1,721,083 research outputs found
Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) techniques in the management of benign and malignant kidney conditions
No full textMy thesis underlines the role and current evidence of minimally invasive surgical (MIS) technique for benign and malignant renal conditions.Evidence is presented for the use of laparoscopic and robotic partial nephrectomy along with expanding indications for ureteroscopy. Systematic reviews of ureteroscopy for large stones, obese patients, patients with bleeding diathesis and children is presented. Use of ureteroscopy for endoscopic diagnosis and management of upper urinary tract tumours is also presented.The work is comprised of 12 peer-reviewed published papers including 8 systematic reviews and 4 original research papers using retrospective or prospective case series on the subject.Based on the evidence, new insight into MIS for renal conditions will help clinicians and patients in informed decision-making. Minimally invasive surgery is a step in the right direction for management of various benign and malignant renal conditions. My work demonstrates evidence-based outcomes, which will ensure widespread adoption of these techniques in future
Flexible ureterorenoscopy: Tips and tricks
No full textWith advancement in technology, improvement in endoscope and ancillary equipment, more complex procedures can be performed using flexible ureterorenoscopy. In this review article we provide a summary of flexible ureterorenoscopic procedures with "tips and tricks′′ for success for each type of procedure. It looks at the disposables used with flexible ureterorenoscopic procedures, set up and patient positioning for gaining access, insertion and handling of scope and the use of urethral access sheath. We also provide techniques for various flexible ureterorenoscopic procedures including management of renal stones, calyceal diverticula and upper tract urothelial tumours
Laser endopyelotomy in the management of pelviureteric junction obstruction in adults: a systematic review of the literature
No full textLaser endopyelotomy (LEP) is considered as an option for the treatment of pelviureteric junction obstruction in adults. A comprehensive systematic search of the published literature was performed to assess the success rate and perioperative complications of LEP in the treatment of primary and secondary pelviureteric junction obstruction and to identify the factors that may have an impact on the success of LEP. The evidence available has significant limitations in terms of the heterogeneous study design and the definitions of outcomes. The average overall success rate of the pooled data was 75% with a mean follow-up of 29 months. Complications were predominately minor with an average rate of 12.5%.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Effect of playing video games on laparoscopic skills performance: a systematic review
No full textBackground and Purpose: the advances in both video games and minimally invasive surgery have
allowed many to consider the potential positive relationship between the
two. This review aims to evaluate outcomes of studies that investigated
the correlation between video game skills and performance in
laparoscopic surgery.Methods: a systematic search was conducted on PubMed/Medline and EMBASE
databases for the MeSH terms and keywords including “video games and
laparoscopy,” “computer games and laparoscopy,” “Xbox and laparoscopy,”
“Nintendo Wii and laparoscopy,” and “PlayStation and laparoscopy.”
Cohort, case reports, letters, editorials, bulletins, and reviews were
excluded. Studies in English, with task performance as primary outcome,
were included. The search period for this review was 1950 to December
2014.Results: there were 57 abstracts identified: 4 of these were found to be
duplicates; 32 were found to be nonrelevant to the research question.
Overall, 21 full texts were assessed; 15 were excluded according to the
Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument quality assessment
criteria. The five studies included in this review were randomized
controlled trials. Playing video games was found to reduce error in two
studies (P 0.002 and P 0.045). For the same studies,
however, several other metrics assessed were not significantly different
between the control and intervention group. One study showed a decrease
in the time for the group that played video games (P 0.037) for
one of two laparoscopic tasks performed. In the same study, however,
when the groups were reversed (initial control group became intervention
and vice versa), a difference was not demonstrated (P for peg transfer 1 – 0.465, P
for cobra robe – 0.185). Finally, two further studies found no
statistical difference between the game playing group and the control
group's performance.Conclusion: there is a very limited amount of evidence to support that the use of video games enhances surgical simulation performance.</p
A machine learning approach using stone volume to predict stone-free status at ureteroscopy
No full textIntroduction: To develop a predictive model incorporating stone volume along with other clinical and radiological factors to predict stone-free (SF) status at ureteroscopy (URS). Material and methods: Retrospective analysis of patients undergoing URS for kidney stone disease at our institution from 2012 to 2021. SF status was defined as stone fragments < 2 mm at the end of the procedure confirmed endoscopically and no evidence of stone fragments > 2 mm at XR KUB or US KUB at 3 months follow up. We specifically included all non-SF patients to optimise our algorithm for identifying instances with residual stone burden. SF patients were also randomly sampled over the same time period to ensure a more balanced dataset for ML prediction. Stone volumes were measured using preprocedural CT and combined with 19 other clinical and radiological factors. A bagged trees machine learning model with cross-validation was used for this analysis. Results: 330 patients were included (SF: n = 276, not SF: n = 54, mean age 59.5 ± 16.1 years). A fivefold cross validated RUSboosted trees model has an accuracy of 74.5% and AUC of 0.82. The model sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 72.2% respectively. Variable importance analysis identified total stone volume (17.7% of total importance), operation time (14.3%), age (12.9%) and stone composition (10.9%) as important factors in predicting non-SF patients. Single and cumulative stone size which are commonly used in current practice to guide management, only represented 9.4% and 4.7% of total importance, respectively. Conclusion: Machine learning can be used to predict patients that will be SF at the time of URS. Total stone volume appears to be more important than stone size in predicting SF status. Our findings could be used to optimise patient counselling and highlight an increasing role of stone volume to guide endourological practice and future guidelines.</p
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
- …
