Purpose. To investigate and relate the ultrashort-term and long-term courses of determinants for foreign body reaction as biocompatibility predictors for meshes in an animal model. Materials and Methods. Three different meshes (TVT, UltraPro, and PVDF) were implanted in sheep. Native and plasma coated meshes were placed bilaterally: (a) interaperitoneally, (b) as fascia onlay, and (c) as muscle onlay (fascia sublay). At 5 min, 20 min, 60 min, and 120 min meshes were explanted and histochemically investigated for inflammatory infiltrate, macrophage infiltration, vessel formation, myofibroblast invasion, and connective tissue accumulation. The results were related to long-term values over 24 months. Results. Macrophage invasion reached highest extents with up to 60% in short-term and decreased within 24 months to about 30%. Inflammatory infiltrate increased within the first 2 hours, the reached levels and the different extents and ranking among the investigated meshes remained stable during long-term follow up. For myofibroblasts, connective tissue, and CD31+ cells, no activity was detected during the first 120 min. Conclusion. The local inflammatory reaction is an early and susceptible event after mesh implantation. It cannot be influenced by prior plasma coating and does not depend on the localisation of implantation.

Background. Neonates in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) receive a large amount of radiation with X-rays (XRs) being done daily, even more often with reintubation, repositioning of endotracheal tubes (ETTs) and confirmation thereof, which has been our NICU policy for many years. Objective. To investigate the feasibility of determining the position of ETTs in neonates by using bedside ultrasonography (BUS), and to compare the results with those obtained from chest XR (CXR) findings. Methods. A prospective, cross-sectional study was done on intubated neonates in the NICU at Universitas Academic Hospital, Bloemfontein, to determine the position of ETTs by using BUS. Results. Thirty intubated patients included in this study had a median age of 13.5 days and a median weight of 1.6 kg. Ninety-three per cent of ETT placements were considered optimal when visualised by BUS, while 73.3% were considered to be placed optimally when CXR was viewed. When CXR and BUS findings were compared regarding optimal placing, the agreement was poor (κ=0.10; 95% confidence interval -0.2 -0.4). In four patients, the distance from the aortic arch to the tip of the ETT was outside the expected range of 1.5 -2.2 cm: in two patients it was <1.5 cm (6.7%) and in the other two >2.25 cm (6.7%). BUS measurements were done mainly in extended head (53.3%) or neutral (36.7%) position. Conclusion.Although poor agreement between CXR and BUS findings was obtained, possibly because of handling of patients with secondary shifting of ETTs, BUS was found not to be comparable with CXR, but an alternative feasible method to determine the optimal position of ETTs in the trachea in neonates when using other reference points, with the added advantage of no radiation exposure.

PurposeTo investigate predictors of technical success and complications of computed tomography (CT)-guided percutaneous transthoracic needle biopsy of potentially malignant pulmonary tumors.Material and MethodsFrom 2008 to 2009, technical success and rate of complications of CT-guided percutaneous transthoracic lung needle biopsies of patients with suspicious pulmonary tumors were retrospectively evaluated. The influence on technical success and rate of complications was assessed for intervention-related predictors (lesion diameter, length of biopsy pathway, number of pleural transgressions, and needle size) and patient-related predictors (age, gender, reduced lung function). In addition, technical success and rate of complications were compared between different interventional radiologists.ResultsOne hundred thirty-eight patients underwent biopsies by 15 interventional radiologists. The overall technical success rate was 84.1% and was significantly different between interventional radiologists (range 25%-100%; p<0.01). Intervention-related and patient-related predictors did not influence the technical success rate. The overall complication rate was 59.4% with 39.1% minor complications and 21.0% major complications. The rate of complications was influenced by lesion diameter and distance of biopsy pathway. Interventional radiologist-related rates of complications were not statistically different.ConclusionsTechnical success of percutaneous, transthoracic lung needle biopsies of pulmonary tumors is probably dependent on the interventional radiologist. In addition, lesion diameter and length of biopsy pathway are predictors of the rate of complications.

Abstract:In this survey we propose a new hybrid simultaneous integrated boost (SIB) delivery method for breast radiotherapy that was implemented in our department of Radiation Oncology. This technique encompasses nonmodulated tangential fields as well as VMAT-arcs and combines the robustness and the dose confinement properties of tangential opposed fields with the benefits of a complex VMAT-technique. The results of the dosimetric evaluation indicate that the proposed technique enables a balanced mix between dose coverage, homogeneity and conformity versus the exposure of the organs-at-risks. More precisely, the proposed technique is on par with other recently published SIB techniques for breast radiotherapy.