Short Implants Versus Bone Augmentation and Longer Implants in Atrophic Maxillae. Five Year Post Loading Results of a Randomised Controlled Trial

PURPOSE. To evaluate whether short (5 to 8.5 mm) dental implants could be a suitable alternative to longer (at least 11.5 mm long) implants for supporting dental prostheses placed in atrophic fully edentulous maxillae augmented with autogenous bone. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Twenty-eight patients with fully edentulous atrophic maxillae having 5 to 9 mm of residual crestal bone height at least 5 mm thick, as measured on CT scans, were randomised into two groups, either to receive four to eight short (5 to 8.5 mm) implants (15 patients) or autogenous bone from the iliac crest to allow the place-ment of at least 11.5 mm-long implants (13 patients). Both bone blocks and windows at lifted maxillary sinuses were covered with rigid resorbable barriers. Grafts were left to heal for 4 months before placing implants, which were submerged. After 4 months, pro-visional reinforced acrylic prostheses or bar-retained overdentures were delivered. Pro-visional prostheses were replaced after 4 months by definitive screw-retained metal-re- sin cross-arch restorations. Outcome measures were: Augmentation, prosthesis or implant failures, any complications, peri-implant marginal bone level changes, and pa-tient satisfaction. Patients were followed-up until 5 years after loading. RESULTS. All patients could be rehabilitated with implant-supported prostheses, but four patients dropped-out from the augmentation group and three from the short implant group. One bilateral sinus lift procedure failed due to infection, though short implants could be placed. Four implants failed in four patients from the augmentation group ver-sus three short implants in three patients (Fisher's exact test P = 0.6500; difference in proportions = -0.17; 95% CI -0.51 to 0.21). No prosthesis failed. Significantly more complica-tions occurred in augmented patients: 12 complications occurred in nine augmented pa-tients versus one complication in the short implant group (Fisher's exact test P = 0.0003; difference in proportions = -0.82; 95%o CI -0.97 to -0.41). Periapical radiographs of only four patients were readable, so no bone level could be measured at 5 years after loading. With the exception of three patients from the augmentation group, who were only partially satisfied with function, all remaining patients were fully satisfied with the treatment (P = 0.0957); all would have the treatment again. CONCLUSIONS. This study showed that in patients with fully edentulous atrophic maxillae, short implants can be a preferable alternative to longer implants placed in bone aug-mented with autogenous bone, the treatment being less invasive, cheaper, faster and associated with fewer complications

Reconstructive Options after Oncological Rhinectomy: State of the Art

Background: The nose is a central component of the face, and it is fundamental to an individual's recognition and attractiveness. The aim of this study is to present a review of the last twenty years literature on reconstructive techniques after oncological rhinectomy. Methods: Literature searches were conducted in the databases PubMed, Scopus, Medline and Google Scholar. "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA)" for scoping review was followed. Results: Seventeen articles regarding total rhinectomy reconstruction were finally identified in the English literature, with a total of 447 cases. The prostheses were the reconstructive choice in 213 (47.7%) patients, followed by local flaps in 172 (38.5%) and free flaps in 62 (13.8%). The forehead flap (FF) and the radial forearm free flap (RFFF) are the most frequently used flaps. Conclusions: This study shows that both prosthetic and surgical reconstruction are very suitable solutions in terms of surgical and aesthetic outcomes for the patient

fMRI-Based Effective Connectivity in Surgical Remediable Epilepsies: A Pilot Study

Simultaneous EEG-fMRI can contribute to identify the epileptogenic zone (EZ) in focal epilepsies. However, fMRI maps related to Interictal Epileptiform Discharges (IED) commonly show multiple regions of signal change rather than focal ones. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) can estimate effective connectivity, i.e. the causal effects exerted by one brain region over another, based on fMRI data. Here, we employed DCM on fMRI data in 10 focal epilepsy patients with multiple IED-related regions of BOLD signal change, to test whether this approach can help the localization process of EZ. For each subject, a family of competing deterministic, plausible DCM models were constructed using IED as autonomous input at each node, one at time. The DCM findings were compared to the presurgical evaluation results and classified as: "Concordant" if the node identified by DCM matches the presumed focus, "Discordant" if the node is distant from the presumed focus, or "Inconclusive" (no statistically significant result). Furthermore, patients who subsequently underwent intracranial EEG recordings or surgery were considered as having an independent validation of DCM results. The effective connectivity focus identified using DCM was Concordant in 7 patients, Discordant in two cases and Inconclusive in one. In four of the 6 patients operated, the DCM findings were validated. Notably, the two Discordant and Invalidated results were found in patients with poor surgical outcome. Our findings provide preliminary evidence to support the applicability of DCM on fMRI data to investigate the epileptic networks in focal epilepsy and, particularly, to identify the EZ in complex cases

Listening to a conversation with aggressive content expands the interpersonal space

The distance individuals maintain between themselves and others can be defined as ‘interpersonal space’. This distance can be modulated both by situational factors and individual characteristics. Here we investigated the influence that the interpretation of other people interaction, in which one is not directly involved, may have on a person’s interpersonal space. In the current study we measured, for the first time, whether the size of interpersonal space changes after listening to other people conversations with neutral or aggressive content. The results showed that the interpersonal space expands after listening to a conversation with aggressive content relative to a conversation with a neutral content. This finding suggests that participants tend to distance themselves from an aggressive confrontation even if they are not involved in it. These results are in line with the view of the interpersonal space as a safety zone surrounding one’s body

WA92: a fixed target experiment to trigger on and identify beauty particle decays

We describe the detectors and trigger system used in the CERN WA92 experiment. The experiment was designed to study the production and decay of beauty particles from 350 GeV/$c\,$ $\,\pi^-$ interactions in copper and tungsten targets. Charged particle tracking is performed using the Omega spectrometer. Silicon microstrip detectors are used to provide precise tracking information in the region of the production and the decay of heavy-flavoured particles and to trigger on the resulting high impact parameter tracks. The precision of vertex reconstruction corresponds to $\pm 3.7\%$ of the mean B-decay proper lifetime. Lepton and high transverse momentum hadron signals are also used in the trigger, which accepts 29\% of B-decays and rejects 98\% of non-beauty interactions

Measurement of the beauty production cross-section in 350 GeV/c π−\pi^- -Cu interactions

Using a sample of $10^8$ triggered events, produced in $\pi^-$--$\,$Cu interactions at 350~GeV$/c$, we have identified 26 beauty events. The estimated background in this sample is $0.6 \pm 0.6$ events. From these data, assuming a linear A-dependence, we measure a beauty production cross-section integrated over all $x_F$ of $5.7 {+1.3 \atop -1.1}~{\mathrm {(stat.)}} {+0.6 \atop -0.5}~{\mathrm {(syst.)}}~$nb/N