OBJECTIVE We aimed to evaluate whether the inclusion of videothoracoscopy in a pleural empyema treatment algorithm would change the clinical outcome of such patients. METHODS This study performed quality-improvement research. We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent pleural decortication for pleural empyema at our institution from 2002 to 2008. With the old algorithm (Jan...

Fourteen cats were trained on three visual discrimination tasks: light vs. dark, horizontal vs. vertical stripes, and upright vs. inverted triangles. Four of the cats then underwent large, bilateral occipito-temporal cortex ablations; postoperatively, they demonstrated little or no visually guided orienting behavior and solve only the brightness task and not the preoperatively learned pattern d...

Previously, studying the development, especially of corticospinal neurons, it was concluded that the main compensatory mechanism after unilateral brain injury in rat at the neonatal stage was due in part to non-lesioned ipsilateral corticospinal neurons that escaped selection by axonal elimination or neuronal apoptosis. However, previous results suggesting compensatory mechanism in neonate brai...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We evaluated treatment and outcome of patients with thoracic empyema at a teaching institution. DESIGN AND SETTING Retrospective chart review over a 44-month period at a university hospital. PATIENTS AND MEASUREMENTS Charts of patients with a hospital discharge diagnosis of thoracic empyema were reviewed. Age, symptoms, alcohol use, empyema etiology, culture results, number ...

In this study light and EM quantitative analysis were used to examine whether exogenous nerve growth factor (NGF) could affect terminal fields and synaptic connections in the adult rat brain in vivo. Adult rats received, immediately after unilateral decortication, 2.5S NGF (12 micrograms/day) or vehicle intracerebroventricularly for 7 days. Thirty days after the lesion cholinergic fiber length ...

AIM Departmental survey of the pediatric laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS It is a retrospective study from January 1999 to December 2007. The various types of surgeries, number of patients, complications and conversions of laparoscopic and thoracoscopic procedures were analyzed. RESULTS The number of minimally invasive procedures that had been performed over ...

BACKGROUND Thoracentesis and antibiotics remain the cornerstones of treatment in stage I empyema. The management of disease progression or late presentation is controversial. Open thoracotomy and decortication is perceived to be synonymous with protracted recovery and prolonged hospitalisation. Advocates of thoracoscopic adhesiolysis cite earlier chest drain removal and hospital discharge. This...