOPUS, PubMed, African Medicus Index, African Journals Online (AJOL), SciELO, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature (LILACS) and Bioline for manuscripts on global surgery curricula and evaluated the results using existing competency frameworks in global health and surgical education from Consortium of the Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) professional competencies.
Results: Our search generated 250 publications, of which 18 were eligible: (1) a total of 10 reported existing competency-based curricula that were concurrent with international experiences, (2) two reported existing pre-departure competency-based curricula, (3) six proposed theoretical competency-based curricula for future global surgery education.
Background: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been shown to improve common symptoms of neurological disorders like depressed mood, fatigue, motor deficits and cognitive dysfunction. tDCS requires daily treatment sessions in order to be effective. We developed a remotely supervised tDCS (RS-tDCS) protocol for participants with multiple sclerosis (MS) to increase accessibility of tDCS, reducing clinician, patient, and caregiver burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been explored as a potential intervention in Parkinson's disease (PD) and recent studies have shown promising results in cognitive, gait and motor function. However, evidence of efficacy is limited due to small size studies, short treatment periods, lack of standardization of methodologies and other study design limitations. Remotely supervised-tDCS (RS-tDCS) allows "at-home" study participation, potentially easing recruitment, compliance and overall feasibility for clinical studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe remotely supervised tDCS (RS-tDCS) protocol enables participation from home through guided and monitored self-administration of tDCS treatment while maintaining clinical standards. The current consensus regarding the efficacy of tDCS is that multiple treatment sessions are needed to observe targeted behavioral reductions in symptom burden. However, the requirement for patients to travel to clinic daily for stimulation sessions presents a major obstacle for potential participants, due to work or family obligations or limited ability to travel.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) exert a psychological and physiological toll that increases risk of chronic conditions, poorer social functioning, and cognitive impairment in adulthood.
Objective: To investigate the relationship between childhood adversity and clinical disease features in multiple sclerosis (MS).
Methods: Sixty-seven participants with MS completed the ACE assessment and neuropsychological assessments as part of a larger clinical trial of cognitive remediation.
Background: AMPAkines augment the function of α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors in the brain to increase excitatory outputs. These drugs are known to relieve persistent pain. However, their role in acute pain is unknown.
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