Nerve morbidity at the radial forearm donor site following gender-affirming phalloplasty.

Introduction: In the radial forearm phalloplasty multiple nerves are harvested to provide phallic sensation, resulting in iatrogenic nerve injuries. Despite this, nerve morbidity following this procedure has been minimally assessed. The purpose of this study was to assess donor site nerve morbidity following radial forearm phalloplasty.

An integrative review of waiting time, queuing, and design as contributory factors to emergency department violence.

Objective: Reports of violence in health care are continuously increasing. Globally there are attempts to manage this phenomenon. However, while risk factors have been identified, there is a tendency to over accentuate the extent of their contribution.

Nursing wound care practices in Haiti: facilitators and barriers to quality care.

Aim: To describe the facilitators and barriers for nurses to perform quality wound care in three surgical wards of a hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Background: Up to a quarter of patients in low- and middle-income countries may acquire at least one infection while hospitalized. There is a paucity of research investigating nursing wound care practices in low- and middle-income countries regarding the prevention of hospital-acquired infections.

Using videoed workshops in interdisciplinary research with people who have disabilities.

Background: Internationally, interdisciplinary research is advocated in healthcare. Such research receives great respect, particularly from funding bodies, which expect innovations in healthcare to emerge from a whole team rather than a single discipline. However, little guidance exists about the process and structures for such research.

Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Thermal Injury: A Review of Risk Assessment Tools and Current Knowledge on the Effectiveness and Risks of Mechanical and Chemical Prophylaxis.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can be a life-threatening or limb-threatening complication of thermal injury. The severity of burn injury can be used to predict VTE risk among patients with thermal injury, and a weighted risk-stratification tool has been developed. This article reviews the incidence, diagnosis, and management of thromboembolic events in patients with burns.

Treatment of severe refractory epistaxis in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia using a two-flap nasal closure method.

Background: Nasal closure has been shown to effectively manage severe epistaxis refractory to other treatments in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). The nasal closure procedure may be underutilized because of its surgical complexity and flap breakdown.

Methods: This work is a retrospective review of 13 HHT patients treated for severe epistaxis with nasal closure between 2005 and 2013.

An evaluation of the severity and progression of epistaxis in hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia 1 versus hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia 2.

Objectives/hypothesis: Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) is an autosomal dominant vascular dysplasia whose hallmark symptom is spontaneous recurrent epistaxis. Two major genetic subtypes of this syndrome are HHT1 and HHT2. Severity of epistaxis ranges from occasional low-volume bleeding to frequent large-volume hemorrhage.

Interdisciplinary doctorial supervision: lessons for nurse education and practice.

Background: This paper concerns a reflection on one interdisciplinary doctorate supervision project. It outlines key elements for success within this supervisory context.

Aim: The aim of this paper is to present a reflection on interdisciplinary doctorate supervision project experience and examine these experiences in light of literature on the topic.

Crucial design issues for special access technology; a Delphi study.

Purpose: To develop and demonstrate a method to involve professional users of assistive technology (AT) in the development process of customisable products. Employing the ideas of user participation and mass customisation, this research addresses the need for reduced product costs and optimised product flexibility.

Method: An adaptable six-question Delphi study was developed to establish consensus among AT professionals on design issues relating to a specified AT domain requiring innovation.

Field evaluation of in situ source reduction of trichloroethylene in groundwater using bioenhanced in-well vapor stripping.

Two technologies in combination, cometabolic bioremediation and in-well vapor stripping, were applied to reduce trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations in groundwater at a contaminant source area without the need to pump contaminated groundwater to the surface for treatment. The vapor-stripping well reduced source TCE concentrations (as high as 6-9 mg/L) by over 95%. Effluent from the well then flowed to two bioremediation wells, where additional reductions of approximately 60% were achieved.

Adsorbed pluronics on the skin of human volunteers: effects on bacterial adhesion.

An amphiphilic copolymer, Pluronic F127, has been deposited, by adsorption, to the skin of human volunteers and the ability of the coated skin to resist bacterial colonisation has been evaluated. In parallel, the ability of the same copolymer to act as a bacterial release agent has been evaluated. In both cases, F127 proved to be of little added value in formulations designed to suppress the bacterial colonisation of human skin.

Comparative susceptibility of resident and transient hand bacteria to para-chloro-meta-xylenol and triclosan.

Aims: To determine the susceptibility of planktonic and biofilm-grown strains of resident and transient skin bacteria to the liquid hand soap biocides para-chloro-meta-xylenol (PCMX) and triclosan.

Methods And Results: Freshly isolated hand bacteria were identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Two resident and three transient strains, as well as four exogenous potential transient strains, were selected for biocide susceptibility testing.

Adsorbed poly(ethyleneoxide)-poly(propyleneoxide) copolymers on synthetic surfaces: spectroscopy and microscopy of polymer structures and effects on adhesion of skin-borne bacteria.

Poly(ethyleneoxide)-copoly(propyleneoxide) (PEO-PPO) polymer coatings were evaluated for their resistance to the attachment of the marker organism Serratia marcescens and the skin-borne bacteria Staphylococcus epidermidis. The copolymers were adsorbed onto poly(styrene) films-chosen as simplified physicochemical models of skin surfaces-and their surface characteristics probed by contact angle goniometry, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). These functional surfaces were then presented to microbial cultures, bacterial attachment was assessed by fluorescence microscopy and AFM, and the structures of the polymer films examined again spectroscopically.

Shift-down in growth rate rather than high cell density induces toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 gene expression in Staphylococcus aureus.

A luciferase-based reporter system for the expression of the toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 gene (tst) of Staphylococcus aureus FRI 1187 was used in continuous culture to determine whether high cell density on transient shift-down or shift-up of specific growth rate (mu) induced expression of tst. Little expression occurred at steady state at a low dilution rate (D) and in a transient period of increasing mu. However, a rapid and approximately 130-fold increase in expression occurred during a transient shift-down of mu.

Dose-response pharmacology of intrathecal morphine in human volunteers.

Background: Intrathecal morphine sulfate (ITMS) administration was introduced into clinical practice in 1979. Inadequate information exists delineating ITMS respiratory effects in the dosage range most frequently employed today. This study evaluated 0.