BACKGROUND The anal fistula plug was developed as an alternative treatment for perianal fistulas. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to compare the anal fistula plug with the mucosal advancement flap for the treatment of high transsphincteric fistulas. DESIGN This study was a double-blinded, multicenter, randomized trial. PATIENTS Sixty patients with perianal fistulas were randomly assigned to re...

BACKGROUND Removable plug insoles appear to be beneficial for patients with diabetic neuropathic feet to offload local plantar pressure. However, quantitative evidence of pressure reduction by means of plug removal is limited. The value of additional insole accessories, such as arch additions, has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of removing plugs from foam ...

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are very selective filters that monitor the transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. Two models have been suggested for the plug of the NPC. They are (i) it is a reversible hydrogel or (ii) it is a polymer brush. We propose a mesoscopic model for the transport of a protein through the plug, that is general enough to cover both. The protein stretches the...

The mesh plug technique is one of the most popular procedures for inguinal hernia repair in Japan. This procedure is quick, easy, and low cost with a low recurrence rate. However, some complications associated with the mesh plug have been reported recently. We hereby present a case of an 80-year-old female admitted to our hospital with swelling and pain in the right lower abdomen 5 years after ...

Particle concentration is a key unit operation in biochemical assays. Although there are many techniques for particle concentration in continuous-phase microfluidics, relatively few are available in multiphase (plug-based) microfluidics. Existing approaches generally require external electric or magnetic fields together with charged or magnetized particles. This paper reports a passive techniqu...

In the present study, we investigate the effect of wall flexibility on the plug propagation and the resulting wall stresses in small airway models with experimental measurements and numerical simulations. Experimentally, a flexible microchannel was fabricated to mimic the flexible small airways using soft lithography. Liquid plugs were generated and propagated through the microchannels. The loc...

PURPOSE New technical approaches involving biologically derived products have been used to treat complex anal fistulas in order to avoid the risk of fecal incontinence. The least invasive methods involve filling out the fistula tract with fibrin glue or introduction of an anal fistula plug into the fistula canal following thorough curettage. A review shows that the new techniques involving biol...

This paper presents the WANDA Workbench, which is an open framework for electronic data processing. The framework provides generic interfaces for 'plug-in' applications for graphical user interfaces (client desktop with client plug-ins) and processing modules (server with server plug-ins). The applied plug-in concept allows for the functional extension of the workbench without changing the fram...