Intrathecal pethidine: an alternative anaesthetic for transsurethral research of prostate?

We aimed to determine the usefulness of intrathecal pethidine as the sole anaesthetic for transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) while comparing the incidence of hypotension with intrathecal bupivacaine. A double-blinded randomized prospective trial was conducted involving 40 patients for TURP. The patients were divided equally into two groups; Group A received 2ml 0.5% bupivaccine intrathecally and group B received 40mg pethidine intrathecally. Changes in blood pressure and heart rate were measured over the first 30 minutes. The highest sensory block and the time to reach it were documented. The degree of motor blockade was also recorded. There was no significant difference in the incidence of hypotension. The pethidine group had significantly greater reduction in heart rate, a lower degree of motor block, shorter period before requests for postoperative analgesia but a higher incidence of sedation, nausea and vomiting. Intrathecal pethidine did not offer any advantage over intrathecal bupivaccine for TURP. Keywords: intrathecal pethidine, transurethral resection, prostate Mary Slessor Journal of Medicine Vol. 5 (1), 2005: 61-6

The Study of a Nonlinear Duffing – Type Oscillator Driven by Two Voltage Sources

In the present work, a detailed study of a nonlinear electrical oscillator with damping and external excitation is presented. The system under study consists of a Duffing-type circuit driven by two sinusoidal voltage sources having different frequencies. The dynamical behavior of the proposed system is investigated numerically, by solving the system of state equations and simulating its behavior as a circuit using MultiSim. The tools of the theoretical approach are the bifurcation diagrams, the Poincaré sections, the phase portraits, and the maximum Lyapunov exponent. The numerical investigation showed that the system has rich complex dynamics including phenomena such as quasiperiodicity, 3-tori, and chaos

A survey of oral and maxillofacial biopsies in children: a single-center retrospective study of 20 years in Pelotas-Brazil

Despite the large number of published cases about oral and maxillofacial pediatric lesions, the literature is scarce on epidemiological studies regarding the prevalence of these entities. This study retrieved oral and maxillofacial pediatric lesions from the Center of Diagnosis of Oral Diseases (CDDB) at the Dental School of the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPEL), comprising a 20-year period (1983-2002). From the total of 9,465 biopsies received in this period, 625 (6.6%) were from children aged 0 to 14 years. Regardless of the histopathological diagnosis, patient data referring to lesion location, sex and age were collected. Diagnoses were grouped in 13 categories. As much as 89% of the cases occurred in patients aged 7 to 14 years (53% in females and 47% in males). Mucocele (17.2%) was the most common type of lesion, followed by dentigerous cyst (8.6%). In the category of odontogenic tumors, odontoma was the most frequent lesion (64.2%). Malignant lesions were observed in a small section of the sample (1.2%). Generally, the results of the present study are in line with those reported in the literature concerning the most prevalent lesions in the pediatric population. Most lesions were benign, and malignant lesions were diagnosed in a very small part of the sample