To cite: Nigam A, Kumari A. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2014206635 DESCRIPTION A 47-year-old woman presented with chronic vaginal discharge for the last 1 year. She had a laparoscopic hysterectomy 1 year earlier for fibroid uterus. The patient was asymptomatic until 1 month postsurgery, when she developed foul smelling vaginal discharge. She re...

ALTHOUGH a small group of carbonate excavating sponges can dismantle reefs, and some sponges can overgrow corals, it is now known that sponges also substantially benefit coral reefs and associated ecosystems. Sponges benefit reefs by efficiently filtering small (<5um) organic particles from the water column, binding live corals to the reef frame, facilitating regeneration of broken reefs, provi...

AIM To determine whether the following can be sterilized by autoclaving - endodontic sponges, rotary nickel-titanium (NiTi) instruments within endodontic sponges, and rotary NiTi instruments with rubber stoppers. METHODOLOGY Sixty-four samples of eight different endodontic sponges (n = 512) were placed into brain heart infusion broth (BHI) for 72 h. An aliquot of this was then spread onto hor...

BACKGROUND The objective was to systematically review comparative economic analyses of patient safety improvements in the acute care setting. METHODS A systematic review of 15 patient safety target conditions and six improvement strategies was conducted. The authors searched the published literature through Medline (2000-November 2011) using the following search terms for costs: 'costs and co...

production and characterization of soft cross-linked gelatin sponge by using glutaraldehyde for blood hemostasis application, is the goal of this study. biodegradable hydrogels were prepared through crosslinking of gelatin with glutaraldehyde followed by freeze drying. the effects of gelatin concentration, amount of crosslink agent and freeze drying temperature on mechanical properties and elas...

BACKGROUND Surgical site infection (SSI) is a feared complication in hip arthroplasty, especially following femoral neck fracture in the elderly, associated with substantially increased morbidity, mortality, and costs. Gentamicin-containing collagen sponges are widely used for prevention of SSIs, but their effectiveness in joint replacement surgery remains unclear. METHODS We performed a mult...

Articular cartilage has poor healing ability and cartilage injuries often evolve to osteoarthritis. Cell-based strategies aiming to engineer cartilaginous tissue through the combination of biocompatible scaffolds and articular chondrocytes represent an alternative to standard surgical techniques. In this context, perfusion bioreactors have been introduced to enhance cellular access to oxygen an...

A test procedure for evaluating the effect of adding commercial liquid hand dishwashing detergents to kitchen sponges to control microbial growth is described. Claims for this type of application are being made on dishwashing detergents throughout the world. In this evaluation, commercially available kitchen sponges were stripped of antimicrobial compounds. Sponges were then inoculated with a p...

Aerobic and anaerobic microbial key processes were quantified and compared to microbial numbers and morphological structure in Mediterranean sponges. Direct counts on histological sections stained with DAPI showed that sponges with high microbial abundances (HMA sponges) have a denser morphological structure with a reduced aquiferous system compared to low microbial abundance (LMA) sponges. In ...

The diet of cavity sponges on the narrow fringing reefs of Curaçao, Caribbean was studied. The origin and resources of the bulk food of these sponges, i.e., dissolved organic matter (DOM), were identified using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes and fatty acid biomarkers. We found that phytoplankton and its derived DOM from the adjacent open sea and from reef overlying water is not the main so...