BACKGROUND This study was designed to assess endotracheal climate in laryngectomized patients in a warm and dry environment and the effects of a heat and moisture exchanger (HME). METHODS Endotracheal temperature and humidity were measured in 11 laryngectomized patients with a regularly used HME (Provox Normal HME; R-HME), an HME with antimicrobial filter (Provox Micron HME; F-HME), and witho...

A 24-year-old man with hereditary multiple exostoses had numbness of the lower extremities and difficulty walking. CT displayed a calcified extradural mass lesion within the spinal canal at T-8 causing cord compression. MR imaging showed it to be contiguous with the upper endplate of T-8, suggesting the diagnosis of osteochondroma, a rare cause of cord compression, and distinguishing the lesion...

We have evaluated the clinical outcomes of simple excision, ulnar lengthening and the Sauvé-Kapandji procedure in the treatment of deformities of the forearm in patients with multiple hereditary osteochondromas. The medical records of 29 patients (33 forearms) were reviewed; 22 patients (22 forearms) underwent simple excision (four with ulnar lengthening) and seven the Sauvé-Kapandji procedure....

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to determine the influence of breathing resistance of heat and moisture exchangers (HMEs) on endotracheal climate and breathing pattern. METHODS Endotracheal temperature and humidity and tidal volumes were measured in 11 laryngectomized patients with a regularly used HME with "standard" breathing resistance (Provox Normal HME; R-HME), a low breathing-resis...

There has recently been widespread interest in the use of multiple models for classification and regression in the statistics and neural networks communities. The Hierarchical Mixture of Experts (HME) [1] has been successful in a number of regression problems, yielding significantly faster training through the use of the Expectation Maximisation algorithm. In this paper we extend the HME to cla...

Multiple osteochondromas (MO) is characterized by the formation of osteochondromas throughout the entire body. Although the evidence regarding its pathogenesis is well understood, no curative treatment for the disorder is available. Patients can be treated symptomatically by surgical removal of painful osteochondromas. Unfortunately, some patients still suffer from severe pain, even after surge...