Publications by authors named "Sami Alnassar"

An interosseous ganglion cyst is a very rare entity, found mostly in skeletally mature patients, particularly in long bones such as the tibia and femur. However, we are the first to report here an unusual case of interosseous ganglion cyst of the upper ribs in a young female patient, which she had an unpredicted presentation of cough and hemoptysis and a large painful lump over the anterior left upper chest. The radiological and pathological workup confirmed the presence of a benign interosseous ganglion cyst arising from the left first rib, invading the second rib and the apex of the left lung.

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Objective: To measure medical students' perceptions of their educational environment and to determine the potential differences in those perceptions with regard to gender and the year of study.

Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine, Dar Al Uloom University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2018-19, and comprised medical students enrolled at the college. Data was collected using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure scale.

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Background And Aims: Mechanical ventilation (MV) with high tidal volume (Vt.) may induce or aggravate lung injury in critically ill patients. It might also cause an overwhelming systemic inflammation leading to acute lung injury (ALI), diffuse alveolar damage (DAD) and multiple organ failure (MOF) with subsequent high mortality.

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Background And Objective: Worldwide chest trauma is considered one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. There is a lack of sufficient information on the etiology, pattern, and management of these injuries in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the current study was conducted to determine the spectrum of chest trauma and its associated factors among patients admitted to King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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Benign acquired broncho-esophageal fistula (BEF) in adults is a very rare entity and has not been reported properly in the literature, compared to malignant BEF. Nonetheless, infection has predisposed most of the reported benign acquired BEF cases. We report here a case of tuberculous BEF, in a patient with a history of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).

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Background And Objectives: Medical education has a profound impact on health care system. Progress in achieving medical education research goals varies over time and across countries. This study aimed to investigate the medical education research ambience in Asia during the period 1965-2015.

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Background: Hyperhidrosis is a functional disorder identified by excessive sweating. Its incidence is approximately 1% in any population. Bilateral endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (BETS) intervention is the definitive treatment of choice for palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis.

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Cutis laxa (CL) is a rare connective tissue disease characterized by a loose, wrinkled, and inelastic skin. Here, we report an unusual presentation in a 15-year-old male patient who is a known patient of CL who presented with bilateral pneumothorax. He was successfully managed initially by chest tube insertion and then he was treated surgically with bilateral staged thoracoscopy, apical bullectomy, and pleurodesis with full uneventful recovery.

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The occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) arising in a Zenker's diverticulum is a very rare incident. Complete excision of the diverticulum is considered as the procedure of choice for SCC in the pharyngeal pouch. Histopathological assessment of the pouch is the only modality to rule out SCC.

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Amyloidosis is defined as abnormal aggregation of amyloid proteins. Amyloidosis can be localised or systemic affecting the lung, heart, spleen, liver and kidneys. The most common form of pulmonary amyloidosis is the nodular type.

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Background: Interstitial lung diseases are diseases that need histology diagnosis or obtaining a lung biopsy to establish the diagnosis. Surgical biopsies are performed usually using the thoracoscopy technique under general anesthesia (GA) although this procedure is still associated with morbidity rate. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness and safety of regional anesthesia (RA) compared with GA in thoracoscopic lung biopsy procedures done on patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

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Fibromatosis is a rare, benign, slow-growing and locally infiltrative tumour, caused by uncontrolled proliferation of fibrous tissue arising from muscles, connective tissue, fasciae and aponeurosis. It is also called desmoid tumour, which is very rare pathology representing only 0.03% of all neoplasms in human and around 3% of all soft tissue tumours.

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Objective: To assess the awareness and causes of antibiotics use and misuse in patients with upper respiratory tract infections.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from January 2014 to December 2015, and comprised patients suffering from upper respiratory tract infections. A well-established, self-administrated questionnaire was randomly distributed to the patients.

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Background: The students' perception of the learning environment is an important aspect for evaluation and improvement of the educational program. The College of Medicine at King Saud University (KSU) reformed its curriculum in 2009 from a traditional to a system-oriented hybrid curriculum.

Objective: The objective of the present study was to determine the perception of the second batch (reformed curriculum) of medical graduates about the educational environment at the College of Medicine, KSU, using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) scale.

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Article Synopsis
  • Traumatic chest injuries are common in motor vehicle accidents and can lead to high mortality rates, particularly in severe cases like complete tracheobronchial injury.
  • A 37-year-old female involved in an MVA initially had stable vital signs but soon experienced severe hypoxia and complications during intubation, leading to significant respiratory distress.
  • After failed attempts to insert a breathing tube, a bronchoscopy revealed major injuries; surgery successfully repaired her trachea and right main bronchus, addressing the life-threatening conditions.
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Introduction: Tobacco smoking is a well-known risk factor for postoperative complications. Quitting smoking prior to surgery helps overcome those complications.

Problem: Surgeons' attention for educating their patients about the importance of smoking cessation prior to surgery is one of the most effective ways to reduce smoking-related surgical complications.

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Background: The progress test was initiated by Qassim University in 2000 as a tool to evaluate the educational process among Saudi medical colleges. Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University (PNU) College of Medicine is a new medical college established in 2012 that implemented the same innovative reformed curriculum of King Saud University College of Medicine.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to use the progress test to evaluate the rate of knowledge acquisition among a new medical school compared to other long-established medical schools in Saudi Arabia.

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Background: There is a growing perception that the left handed (LH) medical students are facing difficulties while performing the clinical tasks that involve psychomotor skill, although the evidence is very limited and diverse. The present study aimed to evaluate the clinical psychomotor skills among Right-handed (RH) and left-handed (LH) medical students.

Methods: For this study, 54 (27 left handed and 27 right handed) first year medical students were selected.

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Article Synopsis
  • Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgical decortication (VATSD) is being evaluated for its effectiveness in managing late-stage (Stage III) empyema, which has traditionally required open thoracotomy.
  • A study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital involved 63 patients with empyema, showing that VATSD was successful in a majority of Stage III cases (67.6%) while minimizing hospital stay and complications compared to open thoracotomy.
  • Results indicated that patients undergoing VATSD had a median hospital stay of approximately 9.65 days and experienced fewer postoperative complications than those who had open surgery, reinforcing the potential benefits of VATSD for advanced empyema cases.
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Background: Despite the rapid growth in the use of simulation in health professions education, courses vary considerably in quality. Many do not integrate efficiently into an overall school/program curriculum or conform to academic accreditation requirements. Moreover, some of the guidelines for simulation design are specialty specific.

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IL-17 is a pro-inflammatory mediator that is believed to play a critical role in regulating tissue inflammation during asthma, COPD, as well as other inflammatory disorders. The level of expression of IL-17 has been shown to be upregulated in lung bronchial tissue of asthmatic patients. Several reports have provided further evidence that this cytokine could play a key role in enhancing the migration of inflammatory as well as structural cells of the bronchial lung tissue during asthma and COPD.

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Background: Newly developed pulmonary nodules less than 20 mm in diameter in patients with a previous history of malignancy is highly suspicious to be metastatic. In this study we evaluate a new technique of computed tomography guided microcoils localization to facilitate thoracoscopic resection of deep pulmonary nodules.

Methods: Seventy-four patients, who were discovered to have lung nodules (less than 20 mm) during follow up and were referred to the thoracic surgical unit in our institute from Sept.

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Descending necrotizing mediastinitis (DNM) is a rare but severe life threatening complication of oropharyngeal infections. We report a young lady who had severe pharyngitis complicated by anterior neck infection that descended to the mediastinum causing necrotizing mediastinitis. The course of her illness was complicated with septic shock, acute kidney injury, tracheo-esophageal fistula, and critical illness polyneuropathy.

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Background: With the introduction of integrated problem-based learning (PBL) program in the medical curriculum, there is a need to create laboratory classes that suit students' learning needs and the changes introduced to the curriculum. This paper outlines the development and implementation of four integrated laboratory classes (ILCs) at King Saud University College of Medicine. It also examines whether core concepts addressed in these classes were learned and retained and how the students perceived the ILCs.

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