Pressure-Sensing Gastric Calibration Tube for Minimizing Sleeve Volume Variation in Sleeve Gastrectomy Compared with Current Standard Technique.

The sleeve gastrectomy technique is dependent on the size of the bougie and the surgeon's technical skills. Standardization of the sleeve gastrectomy technique may potentially minimize the volume inconsistency and improve outcomes. A volume and pressure-sensitive gastric calibration tube may create a standard sleeve size and minimize interoperator variation.

Pregnancy success and outcomes after uterine fibroid embolization: updated review of published literature.

Females with symptomatic leiomyomas (fibroids) wishing to maintain fertility are faced with difficult treatment choices. These include uterine fibroid embolization (UFE), myomectomy, hormonal therapy, MRI high intensity focused ultrasound, and myolysis. This review focuses on UFE, one of the most commonly accepted minimally invasive procedural choices among patients with symptomatic fibroids wishing to retain the option of becoming pregnant in the future, and makes comparisons to myomectomy which has historically been the surgical choice for fertility-preserving fibroid treatment.

Fully automated intracranial ventricle segmentation on CT with 2D regional convolutional neural network to estimate ventricular volume.

Purpose: Hydrocephalus is a clinically significant condition which can have devastating consequences if left untreated. Currently available methods for quantifying this condition using CT imaging are unreliable and prone to error. The purpose of this study is to investigate the clinical utility of using convolutional neural networks to calculate ventricular volume and explore limitations.

Novel stem cell and gene therapy in diabetic retinopathy, age related macular degeneration, and retinitis pigmentosa.

Degenerative retinal disease leads to significant visual morbidity worldwide. Diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration are leading causes of blindness in the developed world. While current therapies for these diseases slow disease progression, stem cell and gene therapy may also reverse the effects of these, and other, degenerative retinal conditions.

The potential for machine learning algorithms to improve and reduce the cost of 3-dimensional printing for surgical planning.

Introduction: 3D-printed anatomical models play an important role in medical and research settings. The recent successes of 3D anatomical models in healthcare have led many institutions to adopt the technology. However, there remain several issues that must be addressed before it can become more wide-spread.

The potential role of bioengineering and three-dimensional printing in curing global corneal blindness.

An insufficiency of accessible allograft tissue for corneal transplantation leaves many impaired by untreated corneal disease. There is promise in the field of regenerative medicine for the development of autologous corneal tissue grafts or collagen-based scaffolds. Another approach is to create a suitable corneal implant that meets the refractive needs of the cornea and is integrated into the surrounding tissue but does not attempt to perfectly mimic the native cornea on a cellular level.

Brain injury and neural stem cells.

Many therapies with potential for treatment of brain injury have been investigated. Few types of cells have spurred as much interest and excitement as stem cells over the past few decades. The multipotentiality and self-renewing characteristics of stem cells confer upon them the capability to regenerate lost tissue in ischemic or degenerative conditions as well as trauma.

Hormonal therapy in traumatic spinal cord injury.

Traumatic spinal cord injuries are major health problems and the underlying pathophysiological events and treatment strategies are currently under investigation. In this article, we critically reviewed the literature investigating the effects of estrogen, progesterone, and human chorionic gonadotropin on spinal cord damage or preservation following traumatic spinal cord injury. The National Library of Medicine database was searched through December 2016 using PubMed for articles addressing the clinical relevance of the hormones to improve neural structural integrity following traumatic spinal cord injury.