Laparoscopic but not open surgical skills can be transferred to robot-assisted surgery: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: With an increase in robot-assisted surgery across all specialties, adequate training and credentialing strategies need to be identified to ensure patients safety. The meta-analysis assesses the transferability of technical surgical skills between laparoscopic surgery, open surgery, and robot-assisted surgery.

Design: A systematic search was conducted in Medline, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science.

Why do kidney grafts fail?A long-term single-center experience.

Chronic allograft failure remains the main problem limiting long-term success after kidney transplantation. The aim of this retrospective analysis was to define clinical and histological parameters associated with favorable or poor 10-year outcome. To compare outcome we defined two groups of cadaveric-allograft recipients: a good-outcome group (GOG), composed of 145 cadaveric-kidney recipients who had lived with a functioning graft for at least 10 years and who were either still alive or had died with the functioning graft, and a poor-outcome group (POG) consisting of 86 cadaveric-kidney recipients who had had a functioning graft for at least 1 year and had returned to dialysis between 1 and 10 years after transplantation.

Surgical treatment of early oral carcinoma-results of a prospective controlled multicenter study.

Purpose Of The Study: To assess whether early stage (pT1-2,pN0-1) oral cavity carcinoma is adequately treated by radical surgical resection alone.

Material And Methods: Prospective multicenter study. Of 105 patients with cT1-2 cN0-1 oral carcinoma treated in conformity with the study design, 12 had to be excluded because of tumor-positive margins or pN stage > N1.

Knowledge and acceptance of telemedicine in surgery: a survey.

A questionnaire was sent to the chief surgeons at 141 Swiss hospitals to evaluate their knowledge and acceptance of telemedicine in surgery. The response rate was 69%. Ninety-three per cent of all surgical departments used computer technology, 85% regularly used the Web and 88% had an internal hospital network.

Prevention of skin and soft tissue entrapment in tibial segment transportation.

We report of a ten year old patient with soft tissue damage and bone defect of the tibia as a sequel of osteomyelitis. After excision and stabilization with an Ilizarov fixateur segment transportation was started. In order to avoid skin and soft tissue entrapment in the docking region, we used a metal cage as a space provider, which was shortened as segment transportation progressed.

Higher incidence of severe hypoglycaemia leading to hospital admission in Type 2 diabetic patients treated with long-acting versus short-acting sulphonylureas.

Aims: A comparison of the frequency of severe hypoglycaemia leading to hospital admission in people with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) treated with long vs. short-acting sulphonylureas.

Methods: A community based study over a 12-year period in the population of the city of Basle, Switzerland.

Anterior neopharyngeal pseudodiverticulum. A possible cause of dysphagia in laryngectomized patients.

Anterior neopharyngeal pseudodiverticula are out-pouchings of the neopharyngeal lumen in laryngectomized patients which can cause postoperative dysphagia. In this study 20 laryngectomized patients were examined endoscopically and with barium swallow to determine the frequency of pseudodiverticulum formation, the correlation with clinical symptoms, and to evaluate the best modality for diagnosis. In 12 patients an anterior neopharyngeal pseudodiverticulum was present.

Hypotheses on the role of cytokines in peptic ulcer disease.

Helicobacter pylori is the cause of chronic type B gastritis and occurs in almost all patients with duodenal ulcers. Infection with H. pylori is characterized by an increased production of several inflammatory cytokines.

Diagnosis of tears in rotator-cuff-injuries.

Pathology of the rotator cuff is the cause of most common problems at the shoulder joint. Acute injuries are not as frequent as chronic cuff disease, but often they aggravate inflammatory or degenerative tendon alterations, even if they are of minor severity. Traumatic rotator cuff tears predominantly affect the supraspinatus tendon or the rotator interval.

The rope ladder: an uncommon artifact and potential pitfall in MR arthrography of the shoulder.

Objective: MR arthrograms were retrospectively reviewed for susceptibility artifacts induced by accidental injection of a small amount of gas when paramagnetic contrast solution was injected. A pitfall to interpretation, an unusual distribution of intraarticular gas into the sheath of the long biceps tendon that resembled a rope ladder, was observed and compared with findings of bicipital tenosynovitis.

Conclusion: Intraarticular gas contamination during MR arthrography must be differentiated from intraarticular loose bodies and findings of bicipital tenosynovitis.

Solitary pulmonary nodules: MR evaluation of enhancement patterns with contrast-enhanced dynamic snapshot gradient-echo imaging.

Purpose: To evaluate the enhancement patterns of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) with dynamic contrast-material-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to differentiate between benign and malignant SPNs.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-eight patients with SPNs 30 mm or smaller in diameter were examined with pre- and postcontrast, electrocardiographically gated, T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) sequences and a snapshot gradient-echo (GRE) sequence after bolus injection of a paramagnetic contrast agent. For all SPNs (20 malignant, eight benign), the percentage increase in signal intensity (%SI) on the postcontrast T1-weighted SE images and the enhancement curves (%SI/sec) for the snapshot GRE measurements were established from regions of interest.

Dynamic snapshot gradient-echo imaging of head and neck malignancies: time dependency and quality of contrast-to-noise ratio.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the time dependency of the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of head and neck malignancies during contrast-enhanced MR imaging. Then we would compare the CNR of dynamic snapshot gradient-echo (SGE) images with conventional spin-echo (SE) and fast spin-echo (FSE) sequences. Fifteen patients with squamous cell carcinomas were examined with T1W-SE, T2W-FSE, contrast-enhanced Gd-T1W-SE, and T1W-SGE sequences, the latter statically and contrast-enhanced dynamically.

Spin-echo and 3D gradient-echo imaging of the knee joint: a clinical and histopathological comparison.

Objective: A clinical and histopathological comparison of 2D spin-echo (SE) and 3D gradient-echo (3DGE) sequences was undertaken for the knee joint. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the clinical results and to explain the different appearances of meniscal abnormalities on both 2DSE and 3DGE images.

Patients, Materials And Methods: The clinical study comprised 45 patients with arthroscopically correlated MR imaging results.

A plant lectin derived from Viscum album induces cytokine gene expression and protein production in cultures of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

A plant lectin from Viscum album (ML-I) has been shown to increase the number and cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells and to induce antitumor activity in animal models. However, the mechanisms underlying the effects of ML-I on natural host defenses are unknown. After 24 h incubation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the presence of 10 and 1 ng/ml of ML-I, mRNA expression and secretion of a panel of cytokines were evaluated by reverse polymerase chain reaction and by ELISA, respectively.

Operative treatment of distal humeral fractures in the elderly.

We treated 49 patients at an average age of 80 years (75 to 90) with distal mostly intraarticular humeral fractures by open reduction. There were 8 class A, 13 class B and 28 class C fractures on Müller's classification. The patients were reviewed at a postoperative average of 18 months.

Aortic valve replacement in elderly patients with aortic stenosis.

Objective: To assess the risk of aortic valve replacement and long-term follow-up in elderly patients with dominant aortic stenosis.

Design: Retrospective analysis of patients who had aortic valve replacement over a 10 year period and were routinely seen in an outpatient clinic.

Setting: University hospital.

Long-term survival of autologous adrenal medulla grafts in the great omentum of the rat.

The omentum, a rich source for trophic and angiogenic factors, was explored as a potential intermediate transplant site to facilitate long-term survival of chromaffin tissue. Autologous rat adrenal medullas were grafted into omental pockets. All grafts became densely vascularized.

Acoustical changes of loudly spoken speech and their effects on speech recognition in hearing-impaired listeners.

The level of speech is usually increased in conversations with unaided hearing-impaired listeners. However, the speaker may talk at conversational levels to aided hearing-impaired persons. In this case, the level of speech is electronically increased by the hearing aid.

Aspirin as a risk factor for hemorrhage in patients with head injuries.

The role of aspirin as a risk factor in the occurrence of intracranial bleeding following head injury was investigated. Chronic subdural hematoma appears to be a suitable model for the evaluation of risk factors in the development of hemorrhage. The most common risk factors found in our study were, apart from age, chronic alcohol abuse (28%), consumption of cumarin-derivates (21%), aspirin (13%), and heparin (5%).

A comparison between the electrically reproduced loudness and the original loudness of speech at high levels.

Four words lists of a German Speech Intelligibility Test (DIN 45621) were recorded at 60 and 75 dB SPL. Both recordings were presented to 20 normally hearing subjects at 75 dB SPL via free-field equalized earphones. Discrimination in noise was significantly better in the original recording at 60 dB SPL.