OBJECTIVETo evaluate the efficacy and safety of percutaneous pedicle screw fixation (PPSF) and open pedicle screw fixation (OPSF) in the treatment of single level of thoracolumbar fracture.

METHODSDatabases including Pubmed, Embasem, CNKI were searched to collect clinical trials of the clinical safety and efficiency of PPSF and OPSF for single level of thoracolumbar unstable fracture, relevant proceedings and references were also retrieved manually. Studies from 1990 to 2014 that met the inclusion and exclusion standards were researched. The data were extracted and the methods from the studies were also evaluated. Data analysis was conducted with the Review Manager 5.3 software. Observation targets included operation time, intraoperative bleeding, postoperative bleeding, hospitalization time, the bed time, postoperative vertebral Cobb angle, vertebral body height, pain score and the length of incision operation.

RESULTSFifteen papers were finally studied, including 2 randomized controlled trials (RCT) and 13 case-control studies, involving 789 patients. Compared with OPSF, the PPSF in treating thoracolumbar fracture had shorter operation time, smaller operation incision, less intraoperative and postoperation bleeding, shorter hospitalization days, fewer pain (P<0.00001), the less improvement in the change of Cobb angle (P=0.0006). There was no significant difference in the improvement of vertebral body height (P=0.36), the bed time from operation to exercise (P=0.38) between OPSF and PPSF.

CONCLUSIONCompared with OPSF, PPSF is better, safer, and has fewer pain. But there is no evidence that the PPSF is better in the recovery of the spinal height, and they have the same effect in the long-term follow-up for thoracolumbar fractures. PPSF brines minimally invasive to patients with better effect. It is worth further study and clinical research.

Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Fracture Fixation, Internal ; methods ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures ; methods ; Pedicle Screws ; Spinal Fractures ; surgery ; Thoracic Vertebrae ; surgery ; Treatment Outcome

Based on vector auto-regression (VAR) model, this paper takes advantage of Granger causality test, variance decomposition and impulse response analysis techniques to carry out a comprehensive study of the factors influencing the price of Chinese herbal, including herbal cultivation costs, acreage, natural disasters, the residents' needs and inflation. The study found that there is Granger causality relationship between inflation and herbal prices, cultivation costs and herbal prices. And in the total variance analysis of Chinese herbal and medicine price index, the largest contribution to it is from its own fluctuations, followed by the cultivation costs and inflation.
Agriculture ; economics ; Commerce ; Costs and Cost Analysis ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; economics ; Humans ; Models, Statistical ; Plants, Medicinal ; growth & development ; Regression Analysis

Aged ; Humans ; Male ; Palatal Neoplasms ; pathology ; Uvula ; pathology

Sepsis remains the leading cause of death in intensive care unit.The pathogenesis of sepsis is extremely complex.Immune dysfunction plays an important role in the occurrence and development of sepsis.Many mechanisms are responsible for sepsis induced immune-suppression,including apoptotic depletion of immune cells,increased T regulatory and myeloid-derived suppressor cells,and cellular exhaustion.The article provided a brief review on the advance of immunologic mechanisms underlying sepsis.

BACKGROUND: Stellate ganglion block has many functions by improving brain circulation, modulating immunity, reducing plasmic catecholamine content, interleukin-6 is one of the most sensitive and important predictors and mediators for acute organic stress response, playing neuroprotective and neurotoxic double roles in brain ischemic injury.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of stellate ganglion block in rat brain during ischemic-reperfusion period on the changes of serum interleukin-6,in order to probe the role of stellate ganglion block in brain ischemicreperfusional injury.DESIGN: Randomized controlled experimentation.SETTING: Anaesthesia Department of Taihe Hospital Mfiliated to Yunyang Medical College, and Anaesthesia Department of Renmin Hospital Affiliated to Yunyang Medical College.MATERIALS: This experiment on animals was carried out at the Experimental Center of Taihe Hospital Affiliated to Yunyang Medical College at March 2003, interleukin-6 reagent kit and determination was provided and conducted by the immunity research institute of Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital. Totally 28 big-ear healthy rabbits in which male or female was not limited were selected and randomly divided into stellate ganglion group, saline comparison group, blank comparison group and sham operation group with 7 rabbits in each group.METHODS: A pipe was set approximate to the stellate ganglion of all animals by operative method, six-vessels block method was used to simulate whole brain ischemic-reperfusion model, in stellate ganglion block group,artery clamp was lossen for reperfusiion at 15 minutes after ischemia, simultaneously 2.5 g/L bupivacaine was continuously pumped into left side of stellate ganglion for nerve block, which replaced by physical saline and nothing in respectively physical saline comparison group and blank comparison group, while rabbits in sham operation group were only subjected to surgery without artery clamp. RIA was used to determine serum interleukin-6 content at before ischemia, reperfusion of 10 minutes, 4 hours, 10hours, when 20 hours and 30 hours individually.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Serum interleukin-6 content in each group at various post-reperfusional time points.RESULTS: Totally 28 big-ears white rabbits were enrolled in this experiment and all data was entered the result analysis. Interleukin-6 content was on an increasing tendency in all groups, while was higher in stellate ganglion block group than in sham operation group only at reperfusion 30time point, the difference has significance [(321±52) and (299±45) ng/L,P ＜ 0.05]; Comparing to pre-ischemic group, interleukin-6 in physical saline group began increase remarkably from onset of reperfusion 4 hours[(365±46) ng/L], but began obviously increase at reperfusion 10 hours in blank comparison group [(368±31) ng/L, P ＜ 0.05]. The difference of interleukin-6 among stellate ganglion block group, sham operation group,physical saline group and blank comparison group does not have statistical significance (P＞0.05); the level of interleukin-6 in physical saline group and blank comparison group were higher than in sham at all reperfusion 4-30 hours, and even higher than in stellate ganglion group after reperfusion 10 hours, the difference has significant meaning (P ＜ 0.05). Moreover the increase of interleukin-6 content in stellate ganglion block group was remarkably lower than physical saline comparison group and blank comparison group (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION: Stellate ganglion block may obviously reduce serum interleukin-6 level in rabbit brain during ischemic-reperfusion period, implying stellate ganglion block has a certain protective and curative function on the whole brain ischemic-reperfusion damage, and considered as a promising way in the treatment of brain ischemic-reperfusion damage.

Secondary hyperparathyroidism is the most common complication of patients with chronic kidney disease.For patients poorly responding to medical treatment,parathyroidectomy would be the best choice.This article reviews the indications and modalities of surgical treatment for secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Objective: To study the effect of levothyroxine replacement therapy on improving diffused left ventricular myocardial lesions and cardiac function in patients with hypothyroidism. Methods: Our research included 2 groups: Hypothyroidism group,n=20 newly diagnosed patients and Control group, n=17 normal healthy subjects. Diffused left ventricular myocardial lesions were quantitatively evaluated by non-invasive cardiac MRI T1 mapping technique. Left ventricular myocardial T1 value and left ventricular function before and after levothyroxine replacement therapy were compared; the relationship between T1 value and thyroid function and the relationship between T1 value and the indicators of left ventricular function were analyzed. Results:①Compared with Control group, Hypothyroidism group had increased left ventricular myocardial T1 value, P<0.01, while decreased cardiac index (CI) and left ventricular peak filling rate (PFR), allP<0.05.②In patients with hypothyroidism, left ventricular myocardial T1 value was negatively related to serum FT3 level (r=-0.52,P=0.0006) and PFR (r=-0.43,P=0.0085).③Compared with pre-therapeutic condition, the patients with recovered normal thyroid function showed obviously decreased left ventricular myocardial T1 value and improved CI, PFR. Conclusion: Levothyroxine replacement therapy may improve diffused left ventricular myocardial lesions in patients with hypothyroidism, and therefore improve the cardiac function.

Objective To evaluate the efficiency and safety of transurethral plasmakinetic enucleation of prostate(PKEP) in the treatment of patients with benign prostate hyperplasia(BPH) after transrectal prostate biopsy(TRPB).Methods A total of 88 BPH patients who underwent PKEP in our hospital during Jan.2012 to May 2015 were retrospectively analyzed and followedup.38 patients underwent TRPB before PKEP were defined as TRPB group,and 50 patients underwent PKEP with no TRPB were defined as control group.The baseline data,perioperative data and postoperative follow-up outcomes were recorded and compared between the two groups.Results The mean age of the 88 patients were 69.7 years.Compared with control group,TRPB group showed that age was younger(t=2.62,P＜ 0.05)and prostate specific antigen(PSA) level was higher(t=13.64,P＜0.01).Operation duration was longer in TRPB group than in control group (93.6 ± 31.0) min vs.(77.9 ± 17.3) min (t =2.6 4,P ＜ 0.05).There were no significant differences in the preoperative data,blood loss,continuous bladder irrigation duration after operation and period of catheterization between two groups (all P ＞ 0.05).Trans-operative time was significantly shortened when the time interval between TRPB and PKEP is more than 4 weeks(P＜ 0.01),while blood loss was similar in the two groups(P＞ 0.0 5).There were no adverse events of blood transfusion,transurethral resection syndrome and injury of bladder or rectal in both two groups.There were no significant differences in maximum flow rate(Qmax),international prostate symptom score(IPSS) or quality of life(QOL) scores between the two groups at 3,6 and 12 months of follow up(all P＞ 0.05).Conclusions PKEP after TRPB is a safe and effective treatment for BPH patient.When the time interval between TRPB and PKEP is more than 4 weeks,the performing of PKEP operation would reduce the difficulty of operative procedure and increase the safety.

Objective To Validate the prognostic significance of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) risk tables in Chinese patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). Methods According to the scoring standard of the EORTC system, 225 NMIBC patients were reviewed and divided into 3 groups: low, intermediate and high risk groups for recurrence and progression respectively. The probabilities of recurrence and progression at 1 year and 5 year for each group were calculated using life-table analysis and then compared with the EORTC risk tables. Log-Rank test and multivariable analysis were used to analyze the possible differences between risk groups and to find independent prognostic factors. Results For low (n= 32, 25), intermediate (n=109, 128) and high (n=84, 72) risk groups, the probabilities of recurrence and progression at 1 year were 15. 1%, 31.2%, 55.5% and 0. 3%, 2. 0%, 15.5% respectively. The probabilities at 5 year were 28. 2%, 55.2%, 75.0% and 1.4%, 12.9%, 54. 7%. All the results were similar to that of EORTC tables except the probability of progression at 5 year for the high progression risk group.The differences between different risk groups were significant (P＜0.01). In a multivariable analysis for recurrence and progression, the EORTC scores had independent significance (P＜0.01). Conclusions EORTC risk tables could stratify NMIBC patients effectively according to the risk of recurrence and progression. It could be a useful tool for Chinese urologists.

Objective: The purpose of this tudy was to dynamicly observe the weight and the bone mineral density (BMD) of the unsexed rabbits with a few self-made standardized phantoms. Methods:The eighteen healthy adult female rabbits were measured for their weight and BMD in preunsexed and postunsexed 5 months, 10 months with quantitative CT(QCT). Results:There were 61.1% of rabbits whose weight and BMD decreased after 5 months of the postunsexed and 100% of rabbits whose weight and BMD decreased after 10 months of the operation. Conclusion:QCT can be used to dynamicly observe curative effect of drugs in various periods as well,and it is a good method to study osteoporosis.