1,721,410 research outputs found
Supplemental Material - The Role of Augmented Reality in Surgical Training: A Systematic Review
No full textSupplemental Material for The Role of Augmented Reality in Surgical Training: A Systematic Review by Dhivya Suresh, BSc (Hons), Abdullatif Aydin, BSc (Hons), MBBS, PhD, Stuart James, BSc (Hons), MBBS, Kamran Ahmed, PhD, and Prokar Dasgupta, MSc, MD, FEBU in Surgical Innovation</p
Soft Robotics Technologies to Address Shortcomings in Today's Minimally Invasive Surgery: The STIFF-FLOP Approach
No full textMost devices for single-site or natural orifice transluminal surgery are very application specific and, hence, capable of effectively carrying out specific surgical tasks only. However, most of these instruments are rigid, lack a sufficient number of degrees of freedom (DOFs), and/or are incapable of modifying their mechanical properties based on the tasks to be performed. The current philosophy in commercial instrument design is mainly focused on creating minimally invasive surgical systems using rigid tools equipped with dexterous tips. Only few research efforts are aimed at developing flexible surgical systems, with many DOFs or even continuum kinematics. The authors propose a radical change in surgical instrument design: away from rigid tools toward a new concept of soft and stiffness-controllable instruments. Inspired by biology, we envision creating such soft and stiffness-controllable medical devices using the octopus as a model. The octopus presents all the capabilities requested and can be viewed as a precious source of inspiration. Several soft technologies are suitable for meeting the aforementioned capabilities, and in this article a brief review of the most promising ones is presented. Then we illustrate how specific technologies can be applied in the design of a novel manipulator for flexible surgery by discussing its potential and by presenting feasibility tests of a prototype responding to this new design philosophy. Our aim is to investigate the feasibility of applying these technologies in the field of minimally invasive surgery and at the same time to stimulate the creativeness of others who could take the proposed concepts further to achieve novel solutions and generate specific application scenarios for the devised technologies
Extended pelvic lymphadenectomy and various radical prostatectomy techniques: is pelvic drainage necessary?
No full textOBJECTIVE:
To investigate whether routine drainage is advisable after open extended pelvic lymph node dissection (ePLND) and retropubic radical prostatectomy (RRP) by measuring the incidence of lymphoceles and comparing these results with those of a series of robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and ePLND.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:
A total of 331 consecutive patients underwent ePLND and RRP or RARP. The first 132 patients underwent open ePLND and RRP and received two pelvic drains; these patients were prospectively randomized into two groups: group 1 (n = 66), in which the drains were shortened on postoperative (PO) days 3 and 5 and removed on PO day 7, and group 2 (n = 66), in which the drains were removed on PO day 1. The next 199 patients were assigned to two consecutive groups not receiving drainage: group 3 (n = 73) undergoing open ePLND and RRP, followed by group 4 (n = 126) treated by transperitoneal robot-assisted ePLND and RARP. All patients had ultrasonographic controls 5 and 10 days and 3 and 12 months after surgery.
RESULTS:
Lymphoceles were detected in 6.6% of all patients, 3.3% of whom were asymptomatic and 3.3% of whom were symptomatic. Symptomatic lymphoceles were detected in 0% of group 1, 8% of group 2, 7% of group 3 and 1% of group 4, with groups 2 and 3 differing significantly from group 4 (P < 0.05). In total, 5% of all patients undergoing open RRP (groups 1-3) had symptomatic lymphoceles vs 1% of patients undergoing RARP (group 4) (P = 0.06). Nodal-positive patients had significantly more symptomatic lymphoceles than nodal-negative patients (10% vs 2%) (P < 0.02).
CONCLUSIONS:
Symptomatic lymphoceles occur less frequently after open RRP and pelvic drainage over 7 days than after open RRP and pelvic drainage over 1 day or without drainage. Patients undergoing RARP without drainage had significantly fewer lymphoceles than patients receiving open RRP without drainage
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
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