A costal cartilage graft is one of the most useful materials in reconstructive plastic surgery. In this article a technique of in situ split costal cartilage graft harvesting through a small incision (2 to 3 cm) using a gouge is described. The technique used has many advantages: it is a simple technique is easy to learn and can be performed quickly through a small incision. By avoiding complete costal cartilage graft harvesting the associated potential complications such as pleural perforation ...

Inflammation of an epiploic appendage is considered to be a rare cause of acute abdomen. Recently it has been reported that typical computed tomography (CT) findings of primary epiploic appendagitis (PEA) provide a definitive diagnosis in most of the cases. However since these papers are only few they are easily overlooked by the practicing radiologists. Our purpose is to add four new cases to the existing literature and to perform a review of the literature. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All ...

Electrical activity of myotubes represses nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR) gene expression. This effect is mimicked by okadaic acid and blocked by tetrodotoxin (TTX) or staurosporine in cultured myocytes [Altiok et al. EMBO J. 16 (1997) 717-725]. In this study we investigated the mechanism of this repression. We show that addition of exogenous phospholipase D (PLD) and C inhibits AChR expression in a manner which parallels that of okadaic acid. Furthermore okadaic acid caused an increase ...

We report a case of pulmonary trunk aneurysm extending into the left pulmonary artery due to pulmonary hypertension secondary to mitral valve disease. The mitral valve was replaced with a bileaflet mechanical prosthesis. A Dacron graft interposed between main trunk and left pulmonary artery branch and right pulmonary branch attached to the graft in an end-to-side fashion. Early postoperative angiogram revealed a very successful treatment.

Thirty-two patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis underwent anterior fusion with rigid single rod (third generation instrumentation) and titanium mesh cages. The mean follow-up was 31 (24-45) months and the mean age was 14.9 years. There were 8 patients with King type I 10 with type II 6 with type III 4 with type IV and 4 with lumbar curves. Titanium mesh cages were used in all the lumbar procedures and at the cranial and caudal ends of the instrumented area in thoracic cases. All the ...

Amaç: Mekanik dayanım açısından 40 gr belirli bir kemik çimentosuna katılabilecek belirli bir antibiyotiğin maksimum dozu "0. gün" ve antibiyotik salınımı sonrası "15. gün" için araştırıldı. Çalışma planı: 40 g Surgical Simplex P kemik çimentosuna 0, 400, 800,1200,1600, 2000, 3200 ve 4000 mg teikoplanin katılarak sekiz deney grubu oluşturuldu. Kompresyon ve dört nokta eğme mekanik dayanım testleri için üçüncü kuşak sement hazırlama ve uygulama koşullarında örnekler elde edildi. Her bir konsantrasyon ...

In this prospective study our aim was to test the effect of simultaneous administration of preS2 and S containing recombinant hepatitis B vaccine (S2SRHB) with tetanus toxoid (TT) to the individuals who did not respond after three doses of hepatitis B vaccine previously. There were three groups (healthy individuals pregnant women hemodialysis patients) each was divided into two subgroups as groups A and B. Group A received S2SRHB + TT and group B received only S2SRHB. We found that in groups ...