Splenectomy and the incidence of venous thromboembolism and sepsis in patients with immune thrombocytopenia.

Patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) who relapse after an initial trial of corticosteroid treatment present a therapeutic challenge. Current guidelines recommend consideration of splenectomy, despite the known risks associated with surgery and the postsplenectomy state. To better define these risks, we identified a cohort of 9976 patients with ITP, 1762 of whom underwent splenectomy.

Subclinical haemostatic activation and current surgeon volume predict bleeding with open radical retropubic prostatectomy.

Objective: To assess subclinical haemostatic activation and clinical variables to predict bleeding during radical retropubic prostatectomy (RP), as haemostatic activation is common in cancer and might be useful for predicting outcomes, but routine coagulation screening does not correlate with bleeding.

Patients And Methods: Clinical data and blood samples were collected from 153 patients (median age 63 years; prostate-specific antigen, PSA, level 5.92 ng/mL) before RP and lymph node dissection.

Heparin-platelet factor 4 antibodies are frequent after vascular surgery but are not a frequent cause of graft thrombosis or thrombocytopenia.

Objective: Approximately 10% of infrainguinal bypass surgeries are complicated by early conduit failure. The cause is unclear in most cases. A prospective study was conducted to monitor the development and function of platelet factor 4 (PF4)/heparin antibodies after infrainguinal bypass procedures and to evaluate their clinical significance in early graft occlusion.

Quantification of rat retinal growth and vascular population changes after single and split doses of proton irradiation: translational study using stereology methods.

This study quantified architectural and population changes in the rat retinal vasculature after proton irradiation using stereology. A 100 MeV conformal proton beam delivered 8, 14, 20 and 28 Gy as single and split doses to the whole eye. The vascular networks were prepared from retinal digests.