Multispecialty Microsurgical Course Utilizing the Blue-Blood Chicken Thigh Model Significantly Improves Resident Comfort, Confidence, and Attitudes in Multiple Domains.

Background:  The high level of technical skill required by microsurgical procedures has prompted the development of in vitro educational models. Current models are cost-ineffective, unrealistic, or carry ethical implications and are utilized as isolated experiences within single surgical specialties. The purpose of this study was to assess the educational and interprofessional effect of a microsurgical training course utilizing the nonliving "Blue-Blood" chicken thigh model (BBCTM) in a multidisciplinary environment.

Use of an Automated Mobile Phone Messaging Robot in Postoperative Patient Monitoring.

Background: Mobile phone messaging software robots allow clinicians and healthcare systems to communicate with patients without the need for human intervention. The purpose of this study was to (1) describe a method for communicating with patients postoperatively outside of the traditional healthcare setting by utilizing an automated software and mobile phone messaging platform and to (2) evaluate the first week of postoperative pain and opioid use after common ambulatory hand surgery procedures.

Materials And Methods: The investigation was a prospective, multicenter investigation of patient-reported pain and opioid usage after ambulatory hand surgery.

Safety and Outcomes of Capsule Endoscopy in Patients with Left Ventricular Assist Device: a Single-Center Retrospective Case Series.

Obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (GIB) in patients with continuous-flow left ventricular assist devices (CF-LVAD) is common. Capsule endoscopy (CE) can be used in the diagnosis of obscure GIB. Safety and outcomes of CE in patients with CF-LVAD are unknown.

Androgenic and estrogenic 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/17-ketosteroid reductase in human ovarian epithelial tumors: evidence for the type 1, 2 and 5 isoforms.

17beta-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase/17-ketosteroid reductases (17HSD/KSR) play a key role in regulating steroid receptor occupancy in normal tissues and tumors. Although 17HSD/KSR activity has been detected in ovarian epithelial tumors, our understanding of which isoforms are present and their potential for steroid metabolism is limited. In this investigation, 17HSD/KSR activity from a series of ovarian epithelial tumors was assayed in cytosol and microsomes under conditions which differentiate between isoforms.