Seahorses give birth to juveniles having a fully functional feeding apparatus, and juvenile feeding behaviour shows striking similarities to that of adults. However, a significant allometric growth of the snout is observed during which the snout shape changes from relatively short and broad in juveniles to relatively long and slender in adults. Since the shape of the buccal cavity is a critical...

BACKGROUND Bacterial mediastinitis is a severe complication after open heart surgery. The infection causes prolonged hospitalization and an increased mortality risk. Observations from orthopaedic surgery showed that the suction catheter used during surgery is commonly contaminated with bacteria. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of suction catheter contamination in cardiac su...

Fifty-eight patients with mild to moderately severe acute pancreatitis were randomly allocated to treatment with or without nasogastric suction (27 and 31 patients respectively). Intravenous fluids and pethidine hydrochloride were also given. The two groups were comparable clinically at the start of the study. There were no differences between the two groups in the mean duration of the followin...

The rate and magnitude of buccal expansion are thought to determine the pattern of water flow and the change in buccal pressure during suction feeding. Feeding events that generate higher flow rates should induce stronger suction pressure and allow predators to draw prey from further away. We tested these expectations by measuring the effects of prey capture kinematics on suction pressure and t...

Suction feeding is central to prey capture in the vast majority of ray-finned fishes and has been well studied from a detailed, mechanistic perspective. Several major trade-offs are thought to have shaped the diversification of suction-feeding morphology and behavior, and have become well established in the literature. We revisited several of these expectations in a study of prey capture morpho...

OBJECTIVES This study attempted to identify which is the more effective suction system. The objective was to compare open versus closed suction systems according to a systematic review. METHODS A search of scientific literature was conducted in MedLine, LILACS and Cochrane between 1997 and August 2007 using the key words: endotracheal suction and closed suction. Included were articles that co...

Critically ill patients are intubated or tracheostomized because, in most cases, these individuals require invasive mechanical ventilation. The cannulae that are used include the cuff, which can act as a reservoir for oropharyngeal secretions, predisposing to ventilator-associated pneumonia. Studies have revealed that the suction of subglottic secretions through the dorsal suction lumen above t...