BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine whether application of a risk stratification system during preoperative assessment of cataract patients and subsequent allocation of patients to surgeons with matching experience may reduce intraoperative complications. METHODS Nine hundred and fifty-three consecutive patients (1109 eyes) undergoing phacoemulsification cataract surgery wer...

Philosophical (p-) zombies are constructs that possess all of the behavioral features and responses of a sentient human being, yet are not conscious. P-zombies are intimately linked to the hard problem of consciousness and have been invoked as arguments against physicalist approaches. But what if we were to invert the characteristics of p-zombies? Such an inverse (i-) zombie would possess all o...

Intraoperative awareness, with or without recall, continues to be a topic of clinical significance and neurobiological interest. In this article, we review evidence pertaining to the incidence, sequelae, and prevention of intraoperative awareness. We also assess which aspects of the complication are well understood (i.e. non-controversial) and which require further research for clarification (i...

Introduction: The major shortcoming of image-guided navigational systems is the use of presurgically acquired image data, which does not account for intraoperative changes in brain morphology. The occurrence of these surgically induced volumetric deformations, or "brain shift", has been well established. Maximum measurements for surface and midline shifts were reported. There is no detailed ana...

This is the second of two articles on intraoperative neural monitoring. The aim of part one was to provide a concise overview of intraoperative nerve monitoring in thyroid surgery and its effectiveness. Part 1 included a brief review of the surgical anatomy of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and described the surgical landmarks which can be used to identify the nerve during surgery. Part 2 will d...

The aim of the work is to assess the performance and effectiveness of intraoperative cholangiography or choledochoscopy in the prevention of choledocholithiasis oversight. The effectiveness of choledochoscopy was assessed in 50 patients during the years 2001-2002. Since 2000 intraoperative cholangiography has been performed on all patients after classic cholecystostomy in the absence of indicat...