Evaluation of complications and biochemical recurrence rates after (super) extended lymph node dissection during radical prostatectomy.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of extended (e-PLND) and super-extended pelvic lymph node dissection (se-PLND) during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) by examining lymph node (LN) yield, complications, LN metastasis, and biochemical recurrence (BCR) incidence.

Methods: Between January 2016 and January 2020, 354 consecutive patients with > 5% risk of lymph node involvement (LNI), as predicted by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center nomogram, underwent RARP with (s)e-PLND at a high-volume center. The e-PLND involved removing fibrofatty lymphatic tissue around the obturator fossa, internal iliac region, and external iliac vessels.

Extended pelvic lymph node dissection in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy is an independent risk factor for major complications.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the major postoperative complication rate after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and to identify related risk factors. A consecutive series of patients who underwent RARP between September 2016 and May 2021, with or without extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) were analyzed for postoperative complications that occurred within 30 days following surgery. Potential risk factors related to complications were identified by means of a multivariate logistic analysis.

Confocal laser microscopy for assessment of surgical margins during radical prostatectomy.

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility of confocal laser microscopy (CLM) for intraoperative margin assessment as faster alternative to neurovascular structure-adjacent frozen-section examination (NeuroSAFE) during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP).

Patients And Methods: Surgical margins were assessed during 50 RARP procedures in patients scheduled for NeuroSAFE. Posterolateral sections were cut and imaged with CLM and further processed to conform with the NeuroSAFE protocol.

Preoperative PSMA-PET/CT as a predictor of biochemical persistence and early recurrence following radical prostatectomy with lymph node dissection.

Background: This study aims to evaluate the predictive value of lymph nodes (LN) suspicious for metastases on preoperative prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) PET/CT for biochemical persistence (BCP) and early biochemical recurrence (BCR) following robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) with extended pelvic LN dissection (ePLND).

Methods: We evaluated 213 patients with intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer (PCa) who underwent clinical staging with preoperative Ga- or F-PSMA-PET/CT scan and subsequent RARP with ePLND. Patients were grouped as PSMA- or PSMA+ depending on their LN status on PSMA-PET/CT and subdivided according to histological LN status in pN0 or pN1.

Reassessment of Prostate Biopsy Specimens for Patients Referred for Robot-assisted Radical Prostatectomy Rarely Influences Surgical Planning.

Background: The minimum volume standard is 100 robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) procedures per hospital in the Netherlands, so patients have to be referred to high-volume surgical centers for RARP. During preoperative work-up, prostate biopsies taken elsewhere are reassessed, with upgrading or downgrading of the initial Gleason grade group a possible consequence.

Objective: To determine if prostate biopsy reassessment leads to adjustment of the surgical plan regarding a nerve-sparing approach and extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) during RARP.

Framework for integrating human and animal data in chemical risk assessment.

Although regulatory agencies formally encourage the integration of all available data in chemical risk assessment, consistent implementation of this practice has been constrained by the lack of a clear, systematic method for doing so. In this paper, we describe a methodology for evaluating, classifying and integrating human and animal data into the risk assessment process that incorporates: (1) a balanced appraisal of human and animal data, (2) relevance to different stages of the risk assessment process, and (3) accommodation for different data quality requirements. The proposed framework offers a flexible, step-wise approach for determining which set of available data best support the chemical risk assessment that involves the rating and relative ranking of human and animal data quality.

Eye irritation: updated reference chemicals data bank.

A list of 55 chemicals for which comprehensive rabbit eye irritation data were available was published by ECETOC in 1992. Similar data for a further 77 chemicals are now available. The total of chemicals included in the enlarged data bank is 132, assessed in 149 in vivo studies in rabbits.

Persistence or reappearance of nonmotile sperm after vasectomy: does it have clinical consequences?

Objective: To determine the percentage of patients with nonmotile sperm 12 weeks after vasectomy, to estimate the time needed for eventual azoospermia in these patients, and to record the percentage of patients with recurrence of nonmotile sperm after initial azoospermia after vasectomy.

Design: A review of the semen analysis of vasectomies performed in a 2-year period. Semen analysis in a group of volunteers from 4 months until 24 months after vasectomy.

Vacuum constriction devices in erectile dysfunction: acceptance and effectiveness in patients with impotence of organic or mixed aetiology.

Objective: To investigate the value of vacuum constriction devices in the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

Patients And Methods: A total of 67 patients were treated with vacuum constriction devices. The impotence was of organic origin in 36 men (54%) while in the remaining 31 (46%) it was of mixed aetiology (organic and psychological factors).

Vasovasostomy results in 66 patients related to obstructive intervals and serum agglutinin titres.

In this series we present the results of a retrospective analysis of 66 vasovasostomy procedures performed between 1983 and 1991. Obstructive intervals and serum antisperm antibodies were correlated with pregnancy and patency rates. With obstructive intervals of less than 5 years a patency rate of 100% (31/31) was obtained.

Organotin compounds and international treaties on the pollution of water by dangerous substances: black or grey list substances?

A brief review is given of international agreements governing water pollution by hazardous organotin compounds. Emphasis is placed on the Rhine Chemical Convention (1976) and the Dangerous Substances Directive 76/464/EEC. Organotin pesticides first appeared in 1974 on the grey list.