A 75-year-old man underwent endovascular repair of the abdominal aortic aneurysm. The procedure was aorto-uni-femoral endograft and femorofemoral crossover bypass using PTFE graft. The postoperative course was satisfactory, but 4 years after operation, he was admitted complaining of abdominal fullness. CT scan showed significant increase of aneurysm diameter to 13cm without evidence of endoleak. Endograft replacement with a new Dacron graft was carried out. Intraoperative findings suggested perigraft seroma related to the use of PTFE, and there was no endoleak. The postoperative course was uneventful. Pathological finding of aneurysm showed a lack of hemocytes and thrombocytes.

We present a very rare case of abdominal aortic aneurysm associated with paraplegia. A 68-year-old man developed paraplegia following resection of a infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm. The aorta was clamped just below the renal arteries. In this case interruption of the radicular artery magna (RAM; Adamkiewicz artery) might have caused serious ischemia of the spinal cord. Spinal cord ischemia is a very rare and unpredictable complication in surgery of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms because the spinal cord is generally protected from irreversible ischemia during infrarenal aortic occlusion by the presence of the RAM which arises above the renal artery (Even if RAM interruption might arise, the lower renal artery, and other radicular arteries are usually present above the renal arteries). We feel that reducing aortic cross-clamping time as short as possible and avoiding intra- and postoperative hypotensive episodes to keep adequate blood flow of collaterals seem to be the most important factors to prevent spinal cord ischemia.

In order to investigate an effective therapy on paraquat poisoning, acute toxicity studies were performed using mice as experimental animals.
According to the mechanisms of paraquat toxicity, which is caused by superoxide radical and singlet oxygen geneation with subsequent initiation of membrane damaging process of ipid peroxidation ascorbic acid and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were injected intravenously to paraquat-poi-soned mice. The therapeutic effects of the two reagents against the paraquat toxicties were monitored using both mortality rates and boby weight changes of the mice for 10 days expeimental period.
No significant differences of the mortality rates were observed between the ascorbic acid injected group and the control group. On the contrary, the mortality rate of the paraquat poisoned mice treated with SOD was higher than that of the control group, suggesting the toxicities of H₂O₂ produced by SOD and Superoxide. This finding is to be taken consideration as a warning against a single use of SOD as a therapy for paraquat poisonig cases.

PURPOSE: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been investigated as a novel diagnostic imaging tool. The utilisation of this equipment has been evaluated through several studies in the field of dentistry. The aim of this preliminary study was to determine through basic experiments the effectiveness of OCT in implant dentistry. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To assess detection ability, we captured OCT images of implants in each of the following situations: (1) implants covered with mucosae of various thicknesses that were harvested from the mandibles of pigs; (2) implants installed in the mandibles of pigs; and (3) implants with abutments and crowns fixed with temporary cement. The OCT images were captured before cementation, after cementation, and after removing the excess submucosal cement. RESULTS: If the thickness of the mucosa covering the implant body was less than 1 mm, the images of the implants were clearly detected by OCT. In the implants were installed in pigs' mandibles, it was difficult to capture clear images of the implant and alveolar bone in most of the samples. Remnants of excess cement around the implants were visible in most samples that had a mucosa thickness of less than 3 mm. CONCLUSION: Currently, OCT imaging of implants is limited. Cement remnants at the submucosal area can be detected in some cases, which can be helpful in preventing peri-implant diseases. Still, though there are some restrictions to its application, OCT could have potential as an effective diagnostic instrument in the field of implant dentistry as well.
Cementation ; Crowns ; Dental Implants ; Dentistry ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Mandible ; Mucous Membrane ; Peri-Implantitis ; Pilot Projects* ; Swine ; Tomography, Optical Coherence*

Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) is widely used for high-risk patients with thoracic aortic pathology. However, access to the thoracic aorta can be difficult because TEVAR requires the introduction of a large a sheath especially in those with aortoiliac occlusive diseases and thoracic shaggy aorta. We herein report two cases of TEVAR in which the common carotid artery was used as the access route. Case 1 : An 86-year-old male patient whose past surgical history was significant for infected abdominal aortic aneurysm with abdominal aortic stump closed and axillo-bilateral femoral bypass. Computed tomography revealed a saccular aneurysm of the descending aorta, which required a carotid artery approach as the access route. Case 2 : A 79-year-old female patient who developed type A thoracic aortic dissection. She was considered to be of prohibitive risk for surgical repair and was treated conservatively. However, an intramural hematoma with an ulcer-like projection lesion in the ascending aorta expanded and definitive treatment was indicated. Because the descending aorta was significantly shaggy, we decided to perform TEVAR via the right common carotid artery as the access route. Both patients' pathology was successfully treated and were discharged without any complications. TEVAR via common carotid artery access is a useful and safe procedure for patients in whom femoral and abdominal aortic aorta access is not feasible or safe.

Background : Risk factors for surgical site infection (SSI) are thought to include poorly controlled diabetes mellitus, dialysis, and a long operating time, but patients without risk factors can also develop infection. Therefore, it is possible that SSI could be prevented by routinely using the precautions against SSI developed for high-risk patients. We investigated the route and pathogenetic mechanism of mediastinitis, which is the most frequent SSI after cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that mediastinitis occurred when the deep sternal marrow was contaminated by skin bacteria. Based on this hypothesis, we investigated the efficacy of various intraoperative prophylactic methods for preventing mediastinitis. Methods : We evaluated 658 patients undergoing cardiac surgery at our institution between April 2011 and July 2016. They were classified into two groups. Group C comprised 406 patients who received standard insertion of a sternal retractor after sternotomy. Group S was 252 patients in whom a retractor was inserted after covering the sternal marrow with oxidized cellulose hemostats and belt-like thin towels, with surplus parts of the towels being used to fill subcutaneous dead space at the superior and inferior margins of the midline wound. We investigated the following 10 risk factors for mediastinitis: diabetes (HbA1c≥7.5), renal failure (Cr≥2), smoking, obesity (BMI≥30), reoperation, urgent/emergency operation, intubation in the preoperative period, long operating time (≥8 h), reopening the chest for hemostasis, and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Factors associated with mediastinitis were determined using univariate modeling analysis followed by multi-variate logistic regression analysis. Results : Mediastinitis occurred in 13 patients (2.0%). The significant risk factor for mediastinitis were urgent/emergency operation and CABG, but 1 patient had no risk factors. A univariate analysis showed statistical significance in CABG, presence of maneuver covering the sternal marrow, JapanSCORE-II in mortality and deep sternum infection (DSI). Reopening the chest for hemostasis, CABG, aortic aneurysm, plural risk factors, and JapanSCORE-II in DSI were identified as a risk factor by multiple logistic regression, not all factors showed a significant difference. Mediastinitis only occurred in group C, and it was significantly less frequent in group S with additional precautions against infection including propensity score matching analysis (p<0.05). Conclusion : When the bone marrow of the transected sternum was covered tightly to protect it from contamination by skin bacteria during cardiac surgery, the frequency of postoperative mediastinitis was significantly reduced.