Articles: surgery.
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Our challenge was to design and implement a dedicated temperature imaging feedback control system to guide and assist in a thermal liver ablation procedure in a double-donut 0.5T open MR scanner. This system has near-real-time feedback capability based on a newly developed "self-referenced" temperature imaging method using "moving-slab" and complex-field-fitting techniques. Two phantom validation studies and one ex vivo experiment were performed to compare the newly developed self-referenced method with the conventional subtraction method and evaluate the ability of the feedback control system in the same MR scanner. ⋯ In the second part of the validation and ex vivo study, target visualization, treatment planning and monitoring, and temperature and thermal dose visualization with the graphical user interface of the thermal ablation software were demonstrated. Furthermore, MR imaging with the "self-referenced" temperature imaging method has the ability to localize the hot spot in the heated region and measure temperature elevation during the experiment. In conclusion, we have demonstrated an interactively controllable feedback control system that offers a new method for the guidance of liver thermal ablation procedures, as well as improving the ability to assist ablation procedures in an open MR scanner.
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To investigate the efficacy of single injection femoral nerve block (FNB) on the independence level in functional activities in the early postoperative period in patients with total knee arthroplasty (TKA). ⋯ Single injection FNB provided effective analgesia in patients undergoing TKA. However, the independence level in functional activities in the early postoperative period was not influenced by the analgesia method.