Objective: To determine how short and long term complication rates after pacemaker implantation are influenced by patient morbidity, operator experience, and choice of pacing system. Design: Retrospective analysis of 1884 patients who received VVI (n = 610), VDD (n = 371), or DDD devices (n = 903) between 1990 and 2001. Follow up period was 64 (34) months. The influence of age, sex, coronary ar...

BACKGROUND Autologous chondrocyte implantation is indicated as a second-line treatment of large, irregularly shaped chondral defects after failure of first-line surgical intervention. This study examines the clinical results of a patient cohort undergoing autologous chondrocyte implantation and elucidates factors associated with subjective improvement after implantation. HYPOTHESIS Autologous...

OBJECTIVES This article addresses two questions. First, are there differences in the economic costs incurred by families of hearing-impaired children depending on whether or not children have cochlear implants? Second, are these differences important when assessed from the perspective of society? METHODS In a cross-sectional survey, parents of a representative sample of hearing-impaired child...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the cost-effectiveness of pediatric cochlear implantation by conducting a cost-utility analysis from a societal perspective. DESIGN In a cross-sectional survey, the parents of a representative sample of hearing-impaired children assessed the health utility of their child using a revised version of the Health Utilities Index Mark III questionnaire. Linear regression was u...

PURPOSE To assess the benefits of cochlear implantation in the elderly. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of 31 postlingually deafened elderly (≥60 years of age) with unilateral cochlear implants was conducted. Audiological testing included preoperative and postoperative pure-tone audiometry and a monosyllabic word recognition test presented from recorded material in free field. S...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The primary purpose of this study was to assess whether very early access to speech sounds provided by the cochlear implant enables children to develop age-appropriate phonological awareness abilities in their preschool and school years. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine whether children who had cochlear implantation before 18 months of age will develop ...

OBJECTIVES Cochlear implantation (CI) has become the mainstay of treatment for children with severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Yet, despite mounting evidence of the clinical benefits of early implantation, little data are available on the long-term societal benefits and comparative effectiveness of this procedure across various ages of implantation-a choice parameter for par...

abstract background: kangaroo mother care (kmc) is the most implementation intervention in caring of the infants, as in this method, both the mothers and infants are cared. the world health organization recommends implementation of kmc for all infants. however, there are some barriers in the way of its application. the purpose of this study was evaluation of the practical application of kmc and...

purpose: to assess the stability of visual and refractive outcomes that was compared between three and 12 months after myoring implantation in moderate and severe keratoconus methods: this study included 54 eyes of 50 patients (27 males and 23 females) with stage ii and iii keratoconus who underwent myoring (dioptex gmbh) implantation. clinical outcomes including uncorrected distance visual acu...