Implementation of video-calls between patients admitted to intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic and their families: a pilot study of psychological effects.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused over 530 million infections to date (June 2022), with a high percentage of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. In this context, relatives have been restricted from visiting their loved ones admitted to hospital. This situation has led to an inevitable separation between patients and their families.

Biodiesel Production From Lignocellulosic Biomass Using Oleaginous Microbes: Prospects for Integrated Biofuel Production.

Biodiesel is an eco-friendly, renewable, and potential liquid biofuel mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Biodiesel has been produced initially from vegetable oils, non-edible oils, and waste oils. However, these feedstocks have several disadvantages such as requirement of land and labor and remain expensive.

A few challenges in mucopolysaccharidosis type I.

Here we describe the current challenges of mucopolysaccharidosis type I: the need for an adequate classification, establishing its relationship to therapeutic indications; an early diagnosis, from neonatal screening, its advantages and barriers, to clinical suspicion of severe and attenuated forms; spinal and eye disease care, from diagnosis to follow-up and treatment; allergic reactions caused by enzyme replacement therapy, their diagnosis and treatment. And lastly, transition to adult care.

ALBA: A comprehensive growth model to optimize algae-bacteria wastewater treatment in raceway ponds.

This paper proposes a new model describing the algae-bacteria ecosystem evolution in an outdoor raceway for wastewater treatment. The ALBA model is based on mass balances of COD, C, N and P, but also H and O. It describes growth and interactions among algae, heterotrophic and nitrifying bacteria, while local climate drives light and temperature.

A Summer Mortality Outbreak of Lactococcosis by in a Raceway System Affecting Farmed Rainbow Trout () and Brook Trout ().

Lactococcosis is a fish disease of major concern in Mediterranean countries caused by . The most susceptible species is the rainbow trout (), suffering acute disease associated with elevated mortalities compared to other fish species. References reported that other salmonids are also susceptible to the disease, but no mortality outbreak has been described to date.

The algal trophic mode affects the interaction and oil production of a synergistic microalga-yeast consortium.

The use of non-food feedstocks to produce renewable microbial resources can limit our dependence on fossil fuels and lower CO emissions. Since microalgae display a virtuous CO and O exchange with heterotrophs, the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was combined with the oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi, known for their production of oil, base material for biodiesel. The coupled growth was shown to be synergistic for biomass and lipid production.

Combined yeast and microalgal cultivation in a pilot-scale raceway pond for urban wastewater treatment and potential biodiesel production.

A mixed culture of oleaginous yeast Lipomyces starkeyi and wastewater native microalgae (mostly Scenedesmus sp. and Chlorella sp.) was performed to enhance lipid and biomass production from urban wastewaters.

Association of covered metallic stents with cholecystitis and stent migration in malignant biliary stricture.

Background And Aims: ERCP with self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) placement provides reliable and durable relief of malignant biliary obstruction. Our objective was to compare efficacy and adverse outcomes between uncovered SEMSs (USEMSs) and covered SEMSs (CSEMSs).

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed of all consecutive patients who underwent ERCP with SEMS placement for the management of a malignant bile duct stricture.

Why fetal neurosurgery?

Introduction to the Special Focus Session on Fetal Neurosurgery.

Hernia of the swim bladder (aerocystocele) with concurrent mycotic granulomatous inflammation and swim bladder carcinoma in a wild mullet (Mugil cephalus).

We describe a hernia of the swim bladder, with a concurrent mycotic granulomatous inflammation, and carcinoma of the swim bladder in a wild mullet (Mugil cephalus) referred for an exophytic dorsal mass. Grossly, the mass was white, soft, and composed of multiple cystic gas-containing chambers connected by a funnel-shaped tissue segment to the coelomic swim bladder. Histologically, the mass was characterized by cysts of variable size, multifocally contiguous with the subepithelial rete mirabile, supported by abundant fibrous tissue.

Initial Experience With High-Risk Patients Excluded From Clinical Trials: Safety of Short-Term Anticoagulation After Left Atrial Appendage Closure Device.

Background: The implantation of left atrial appendage closure device (WATCHMAN, Boston Scientific, Natick, MA) is an alternative option to oral anticoagulation (OAC) for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. Patients require short-term OAC after implantation to avoid device thrombosis. The 2 clinical trials that assessed this device excluded patients thought not to be candidates for OAC.

Neurovascular stents in pediatric population.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze the results obtained using stents for the treatment of neurovascular diseases in pediatric patients.

Methods: A retrospective study of 6-year period was undertaken evaluating clinical charts and imaging studies of patients treated with stents because of neurovascular diseases.

Results: Nine patients were managed with 10 stents.

Comparison of energy expenditure, body composition, metabolic disorders, and energy intake between obese children with a history of craniopharyngioma and children with multifactorial obesity.

Unlabelled: Craniopharyngioma is a histologically benign brain malformation with a fundamental role in satiety modulation, causing obesity in up to 52% of patients.

Aim: To evaluate cardiovascular risk factors, body composition, resting energy expenditure (REE), and energy intake in craniopharyngioma patients and to compare the data with those from children with multifactorial obesity.

Population: All obese children and adolescents who underwent craniopharyngioma resection and a control group of children with multifactorial obesity in follow-up between May 2012 and April 2013.

Intracranial pial fistulas in pediatric population. Clinical features and treatment modalities.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to describe the clinical manifestations and treatment modalities of patients having intracranial pial arteriovenous fistulas (PAVFs).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the cases of PAVFs from January 2004 to December 2013. Medical charts, diagnostic images, surgical, and endovascular reports were reviewed retrospectively during each of the procedures and follow-up.

Intracranial gliofibroma: a case report and review of the literature.

Gliofibroma is a rare tumor with biphasic morphology, commonly occurring in the first two decades of life. Currently, the tumor is not listed as a distinct entity in the current World Health Organization (WHO) classification of central nervous system tumors. As its biological behavior, histogenesis, and prognostic factors are still debated, the aim of this paper was to describe a case of a gliofibroma and to update the data about these lesions.

Association of procedure length on outcomes and adverse events of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography.

Objective: The aims of this study were to determine the effects of length of procedure on endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) outcomes and adverse events.

Methods: All ERCP procedures, performed by experienced advanced endoscopists, in patients without prior papillary intervention from 2006 to 2008 were reviewed. Procedures were arbitrarily divided into two groups: shorter procedures (SP), with a duration shorter than the overall mean procedure length, and longer procedures (LP), with a duration longer than overall mean procedure length.

Endovascular treatment of post-pharyngitis internal carotid artery pseudoaneurysm with a covered stent in a child: a case report.

Case Report: We report a case of 4-year-old boy patient, who developed after a streptococcal pharyngitis a painful, pulsatile, and growing right-sided mass in the neck. Imaging studies revealed an extracranial right internal carotid artery pseudoaneurysm. The patient was successfully treated with stent-graft deployment.

Simultaneous fronto-orbital advancement and dynamic posterior cranial vault expansion in Apert syndrome.

Craniosynostosis in Apert syndrome is routinely treated by wide frontal and bilateral supraorbital reshaping and posterior cranial decompression. Dynamic cranial vault expansion has proved to be useful in craniofacial surgery, and its use has extended to syndromic patients. Although a controversy remains between conventional osteotomy and application of the spring-mediated technique in surgical treatment of craniosynostosis, there have been several positive clinical reports on expansion techniques for nonsyndromic and syndromic craniosynostosis.

Multiloculated hydrocephalus.

Objective: The study aims to assess the treatment of progressive multiloculated hydrocephalus. In a retrospective study, the authors reviewed their experience with different treatment modalities.

Methods: We have retrospectively evaluated 93 patients with progressive multiloculated hydrocephalus operated between 1988 and 2010.

Effect of the time of day on the success and adverse events of ERCP.

Background: Physician fatigue and decreased concentration have been proposed as causes of lower completion and adenoma detection rates in afternoon colonoscopies compared with morning colonoscopies. ERCP is a technically demanding and highly operator-dependent procedure, and its success may similarly be affected in the afternoon compared with the morning.

Objective: To compare cannulation success and adverse events between ERCP procedures performed in the morning and afternoon.

Does anesthesiologist-directed sedation for ERCP improve deep cannulation and complication rates?

Objectives: While some gastroenterologists provide their own sedation for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), others utilize anesthesiologists. There is limited information comparing cannulation success and complication rates between these two approaches. Theoretically, anesthesiologist-directed sedation (ADS) may lead to an improved deep cannulation rate by virtue of using deeper and more constant levels of sedation and by removing the minute-by-minute medication management and physiologic monitoring responsibilities from the endoscopy team.

Factors affecting the yield of brush cytology for the diagnosis of pancreatic and biliary cancers.

Objective: Pancreatobiliary malignancies often present as biliary strictures. Biliary brush cytology is an established diagnostic technique in the investigation of such strictures. The main shortcoming of the test, however, is its low sensitivity.