BACKGROUND The usual kappa statistic requires that all observations be enumerated. However, in free-response assessments, only positive (or abnormal) findings are notified, but negative (or normal) findings are not. This situation occurs frequently in imaging or other diagnostic studies. We propose here a kappa statistic that is suitable for free-response assessments. METHOD We derived the eq...

As there has been increasing interest in comparing surgical site infection (SSI) rates between countries, we compared the SSI surveillance data for The Netherlands ('PREZIES') and Germany ('KISS'). Both surveillance systems have comparable protocols with many similar risk factors, including SSI definitions developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and optional postdischarge su...

Turbochargers are most widely used in automotive, marine and locomotive applications with diesel engines. To increase the engine performance nowadays, in aerospace applications also turbochargers are used. Mostly the turbocharger rotors are commonly supported over the fluid film bearings. With the operation, lubricant properties continuously alter leading to different load bearing capacities. T...

METHODS: Retrospective study which included patients examined using AS-OCT (HD-Cirrus) between June and December 2011. e following information was obtained: diagnosis, surgical procedure, AS-OCT image usefulness/quality, biomicroscopy photographs. Cases were classi ed into the following groups: 1. e AS-OCT provided a satisfactory image and provided additional information to that obtained by bio...

PURPOSE The postoperative treatment after appendectomy is usually decided on the basis of the surgeons' intraoperative findings. Comparatively, the pathologic diagnosis of appendicitis is confirmed several days after the surgery; therefore, it usually does not affect the postoperative treatment strategy. The aim of this study was to investigate the discrepancies between the surgical and patholo...

Acute appendicitis represents the most common non-obstetric indication for surgical intervention in pregnant women, with a reported incidence of 1 in 1440 pregnancies. Stump appendicitis is a rare clinical situation when there is incomplete appendectomy. A rare case occurred of stump appendicitis and chorioamnionitis complicating after incomplete appendectomy. In this way the literature review ...

Laparoscopic procedures have usually been employed as an alternative to open surgery for the management of several urologic problems. Laparoscopic ureteroneocystostomy is rarely reported despite the description of different techniques. Ramalingam et al. described a 3case series of successful laparoscopic Boari flap ureteral reimplantations. Gao el al. also described a 3-case series of laparosco...