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.

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.

Objective To investigate the relationship between tumor location and the risk of developing bladder cancer in pafients treated by nephroureterectomy(NU)for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma(UUT-TCC).Methods The clinical data of 168 UUT-TCC patients who underwent NU were reviewed.Univariate and multivariate analysis were carried out to determine the risk factors for intravesical recurrence after NU.Results The recurrence-free survival rate at 1,3 and 5 years after NU were 88%, 76%and 63%.All patients were followed up for a median period of 45(12-107)months During this period, a total of 49 patients developed bladder tamors after surgery,of which 28 cases were renal pelvic carcinoma, 2 cases were rniddle ureter carcinoma and 19 cases were distal ureter carcinoma.The recurrence-free survival of renal pelvic carcinoma and ureter carcinoma had no significant difference by Log-Rank test(P>0.05).On multivariate analysis,only locating in distal ureter carcinoma was the independent risk predictor for intravesical recurrence after NU (P<0.01).Conclusion Pafients with UUT-TCC at distal ureter carry a higher risk for intraeesieal recunerrce after NU than those with TCC at other location of upper urinary tract.

Objective:To investigate the breakthrough point and working method of anti-infective clinical pharmacists for involving the clinical therapy. Methods:Through the specific cases, the effect of clinical pharmacists in ward round and consultation was intro-duced and analyzed. Results:Through communication and learning, clinical pharmacists could play an important role in such areas as indications, multi-resistant bacterium and adverse reactions, especially in adverse reactions and individualized dosage regimen. Con-clusion:To a certain extent, clinical pharmacists are helpful to rational application of antibiotics in clinics through ward round, case discussion and consultation.

Objective To evaluate the value of cholangiography for early diagnosis of ischemic-type biliary lasions(ITBL) after liver transplantation. Methods Two hundred and fifty-three patients with liver transplantaion between Jan 2004 and Oct 2006 were recruited. Initial cholangiography was compared with terminal cholangiography to evaluate the value of initial cholangiography of ITBL. The t test, Chi-square test, sum rank test were used for statistics. Results Based on initial cholangiography, 189 patients were diagnosed with normal appearance, while 64 patients were diagnosed with abnormal appearance. The abnormal initial cholangiography appearances included poor filling in 33 patients and irregularity in 31 patients. Based on terminal cholangiogruphy, 199 patients were diagnosed with normal appearance and 54 patients with ITBL In patients with abnormal initial cholangiography, ITBL was occurred in 39 of 64 patients including 10 of 33 poor frlling patients and 29 of 31 irregularity patients. In patients with normal initial appearance, ITBL was only occurred in 15 of 189 patients. The abnormal initial cholangiography was associated with ITBL significantly (X2 = 79.999, P = 0.000, r = 0.490). Initial cholangiography had an overall sensitivity of 72.22%, and specificity of 87.44%, with positive and negative predictive values of 60.94% and 92.06%, respectively. The abnormal initial cholangiogruphy was a risk factor of ITBL by logistic regression analyses(OR=15.193, P=0.000). Conclusion The abnormal initial cholangiography is associated with ITBL Initial cholangiography, especially minimal irregular of intrabepatic biliary tract, is a sensitive and specific method for the detection of ITBL after liver transplantation.