Surgical removal of a self-expanding metallic stent from jejunum in a patient with Roux-en-Y esophagojejunostomy

Self-expanding metallic stent is useful in esophageal perforations, trachea-esophageal fistulas, benign esophageal strictures, and unresectable esophageal cancers. However, self-expanding metallic stent itself has the risk of mucosal necrosis with subsequent perforation and /or trachea-esophageal fistula development –particularly- in long-term usage. Further, gastro-esophageal reflux, stent occlusion, stent migration and intestinal obstruction are other common complications. We report surgical management of a case whose self-expanding metallic stent migrated from the esophagojejunostomy anastomosis towards to the jejunal Y-limp

Application of high pressure processing in ensuring food safety

As being one of the most popular non-thermal food processing and hurdle technologies, high pressure processing (HPP) is widely used to assure food safety and obtain food matrices with high nutritional value and longer shelf life. Food safety might be conceptualized with distinctive subjects, however mostly dominated by microbial safety. Numerous studies have been applied to investigate the effect of HPP on the safety of various food materials in the last decades, particularly associated with reducing the microbial load including some types of bacteria (both vegetative and spore forming cells), molds, yeasts, parasites, and viruses. Detoxification and prevention of toxin production in food materials are also considered as significant effects of HPP for food safety concern. On the other hand, the influence of high-pressure treatment on natural food allergens in order to decrease/inhibit their undesirable health-demoting effects is a promising research area aiming to produce fresh and allergen-free food products. HPP is an important non-thermal tool to obtain gently processed but safer food products when applied either alone or in combination with other hurdle treatments

Efficacy of cold plasma technology on the constituents of plant-based food products: Principles, current applications, and future potentials

Cold plasma (CP) is one of the novel non-thermal food processing technologies, which has the potential to extend the shelf-life of plant-based food products without adversely affecting the nutritional value and sensory characteristics. Besides microbial inactivation, this technology has been explored for food functionality, pesticide control, and allergen removals. Cold plasma technology presents positive results in applications related to food processing at a laboratory scale. This review discusses applications of CP technology and its effect on the constituents of plant-based food products including proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and polar and non-polar secondary plant metabolites. As proven by the publications in the food field, the influence of CP on the food constituents and sensory quality of various food materials are mainly based on CP-related factors such as processing time, voltage level, power, frequency, type of gas, gas flow rate as well as the amount of sample, type, and content of food constituents. In addition to these, changes in the secondary plant metabolites depend on the action of CP on both cell membrane breakdown and increase/decrease in the scavenging compounds. This technology offers a good alternative to conventional methods by inactivating enzymes and increasing antioxidant levels. With a waterless and chemical-free property, this sustainable and energy-efficient technology presents several advantages in food applications. However, scaling up CP by ensuring uniform plasma treatment is a major challenge. Further investigation is required to provide information regarding the toxicity of plasma-treated food products