To determine the safety and complications of chest tube clamping, a retrospective chart review was conducted at Baylor University Medical Center's level I trauma center. The records of 243 patients with pneumothoraces, hemothoraces, or a combination were identified and analyzed; 134 patients underwent clamping according to the care path, and 109 did not. The demographic characteristics of age, ...

Standard electrophysiology experiments utilize a technique known as voltage clamping: the surface of the cellular membrane is held constant, or clamped, which allows the researcher to study the membrane permeability and ion exchange. This process is usually performed with commercially available analog equipment. While analog circuitry provides an accurate and reliable equipment medium, it does ...

Delayed umbilical cord clamping appears to be beneficial for term and preterm infants. In term infants, delayed umbilical cord clamping increases hemoglobin levels at birth and improves iron stores in the first several months of life, which may have a favorable effect on developmental outcomes. There is a small increase in jaundice that requires phototherapy in this group of infants. Consequent...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE There has been no report describing the optimal clamping method for biliary drainage tubes in living-donor liver transplantation (LDLT), although biliary splinting and drainage plays an important role in this procedure. METHODS When performing LDLT, we generally use a 2-mm drainage tube for the splint at the biliary anastomosis, and externalize it through the lower common b...

BACKGROUND This study evaluated the frequency, the indications and techniques of vascular clamping during liver resection and during thermal destruction therapies, as currently used by hepatic surgeons throughout Europe. METHODS A web-based questionnaire was distributed among 621 physicians, including all members of the European Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association and the European Surgical A...

Left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure-volume (P-V) relations arise from a complex interplay of active decay of force (i.e., relaxation), passive elastic myocardial properties, and time-varying inflow across the mitral orifice. This study was designed to quantify the passive properties of the intact ventricle and the effects of elastic recoil by separating filling from relaxation with a metho...

The letter by Bertolini et all is primarily addressed to three references. The first two references were two letters written to BLOOD in 1992 by myself and my colleague^.'^^ These letters written in 1992 were not written to draw attention to the loss of hemoglobin, but to draw attention to ethical, medical, and legal issues revolving around the deliberate taking of blood from a n e w b ~ r n . ...

Many recent technical advances have enhanced the safety of open surgery of the descending thoracic aorta. Previous to the refinement of these adjuncts and techniques, surgeons such as Stanley Crawford showed that simple aortic cross-clamping with expeditious surgery produced the best results. In Crawford’s era of “clamp and go”, time limitations pressured surgeons to perform anastomoses rapidly...

Intraoperative somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) were measured in 17 patients during 21 extracranial revascularization and related procedures. The operations included 13 carotid endarterectomies (CEAs), two cervical internal carotid ligations, one vertebral artery (VA) clipping, one VA-common carotid artery (CCA) transposition, and four temporary balloon occlusion tests (TBOTs). Three of t...