Single access laparoscopic surgery:Complementary or alternative to NOTES?

In recent years,single access laparoscopic surgery(SALS) and natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery(NOTES) have gained interest from both clinical and industrial point of view,with the increased development of different laparoscopic instruments,production of various access ports,and improvement of operative endoscopes.The main advantages stimulating these two approaches are the cosmetic result,the rapid recovery of the patient,and the reduced need for pain killers.SALS and NOTES are in part complementary and in part alternative techniques.Currently,SALS is much simpler and technically easier than NOTES.

Surgical chest complications after liver transplantation

Liver transplantation is a major abdominal operation and the intimate anatomic relation of the liver with the right hemidiaphragm predisposes the patient to various manifestations in the chest cavity.Furthermore,chronic liver disease affects pulmonary function before and after liver transplantation resulting in a considerable percentage of patients presenting with morbidity related to chest complications.This review aims to identify the potential chest complications of surgical interest during or after liver transplantation.Complications of surgical interest are defined as those conditions that necessitate an invasive procedure(such as thoracocentesis or a chest tube placement)in the chest or a surgical intervention performed by a thoracic surgeon.These complications will be classified as perioperative and postoperative;the latter will be categorized as early and late.Although thoracocentesis or a chest tube placement is usually sufficient when invasive measures are deemed necessary,in some patients,thoracic surgical interventions are warranted.A high index of suspicion is needed to recognize and treat these conditions promptly.A close collaboration between abdominal surgeons,intensive care unit physicians and thoracic surgeons is of paramount importance.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome Phenotyping by Cluster Analysis: Typical Sleepy, Obese Middle-aged Men with Desaturating Events are A Minority of Patients in A Multi-ethnic Cohort of 33% Women

Objective Several clinical obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS)phenotypes associated with heterogeneous cardiovascular risk profiles have been recently identified.The purpose of this study was to identify clusters amongst these profiles that allow for the differentiation of patients.Methods This retrospective study included all moderate-to-severe OSAS patients referred to the sleep unit over a 5-year period.Demographic,symptom,comorbidity,polysomnographic,and continuous positive airway pressure(CPAP)adherence data were collected.Statistical analyses were performed to identify clusters of patients.Results A total of 567 patients were included(67%men,54±13 years,body mass index:32±7 kg/m2,65%Caucasian,32%European African).Five clusters were identified:less severe OSAS(n=172);healthier severe OSAS(n=160);poorly sleeping OSAS patients with cardiometabolic comorbidities(n=87);younger obese men with sleepiness at the wheel(n=94);sleepy obese men with very severe desaturating OSAS and cardiometabolic comorbidities(n=54).Patients in clusters 3 and 5 were older than those in clusters 2 and 4(P=0.034).Patients in clusters 4 and 5 were significantly more obese than those in the other clusters(P=0.04).No significant differences were detected in terms of symptoms and comorbidities.Polysomnographic profiles were very discriminating between clusters.CPAP adherence was similar in all clusters but,among adherent patients,daily usage was more important in cluster 1(less severe patients)than in cluster 5.Conclusion This study highlights that the typical sleepy obese middle-aged men with desaturating events represent only a minority of patients in our multi-ethnic moderate-to-severe OSAS cohort of 33%females.

Simple schizophrenia revisited: Its schizophrenic body image deviation

Simple schizophrenia has not yet been recognized as a well-established diagnostic category as one of the subtypes of schizophrenia, however, its inclusion to the official diagnostic system is regarded as urgent for early intervention. Here, we report our new observation that body image distortion uniquely found in typical schizophrenia, as reflected in the perception of mass of flesh of living objects in the whole or part of the Rorschach stimuli (Koide et al., 2002), was shown in the patients conforming to the original description of simple schizophrenia, to revisit its relatedness to schizophrenia from a cognitive and perceptual point of view. The Rorschach test was administered to four inpatients of a local mental hospital, showing social and occupational decline, negative symptoms and absence of positive symptoms. The presence or absence of Rorschach flesh mass body image percepts was examined. All of four patients revealed Rorschach mass of flesh responses. The fact that simple schizophrenia exhibited the same body image distortion in the flesh mass passive global perception with typical schizophrenia suggests the adequacy of reconsidering simple schizophrenia as a form of schizophrenia.

The Use of Autologous Tibia Strut Graft to Enhance Bone Healing of an Infected Long-Bone Nonunion

We treated five patients with an infected non-union of the femur and tibia with autologous tibia strut grafts. All patients had bone defects ranging from three to nine centimeters. Three patients suffered for more than seven years from chronic osteitis. Our objective was to describe this grafting technique and its results. We focussed on healing time, postoperative complications and functional recovery. We retrospectively studied five patients with an infected non-union of the lower limb who had undergone previous surgeries to overcome the bone healing problem. In this group of patients, we had four femur non-union and one tibia non-union. All of them had a previous infection episode, in which medical and surgical therapy was needed. Of the participants, three were men, and two were females with a mean age of 43.3 years (28 - 55).

Lipid infusion and intravenous access in newborn infants

The spectacular development of neonatal intensive care since the 1960s allowed a drop in neonatal mortality of very-low-birth-weight （VLBW） infants from 50% to less than 15% in the last decade.