1,720,964 research outputs found
Peripheral lymphadenopathy: role of excisional biopsy in differential diagnosis based on a five-year experience.
No full textBACKGROUND:
Peripheral lymphadenopathy can be caused by benign disease, or it could be a manifestation of underlying haematological disease or metastasis of a yet undiagnosed malignant condition. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and image- guided core biopsy usually make up the first line of investigation. There are several disadvantages to these techniques: FNAC is an acellular aspirate that may provide non- diagnostic specimens, while core biopsy may fail in the presence of composite lymphoma, nodal necrosis, and insufficiency or fragmentation of the specimens. Our aim was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of excisional biopsy (EB) in a large case series.
METHODS:
220 consecutive patients underwent lymph node EB under local anaesthesia. All patients underwent complete and systematic physical examination. Any palpable lymph node was evaluated for its location, size, consistency, fixation, and tenderness. All specimens were sent to the pathologist as fresh tissue.
RESULTS:
The EB materials demonstrated 89 (40.5%) benign lesions, 130 (59%) malignant diagnoses, and one (0.5%) unclear diagnosis. Mean operative time was 42.9 minutes (range 10-120 minutes). Harvested lymph nodes had a mean diameter of 3.3 x 2.3 cm. All patients were discharged within 8 hours. No major complications were reported, with a mean of 1.16 post-operative outpatient visits. Temporary seroma and/or minor lymph leak at the site of the incision occurred in 14 cases (6.4%), haematoma in 7 (3.2%), and dehiscence of the surgical incision in 4 (1.8%), and in 3 cases (1.4%) pain was reported up to 7 days post-operatively.
CONCLUSIONS:
Excisional biopsy is a diagnostic method that can be applied safely with minimal morbidity and mortality
Dome Down Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: Our Experience and the State of Art
No full textIntroduction: Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy is nowadays the gold standard technique for
benign gallbladder disease both in elective and emergency surgery. But it is even true that in very
acute cholecystitis when the tissues are inflamed and the anatomy can be difficult to recognize, the
classic laparoscopic approach can lead to biliary and vascular injuries. Dome down laparoscopic
approach can be used to avoid conversion to open surgery and decrease surgical complications.
Methods: A retrospective record of all Cholecystectomy carried out in our unit by experienced
surgeons from January 2013 to August 2017 was examined. Cases were divided by surgical
technique: Classical laparoscopic technique, Open cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic converted to
open cholecystectomy, Dome down laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (DDLC). A systematic literature
search was performed using PubMedz and Embase databases. The search was limited to studies
on humans and to those reported in the English language between January 2009 and December
2016.
Results and discussion: 194 cholecystectomy were performed, among these 163 with
laparoscopic technique and 3% of all laparoscopic approached cholecystectomy were performed
as DDLC. The mean hospital stay was 5 days (2-11). 1 out of 5 patients needed postoperatory
ERCP and endobiliary stent was positioned removed in 30 days with no other complications.
Other 4 patients were evaluated after 1 week from dismission with no evidence of postoperative
complications.
Conclusion: Dome down cholecystectomy is a feasible and safe procedure; it avoids biliary
and vascular injuries in difficult cholecystectomy. It can still be improved by the combination
with ultrasonic devices or with new surgical techniques such as Single-incision Laparoscopic
cholecistectomy
Laparoscopic splenectomy in malignancies: is it safe and feasible?
No full textBACKGROUND: Laparoscopic Splenectomy (LS) is considered the treatment of choice for benign hematologic diseases of the spleen. However, the role of LS in malignancies is still controversial. Technical difficulties, hemorrhagic risk, the need of pathological characterisation of malignant disease, may be considered contraindications to LS in malignancies. This study aims to verify the efficacy and feasibility of LS for hematologic malignancies. METHODS: 145 patients underwent LS for hematologic disease and were retrospectively shared in two groups: Group A (83 patients) patients with preoperative diagnosis of benign hematologic disease and Group B (62 patients) with malignancies. Bipolar spleen diameter, mean operative time, conversion rate and causes, complications and need of transfusion were evaluated. RESULTS: Median splenic diameter was greater in Group B than in Group A with a statistically significant difference (p<0.005), such as higher were the number of accessory mini-laparotomy (p<0.005) and conversion rate (p=0.024) in the group of patients with a diagnosis of malignancy. The mean operative time was 117.6 min. in group A and 148.1 min. in Group B (p<0.005). Besides, there were no significant differences relative to intra-operative and postoperative transfusions and the incidence of postoperative complications. No peri-operative mortality occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis of our data highlights that LS for hematologic malignancies is effective and feasible even if it associated with higher conversion rate due to splenomegaly and difficult hilum dissection. Besides, no differences in the patient outcome were highlighted. LS may be considered a safe procedure in the treatment of haematological malignancies of the spleen
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Variations on the Author
Full text link“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
Full text linkWe 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
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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