Video games are accepted and used for a wide variety of applications. In the medical world, research on the positive effects of playing games on basic laparoscopic skills is rapidly increasing. Although these benefits have been proven several times, no institution actually uses video games for surgical training. This Short Communication describes some of the theoretical backgrounds, development...

BACKGROUND Custom foot orthoses are commonly recommended for the treatment of foot pain. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effectiveness of custom foot orthoses for different types of foot pain. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 2), MEDLINE (from January 1966), EMBASE (from January 1980), CINAHL (from January ...

BACKGROUND With decompressive craniectomy for ischemic stroke, traumatic brain injury, and skull-infiltrating tumors, the need for cranioplasty has increased. Different materials for custom-made cranioplasties have been evaluated, but a gold standard could not yet be established. We report our experience with the new custom-made titanium CRANIOTOP(®)cranioplasty (CL Instruments, Germany). MET...

Polysaccharides and their inherent structural and chemical variability provide an enormous hitherto unexploited design space for production of a range of new biobased materials. Exopolysaccharides are synthesized by numerous microorganisms (Rehm, 2010). Studies on biosynthesis provided critical information on how precursors are enzymatically diverted from primary metabolites and how they are po...

Acetabular revision is a challenging operation, especially when dealing with major bone loss and poor bone quality. This article describes a detailed approach to defect analysis, including measurement of bone deficiency and bone quality. A custom-made titanium implant, with precisely outlined flanges to the host bones of the ilium, ischium, and pubis, taking into account the bone quality for op...

BUMC PROCEEDINGS 2000;13:135–138 Jaw joint (temporomandibular joint or TMJ) disease is estimated to affect 30 million Americans, with approximately 1 million new patients diagnosed each year (1). Although many of these patients can be managed with nonsurgical therapies, some patients require surgical intervention. The TMJ is a unique joint in that it does not function independently but works in...

BACKGROUND Source material used to fill calvarial defects includes autologous bones and synthetic alternatives. While autologous bone is preferable to synthetic material, autologous reconstruction is not always feasible due to defect size, unacceptable donor-site morbidity, and other issues. Today, advanced three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques allow for fabrication of titanium implants cu...

In the special machines and custom made machine industry, machine manufacturers have to deal with maintenance services in spread market, while individualization of customer demands increases complexity to maintenance services. That is the case in stone cutting machines manufacturing business, where maintenance is a critical factor because of the high customization of each machine and because of...

Proof of concept for the in vivo bacterial production of a polyester resin displaying various customizable affinity protein binding domains is provided. This was achieved by engineering various protein binding domains into a bacterial polyester-synthesizing enzyme. Affinity binding domains based on various structural folds and derived from molecular libraries were used to demonstrate the potent...