This report details a case of unexpected, severe post-operative cerebral edema following cranioplasty. We discuss the possible pathological mechanisms of this complication. A 50-year-old female was admitted to our department with sudden onset of stuporous consciousness. A brain computed tomography (CT) revealed a subarachnoid hemorrhage with intracranial hemorrhage and subdural hematoma. Emerge...

BACKGROUND External pleural suction is used after lung resection to promote lung expansion and minimize air leak duration. Published randomized trials failed to prove this advantage but they are limited in number and underpowered in many cases. The aim of the AirINTrial study was to test the hypothesis that external pleural suction may reduce the rate of prolonged air leak in a large, randomize...

Closed suction drainage is a routinely used method in all fields of surgery. The idea to drain a wound is quite old. Supposedly, Hippocrates had already used a wooden tube to drain the operative wound (Levy, 1984). In orthopaedic surgery, Waugh and Stinchfield were the first who popularized the method of draining. Their preference to draining was based on their retrospective study, where they o...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to compare a negative pressure drain with a natural drain in order to determine whether a negative pressure drainage tube causes an increase in the drainage volume. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-two patients who underwent total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) were enrolled in the study between March 2010 and August 2010 at Gyeongsang Nationa...

background: modified radical mastectomy (mrm) is still one of globally accepted surgical techniques for breast cancer and in some selected patient is the gold standard type of surgery. the most frequent complication of this procedure is seroma under skin flaps or in the axilla as reported as much as 30% in some studies. the use of closed suction drainage system to reduce the incidence of this c...

[This corrects the article on p. 288 in vol. 43.].

BACKGROUND Negative pressure drainage has been shown to be an effective treatment of chyle fistula. However, the optimal level of negative pressure has not been determined. We therefore conducted a prospective randomized trial to address this issue. METHODS In all, 21 patients with chyle fistula were randomly assigned to a high negative pressure suction (HNPS) group (-600 mmHg, n = 10) or low...

BACKGROUND Although various drains have long been used in total joint replacement, evidence suggests inconsistent practice exists in the use of drainage systems including intermittently applying suction or free of drainage suction, and variations in the optimal timing for wound drain removal. A comprehensive systematic review of available evidence up to 2013 was conducted in a previous study an...