With the increased use of advanced imaging techniques, incidental renal mass have become a very frequent finding (1). Approximately 13 to 27% of abdominal imaging studies incidentally identify a renal lesion , a fact that makes suspected renal cell carcinoma be diagnosed at an early stage (2). Most excised small renal cancers are classified as low grade at the time of diagnosis and synchronous ...

Multimodal treatment approaches are indispensable for patients with advanced-stage cancer, while radiation therapy has been established as essential part of therapeutic approaches and has been introduced as a better option to face challenges, such as, local relapse or oligometastatic disease. The mere insight of the concept of oligometastases, proposed for the first time in the middle 1990s, le...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an increasingly prevalent condition in the ageing population, with significantly associated morbidity and mortality. Surgical and catheter ablative strategies both aim to reduce mortality and morbidity through freedom from AF. This review consolidates all currently available comparative data to evaluate these two interventions. METHODS A systematic searc...

Topical or intralesional corticosteroids are referred to as gold standard treatments for keloids. Recent studies showed that ablative fractional laser (AFL) treatment facilitates delivery of topical drug deeply into the skin by creating vertical channels. The objective of the present study was to assess the ablative erbium laser in fractionated mode, combined with topical high potent corticoste...

Melasma represents a pigmentary disorder that is difficult to treat. This study aims to broadly review the use of ablative lasers (Er:YAG and CO2) in the treatment of melasma, presenting the level of evidence of studies published to date. A total of 75 patients were enrolled in four case series studies (n=39), one controlled clinical trial (n=6) and one randomized controlled clinical trial (n=3...

BACKGROUND The Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was among the first non-ablative lasers to be used. High-fluence photoacoustic Q-switched laser treatments were shown to produce results akin to those seen with some ablative lasers. Previous low-fluence, non-thermal, Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers produced almost no results. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new combined photoacoustic/phot...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was evaluation of the safety and efficacy of this new combined technology that adds deep ablation to thermal stimulation. BACKGROUND DATA Minimally ablative or subablative lasers, such as fractional CO2 lasers, have been developed in an attempt to achieve the same clinical results observed with traditional ablative lasers, but with fewer side effects. Despi...

OBJECTIVE. To evaluate the clinical outcome and safety of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for medically inoperable stage I non-small-cell lung carcinoma. DESIGN. Retrospective case series. SETTING. Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Hong Kong. PATIENTS. All patients with medically inoperable stage I non-small-cell lung carcinoma receiving stereotactic ablative radiotherapy since its e...

UNLABELLED The drive to attain cosmetic facial enhancement with minimal risk and rapid recovery has inspired the field of nonsurgical skin rejuvenation. Laser resurfacing was introduced in the 1980s with continuous wave carbon dioxide (CO(2)) lasers; however, because of a high rate of side effects, including scarring, short-pulse, high-peak power, and rapidly scanned, focused-beam CO(2) lasers ...

OBJECTIVE To determine the stunning effect of a tracer dose of 5 mCi iodine-131. PATIENTS AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed 145 patients who received the first ablative treatment at our service. Patients were divided according to disease status determined upon post-treatment scanning (101 patients with thyroid remnants and 44 with pulmonary metastases) and whole-body scanning before abl...