BACKGROUND Human and animal laboratory studies have shown that stress delays healing of standardized punch biopsy wounds. PURPOSE This 5-week prospective study of 17 women who underwent elective gastric bypass surgery addressed the association between postsurgical pain intensity and subsequent healing of a standard 2.0-mm punch biopsy wound. METHODS Participants were assessed 1 week before ...

OBJECTIVES To study patients' satisfaction and prevalence of complications in surgical extraction of impacted third molar by senior dentists and recently graduated dentists in a university dental clinic. METHOD Patients who had impacted third molar extraction in a university dental clinic by two associate dentists who had <2 years of experience and two senior dentists who had >15 years of exp...

Postsurgical infections represent an important cause of morbidity after abdominal surgery. The microbiological diagnosis is not achieved in at least 30% of culture with consequent worsening of patient outcome. In this study, procalcitonin measurement, during the first 3 days after abdominal surgery, has been evaluated for the early diagnosis of postsurgical infection.Ninety consecutive patients...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of a crosslinked hyaluronan solution (ACP gel) in the prevention of postsurgical adhesions in laparoscopic surgery. DESIGN A randomized blinded study using a rabbit model in laparoscopic surgery. SETTING A standardized surgical trauma in the rabbit uterine horn to induce adhesion formation. ANIMALS Sixty-four sexually matured female New Zealand whit...

PURPOSE To investigate the effect of a range of biological coatings on corneal epithelialization of a synthetic polymer surface in vivo. METHODS Eight diverse biological factors (collagen I, collagen III, collagen IV, laminin, fibronectin, endothelial extracellular matrix, hyaluronic acid, and chondroitin sulfate) were coated individually onto the surface of polycarbonate membranes with a por...

BACKGROUND Previous animal and clinical studies showed that nitrous oxide may produce long-term analgesia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of nitrous oxide in preventing chronic postsurgical pain. We also explored whether methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase gene polymorphisms (1298A>C, 667C>T) would enhance nitrous oxide analgesia. METHODS We conducted a telephone interview a...

Persistent postsurgical pain is a prevalent but underacknowledged condition. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, sensory qualities, and postoperative determinants of persistent pain at 3 to 4years after total knee replacement (TKR) and total hip replacement (THR). Patients completed a questionnaire with included the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Index of Osteoarthrit...

OBJECT Surgery for refractory epilepsy often bestows significant relief but may cause memory impairment. The risk of postoperative memory loss can be determined by the intracarotid amobarbital procedure, or the Wada test. Chemical inactivation of the hemisphere on the side of the lesion is usually performed first, followed by inactivation of the contralateral hemisphere. Patients who demonstrat...

Surgical adhesions are a common and often severe complication of abdominal or pelvic injury that cause pelvic pain, bowel obstruction, and infertility in women. Current treatments are of limited effectiveness because little is known about the cellular and subcellular processes underlying adhesiogenesis. Recently, we showed that Th1 alpha beta CD4(+) T cells mediate the pathogenesis of adhesion ...