Surgery
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The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate clinical presentation and long-term outcome of patients treated surgically for complicated liver hydatid cysts. ⋯ Complicated liver hydatid disease is frequent and was observed in almost half of patients operated for liver hydatid cysts at our center. Using a surgical strategy aimed at complete removal of cystic and pericystic tissue with simultaneous treatment of the fistulous tract, we observed 23% postoperative morbidity, no mortality, and no recurrence of disease with a median follow-up of >8 years.
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The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) became law in Britain on October 1, 1998. As a result, the maximum period that may be spent as a resident in hospitals is 56 hours per week and after August 2009, 48 hours per week. The aim of this study was to determine the views of senior house officers (SHOs), specialist registrars (SpRs), and general consultant surgeons (CONs) in Wales on the influence of the EWTD on surgical training and clinical experience. ⋯ This study shows that, in Wales at least, a vast majority of surgical trainees and consultants alike are opposed to the introduction of the EWTD and believe it will have a detrimental effect on training, patient care, and doctors' lives outside of medicine.
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The inadvertent "loss" of surgical sponges, towels, and instruments remains an unsolved problem. The means of preventing this mishap involve an inventory of all implements going in and coming out of the surgical wound, supplemented by a careful search. This work describes a different approach to this problem: tagging articles placed into the wound with markers able to be rapidly detected electronically. ⋯ The present work demonstrates the feasibility of detecting retained surgical sponges by electronic means blinded to whether the tag contained an active or inert marker.