Ganglion Impar block improves neuropathic pain in coccygodynia: A preliminary report

Aim of the study To define the effectiveness of ganglion Impar block in improving neuropathic pain. Materials and methods Patients who had pain around the coccyx for more than three months and did not respond to conservative treatment were included in this study. All the patients underwent fluoroscopy guided transsacrococcygeal ganglion Impar block with injecting 3 mL of 0.5% bupivacaine, 2 mL saline, and 1 mL (40 mg) of methylprednisolone. Patients were evaluated with visual analog scale (VAS) for pain, Leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs scale (LANSS) for neuropathic pain, Beck depression Inventory (BDI) for mood and Short-form 12 (SF-12) for quality of life before, 1 month 3 months and 6 months after the injection. Patients’ painless sitting duration was also recorded. Results A total of 28 patients were included in the final analyses. VAS and LANSS scores improved significantly throughout the follow-up periods. BDI scores also improved while SF-12 scores did not show significant changes. Painless sitting period of the patients’ improved significantly. Conclusions Ganglion Impar block is effective in decreasing the neuropathic component of chronic coccygodynia. This improves painless sitting in patients but its reflections on quality of life is not clear

Assessment of ventricular septal defects by real-time three-dimensional echocardiography and comparison with surgical measurements

Peer reviewe

Epidemiology of surgery associated acute kidney injury (EPIS-AKI): a prospective international observational multi-center clinical study

Purpose: The incidence, patient features, risk factors and outcomes of surgery-associated postoperative acute kidney injury (PO-AKI) across different countries and health care systems is unclear. Methods: We conducted an international prospective, observational, multi-center study in 30 countries in patients undergoing major surgery (> 2-h duration and postoperative intensive care unit (ICU) or high dependency unit admission). The primary endpoint was the occurrence of PO-AKI within 72 h of surgery defined by the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) criteria. Secondary endpoints included PO-AKI severity and duration, use of renal replacement therapy (RRT), mortality, and ICU and hospital length of stay. Results: We studied 10,568 patients and 1945 (18.4%) developed PO-AKI (1236 (63.5%) KDIGO stage 1500 (25.7%) KDIGO stage 2209 (10.7%) KDIGO stage 3). In 33.8% PO-AKI was persistent, and 170/1945 (8.7%) of patients with PO-AKI received RRT in the ICU. Patients with PO-AKI had greater ICU (6.3% vs. 0.7%) and hospital (8.6% vs. 1.4%) mortality, and longer ICU (median 2 (Q1-Q3, 1-3) days vs. 3 (Q1-Q3, 1-6) days) and hospital length of stay (median 14 (Q1-Q3, 9-24) days vs. 10 (Q1-Q3, 7-17) days). Risk factors for PO-AKI included older age, comorbidities (hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease), type, duration and urgency of surgery as well as intraoperative vasopressors, and aminoglycosides administration. Conclusion: In a comprehensive multinational study, approximately one in five patients develop PO-AKI after major surgery. Increasing severity of PO-AKI is associated with a progressive increase in adverse outcomes. Our findings indicate that PO-AKI represents a significant burden for health care worldwide

Use of Fermented Soybean Meal with Whey as a Protein Source for Feeding Juvenile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)

In this study, the effect of fish meal substitution with fermented soybean meal in juvenile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, L.1758) diets was investigated. Six experimental diets were prepared by replacing 0 (FM, control), 10% (FSM10), 20% (FSM20), 30% (FSM30), 40% (FSM40), and 50% (FSM50) of the fish meal protein in the control diet by fermented soybean meal with whey (FSMW). The control diet contained no fermented soybean meal. The isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were fed to juvenile tilapia (initial average weight 0.74 g) for 90 days. Each diet group was fed in triplicate to 24 fish per aquarium. At the end of the experiment, highest growth, feed efficiency, and protein digestibility were found in the group fed the FSM30 diet. Tilapia fed diets containing fermented soybean meal up to 50% fish meal exhibited similar growth, feed conversion ratio (FCR), protein efficiency ratio (PER), and protein digestibility compared with the control diet. However, feed efficiency (FE) was reduced in tilapia fed FSM50 diet. Body composition, hepatosomatic index (HIS) and viscerosomatic index (VSI) were unaffected by the dietary treatment. Results of this study showed that FSMW could replace up to 40% of fish meal protein in juvenile tilapia diet

Combined effect of perspiration, rubbing and light over the fading of reactive dyed cotton fabrics

WOS: 000301209100003Combined effect of perspiration, rubbing and light over the fading of reactive dyed cotton fabrics Determination of light fastness is a very important issue in the performance testing of reactive dyed cotton textile materials, especially in summer and in the countries that have more sunlight. There are some factors affecting to the light fastness besides the light source and kind of the dyestuff. Perspiration and rubbing together with the effect of light also increase fading problem, but unfortunately there is not satisfactory knowledge about the combined effects of light and perspiration and rubbing over color change. In this study, these factors affecting to the color fading of reactive dyed cotton fabrics were observed separately and in combination with each other