The total number of annual pacemaker implantations continues to grow globally, and help patients with heart rhythm disorders with an improved quality of life and reduced mortality. The first implantable pacemakers appeared in 1965, characterized by their bulkiness, short battery life, and a single pacing mode. Innovation led to the modern pacemaker: a smaller system with improved battery life and capacity, and innovation in lead technology. Certain arrhythmia conditions may also qualify for leadless pacemaker implantation, thus eliminating the spectrum of complications that could occur with leads. Adverse events can be divided into acute (perforation, lead dislodgement, infection) and long-term (lead fractures, device infection, insulation failure). Traditional long-term complications with leads occur in 10% of patients, compared with device-related adverse effects observed in 6.7% of leadless pacemakers. Furthermore, cardiac pacemaker implantation results in quality of life improvements across all age groups. Large cardiac rehabilitation studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of exercise in reducing the physical complications involved with pacemaker implantation. Of the three randomized controlled trials examined, all of them reported some benefit of exercise in the intervention group compared with the control. The following review aims to discuss the multitude of pacemaker options potentially available for the clinician, complications, their course of management, and the path forward with innovations arising out of previous research within the field.
Objective:
To evaluate whether color-coding of prostate core biopsy specimens aids in preservation of the neurovascular bundles from an oncological perspective.
Materials and Methods:
MRI guided transrectal ultrasound and biopsy of the prostate were performed in 51 consecutive patients suspected of being at high risk for harboring prostate cancer. Core specimens were labeled with blue dye at the deep aspect and red dye at the superficial peripheral aspect of the core. The distance from the tumor to the end of the dyed specimen was measured to determine if there was an area of normal tissue between the prostate capsule and tumor.
Results:
Of the 51 patients undergoing prostate biopsy, 30 (58.8%) were found to have cancer of the prostate: grade group 1 in 13.7%, 2 in 25.5%, 3 in 7.8%, 4 in 7.8% and 5 in 3.9% of the cohort. A total of 461 cores were analyzed in the cohort, of which 122 showed cancer. Five patients opted to undergo robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. No patients had a positive surgical margin (PSM) or extra prostatic extension (EPE) on radical prostatectomy if there was a margin of normal prostatic tissue seen between the dye and the tumor on prostate biopsy.
Conclusion:
Color-coding of prostate biopsy core specimens may assist in tailoring the approach for preservation of the neurovascular bundles without compromising early oncological efficacy. Further study is required to determine whether this simple modification of the prostate biopsy protocol is valuable in larger groups of patients.
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