Expert review of medical devices
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Expert Rev Med Devices · May 2005
ReviewCurrent state and future development of intracranial neuroendoscopic surgery.
Since the introduction of the modern, smaller endoscopes in the 1960s, neuroendoscopy has become an expanding field of neurosurgery. Neuroendoscopy reflects the tendency of modern neurosurgery to aim towards minimalism; that is, access and visualization through the narrowest practical corridor and maximum effective action at the target point with minimal disruption of normal tissue. Transventricular neuroendoscopy allows the treatment of several pathologies inside the ventricular system, such as obstructive hydrocephalus and intra-/paraventricular tumors or cysts, often avoiding the implantation of extracranial shunts or more invasive craniotomic approaches. ⋯ However, an endoscope may be used to assist microsurgery in virtually any kind of neurosurgical procedures (endoscope-assisted microsurgery), particularly in aneurysm and tumor surgery. Basic principles of optical imaging and the physics of optic fibers are discussed, focusing on the neuroendoscope. The three main chapters of neuroendoscopy (transventricular, endonasal transphenoidal and endoscope-assisted microsurgery) are reviewed, concerning operative instruments, surgical procedures, main indications and results.
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Expert Rev Med Devices · Mar 2005
ReviewRecent advances in sonographic imaging of fetal thoracic structures.
Recent ultrasonographic methods applied in the evaluation of fetal thoracic structures and anomalies are presented. Fetal lung volumetric assessment by 3D ultrasonography, analysis of the thoracic wall by 3D-rendered image and 3D skeletal-mode imaging, intrathoracic vessel evaluation by 3D power Doppler ultrasonography, analysis of heart anatomy and abnormalities by 4D spatiotemporal image correlation, identification of normal and abnormal intrathoracic almost isoechogenic structures by volume contrast imaging and evaluation of the heart and great vessels by 3 and 4D inverse mode will be reviewed.
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Expert Rev Med Devices · Jan 2005
ReviewA new machine for continuous renal replacement therapy: from development to clinical testing.
A new continuous renal replacement therapy machine has been designed to fulfill the expectations of nephrologists and intensivists operating in the common ground of critical care nephrology. The new equipment is called Prismaflex and it is the natural evolution of the PRISMA machine that has been utilized worldwide for continuous renal replacement therapy in the last 10 years. ⋯ Accuracy was also tested by recording various operational parameters during different intermittent and continuous renal replacement modalities during 62 treatments. This article will describe our first experience with this new device and touch upon the historic and technologic background leading to its development.