Selective management of bullet injuries of the neck: to do or not to do?

El tratamiento de las heridas de bala en el cuello supone un reto. La valoración clínica de la herida y la decisión de explorar o no el cuello ante la ausencia de lesiones viscerales o neurovasculares puede ser difícil. Hemos revisado la bibliografía reciente en relación con las posibles opciones y aportamos nuestras conclusiones. La decisión de explorar o no el cuello depende de la experiencia y de la infraestructura disponible. En un centro mal equipado y con poca experiencia, todos los casos deberían explorarse. En cambio, en una unidad con amplios servicios de traumatología y con personal especializado, puede realizarse una valoración cada 24 horas con apoyo de la radiología y de la endoscopia en los pacientes estables y seguir un determinado modelo selectivo de tratamiento. De este modo se ahorraría en el coste de hospitalización y se evitarían los riesgos de sucesivas exploraciones negativas, tal y como se constata en los estudios revisados, abogando por la intervención quirúrgica en todos los casos

Life- Threatening occlusion of the Airway: A role for endoscopic guided decannulation following percutaneous tracheostomy

Percutaneous Tracheostomy (PT) is a cost-effective, minimally invasive and relatively procedure for bedside tracheostomy tube pIacement. However, it may result in complications, which can cause airway probIems following decannuIation, which at present is Iargely done blindIy. We report a rather infrequent occurrence of early onset of total obstruction of the suprastomal trachea following P T, which resuIted in alife threatening occ1usion of the airway after removal of the tracheostomy tube. We review the relevant literature and make a case for endoscopic guided decannulation to be done routinely

Saussurea lappa plant rhizome extract-based zinc oxide nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization and its antibacterial, antifungal activities and cytotoxic studies against Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell lines

The plant extracts are known for their anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties. The use of plant extracts in the preparation of bio-materials increases their biological application. In this concern, herein reporting an eco-friendly procedure which is also a simple and cost effective, for the synthesis of Zinc Oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) using Saussurea lappa plant root (rhizome) extract as a fuel. The prepared nanoparticles were confirmed using various characterization techniques. The Dynamic light scattering data showed 123.5 nm particle size with -99.9 mv zeta potential which indicates excellent stability of the particles. The peak at 541 cm−1 in the IR spectrum is assigned to the stretching frequency of the zinc-binding to oxygen. The X-ray diffraction peaks confirm the close association with JCPDS Data Card No: 36-1451. The FESEM data revealed a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a hexagonal shape of synthesized ZnO nanoparticles. The antibacterial studies indicate the gram-negative strains showed better inhibition activity than gram-positive strains. Among Fungal strains, Aspergillus niger and flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, and Rhizopus oryzae showed good inhibition activity at higher concentrations. The cytotoxic data indicates the 5 μg/mL of the ZnO particles showed cytotoxicity on the CHO cell line and with IC50 value 3.164 ± 0.8956 μg/mL

Lawsonia inermis plant-based cobalt oxide nanoparticles: Synthesis, characterization and their biological studies

In the current study synthesized Cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co3O4 NPs) using Lawsonia inermis plant extract as fuel. The synthesized Co3O4 NPs were characterized using UV–visible spectroscopy, DLS, FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, and EDX analysis. The synthesized Co3O4 NPs were confirmed by the XRD analysis and their average size was determined using DLS and FESEM analysis. The average size of the cobalt oxide nanoparticles obtained from FESEM analysis was found to be around 98 nm and strong signals of cobalt were captured in EDX images. The synthesized Co3O4 NPs were tested on bacterial and fungal strains of three concentrations viz 50, 100 and 170 ppm. An increase in the concentration of Co3O4 NPs shows potent antibacterial and antifungal activities. The higher concentration (170 ppm) showed good antimicrobial activity on all strains of bacteria and fungi than the lower concentrations (50 and 100 ppm) of Co3O4 NPs. The observed zone of inhibition values against all bacteria and fungi ranged from 0.3 to 3.0 mm and 20 ± 0.42 mm to 0.3 to 2.9 mm, respectively. Among them, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus aureus showed more zones of inhibition at 170 ppm concentration. Meyerozyma guilliermondii fungal strain showed more zone of inhibition at 170 ppm concentration

Synthesis and biological evaluation of 1,2,3-triazole incorporated pyridin-4-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)pyrimidine derivatives as anticancer agents

A new series of 1,2,3-triazole incorporated pyridin-4-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)pyrimidine (10a-j) has been synthesized and their structures were characterized by 1HNMR, 13CNMR and mass spectral data. The in vitro anticancer activity of these derivatives (10a-j) was evaluated against human cancer cell lines such as MCF-7 (human breast cancer), A549 (human lung cancer), Colo-205 (human colon cancer) and A2780 (human ovarian cancer) by employing the MTT method. The results were expressed as IC50 µM and most of the derivatives showed good to moderate activity as compared with etoposide which is used as a positive control. Among all the derivatives, six derivatives 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d, 10e and 10j showed more potent activity. Particularly, one compound 10a displayed the most promising activity

Ceria doped mixed metal oxide nanoparticles as oxidation catalysts: Synthesis and their characterization

Mixed metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted significant attention as catalysts for various organic transformations. In this study, we have demonstrated the preparation of nickel–manganese mixed metal oxide NPs doped with X% nano cerium oxide (X = 1, 3, 5 mol%) by a facile co-precipitation technique using surfactant and surfactant free methodologies. The as-synthesized materials were calcined at different temperatures (300 °C, 400 °C, and 500 °C), and were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques, including, FTIR and XRD. SEM analysis, TEM analysis and TGA were employed to evaluate the structural properties of the as-prepared catalyst. These were evaluated for their catalytic behaviour towards the conversion of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde, which was used as a model reaction with molecular oxygen as oxidant. Furthermore, the effect of the variation of the percentage of nano ceria doping and the calcination temperature on the performance of as-prepared mixed metal catalysts was also evaluated. The kinetic studies of the reactions performed employing gas chromatographic technique have revealed that the mixed metal oxide catalyst doped with 5% nano ceria displayed excellent catalytc activity, among various catalysts synthesized

Ytterbia doped nickel–manganese mixed oxide catalysts for liquid phase oxidation of benzyl alcohol

Nickel–manganese mixed oxides doped with 1, 3, 5 mol% ytterbia have been prepared by co-precipitation method and used in the catalytic oxidation of benzyl alcohol. Catalytic activity of these oxides calcined at 400 °C and 500 °C was studied for selective oxidation of benzyl alcohol to the corresponding aldehyde using molecular oxygen as an oxidizing agent. The results showed that thermally stable 5 mol% ytterbia doped nickel–manganese oxide [Yb2O3-(5%)-Ni6MnO8] exhibited highest catalytic performance when it was calcined at 400 °C. A 100% conversion of the benzyl alcohol was achieved with >99% selectivity to benzaldehyde within a reaction period of 5 h at 100 °C. The mixed oxide prepared has been characterized by scanning election microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and temperature programed reduction (H2-TPR)