BACKGROUND In 2006 there were an estimated 645,000 people in Amhara, Ethiopia, with trachomatous trichiasis (TT) who needed surgery. Despite an extensive integrated eye care worker training programme (IECW) and robust support for TT surgical services, productivity has not reached targets. We investigated why surgeon productivity was below target. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Confidential in...

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) challenges the surgeon’s skills due to his separation from the operation area which can be reached with long instruments only. Therefore, the surgeon loses access to the manipulation forces inside the patient. This reduces his dexterity when performing the operation. A new compact and lightweight robot for MIS is presented which allows for the measurement of man...

PURPOSE Laparoscopic colectomy has been reported as a safe and oncologically similar operation to open colectomy. A number of expensive surgical instruments are necessary for the procedure which should be applied if it is cost-effective for the patient and the health system in general. The purpose of the current study was the economic evaluation of laparoscopic compared to open colectomy for th...

In minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, it is of practical significance to quickly locate the location and category information surgical instrument. It can remind medical personnel irreversible injury caused patients due leaving instruments after operation. this paper, Gaussian kernel introduced into each ground truth, which conducive making full use label allocate positive negative samples...

BACKGROUND The PEAK PlasmaBlade is a new electrosurgical device that uses pulsed radiofrequency to generate a plasma-mediated discharge along the exposed rim of an insulated blade, creating an effective cutting edge while the blade stays near body temperature. METHODS Full-thickness incisions were made on the dorsums of pigs with the PlasmaBlade, a conventional electrosurgical device, and a s...

To date, clinical application of image-guided surgery (IGS) to otology/neurotology has been limited, but a large potential market and numerous applications support use. Such applications include control of surgical instruments (eg, turning off a drill when close to an anatomic boundary), robotic surgery (eg, robotic mastoidectomy), and minimally invasive surgery (eg, percutaneous cochlear impla...