Clinical characteristics of commonly used spinal needles

Bacterial contamination of needles used for spinal and epidural anaesthesia.

We have investigated prospectively the incidence of bacterial contamination of 114 spinal and 20 epidural needles collected immediately after lumbar puncture of the subarachnoid or epidural space. Bacteriological examination revealed bacterial contamination of 24 (17.9%) of the needles, mainly coagulase-negative staphylococci (21; 15.7%) followed by yeasts (2; 1.5%), enterococcus (1; 0.8%), pne...

Examination of surface conditions and other physical properties of commonly used stainless steel acupuncture needles

OBJECTIVES The present work examined the surface conditions and various other physical properties of sterilised single-use stainless steel acupuncture needles from two of the most popular brands widely used in many countries. METHODS Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were taken for 10 randomly chosen needles from each brand. Further SEM images were taken after each of these needles un...

Mechanical characteristics of three staples commonly used in foot surgery

BACKGROUND Bone staples are an accepted method of fixation in foot surgery. They reduce operating time and trauma in surgical procedures. A variety of memory staples are available but their properties compared to standard staples are not known. We carried out a study comparing two popular types of memory staples and a standard stainless steel staple. METHODS Standardized bone models of metata...

Deposition of carbon nanotubes in commonly used sample filter media

There is no single standard technique or methodology to characterize the size, structure, number, and chemical composition of airborne carbon nanotubes.  Existing analytical instruments and analytical techniques for evaluating nanoparticle concentrations cannot simultaneously provide morphology, state of agglomeration, surface area, mass, size distribution and chemical composition data critical...

Commonly Used Distributions