PURPOSE To study the feasibility of performing retinal endovascular surgery with a microfabricated needle-based cannulation system at the level of the retinal microvasculature. METHODS A total of 40 retinal vein vessels, and 40 porcine eyes were used, and the eyecups were prepared under an operating microscope. Twenty retinal veins each were pierced with a microfabricated needle having an out...

Daith piercing is an ear piercing located at the crus of the helix, bilaterally. It is getting great consent on social media as alternative treatment in chronic migraine. No data about its efficacy and action are available in scientific literature so far. We present the case of a 54-year-old male patient suffering from refractory chronic migraine with medication-overuse, who substantially impro...

The case presented is designed to draw attention to the increasingly common occurrence of tooth fracture as a result of trauma incurred from a barbell inserted during tongue piercing. Oral piercing is on the rise. Of concern to health personnel are the associated risks, which include damage to dentition, infection, speech impediment and nerve damage. Also of concern is the belief that in some c...

The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of including cosmetic body-piercing and tattooing in HIV prevention and education. Little information about risks associated with tattoos or having one's body pierced is evident in the health promotion and disease prevention literature, particularly among adolescents, ethnic groups, and incarcerated populations. It is incumbent that pre...

We consider the p-piercing problem for axis-parallel rectangles. We are given a collection of axis-parallel rectangles in the plane, and wish to determine whether there exists a set of p points whose union intersects all the given rectangles. We present eecient algorithms for nding a piercing set (i.e., a set of p points as above) for values of p = 1; 2; 3; 4; 5. The result for 4 and 5-piercing...

The complexity of two related geometrical (indeed, combinatorial) problems is considered, measured by the number of queries needed to determine the solution. It is proved that one cannot check in a linear in N number of queries whether N intervals cover a whole interval, or whether for N pairs of intervals on two lines there is a pair of points intersecting each of these pairs of intervals (" p...

BACKGROUND Body piercing has become increasingly popular throughout the world and may cause unanticipated complications during surgery. METHODS We describe the case of a 35-y-old woman with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent a diagnostic laparoscopy for metastatic disease evaluation. RESULTS An early intestinal injury occurred upon abdominal entry and introduction of pneumoperitoneum. ...

Ear piercing is a well-established cultural and fashion-related practice from ancient times. Most people do not realize the common complications involved: contact dermatitis, keloid formation, infection, lobular tissue loss from trauma, and tearing of the earlobe, most commonly from repeated mechanical stress from heavy earrings. Torn earlobes are also referred to as cleft or split earlobes. Sp...

Potential relationships between the development of nickel allergy and previous ear piercing or orthodontic treatment with nickel-containing appliances were studied in 294 patients. We found 77 (31.2%) of 247 patients with pierced ears were allergic to nickel compared to only three (6.4%) patients without pierced ears (p = 0.001), which confirms earlier suggestions that nickel allergy (as assess...