Maternal serum interlukin-6 level in preterm labor

Objective: The aim of this study was to measure interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels in maternal serum of women undergoing preterm labor without a clear infection. Materials and Methods: Twenty two pregnant women with diagnosis of preterm labor who presented to the outpatient clinic of 19 Mayıs University Faculty of Medicine from July 2011 through December 2011 were enrolled in the study group. Twenty two healthy pregnant women who were at the same gestational age as the study group were selected as the control group. Results: Gestational age in the study and control groups varied from 24 weeks and 4 days to 34 weeks and 6 days. In the study group, 11 patients (50%) underwent preterm birth. Pregnant women in preterm labor were compared to healthy pregnant women with regards to serum IL-6 levels. No significant difference was found in the IL-6 levels of maternal serum between the 2 groups. Conclusion: In this study, we have shown that there is no increase in IL-6 levels in patients undergoing preterm labor without clinical or biochemical infection signs

Effects of evening primrose oil and 5-fluorouracil on the healing of colonic anastomoses in rats

Aim: This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of evening primrose oil (EPO) on colonic anastomosis. Methods: Sixty rats with colonic anastomosis were randomly divided into six groups. EPO and 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) were administered at doses of 5 g/kg/day and 20 mg/kg/day, respectively.  Group 1 served as sham control. The rats in Group 2 (EPO) received EPO (14 days preoperatively), in Group 3 (Extended EPO) received EPO (14 days preoperatively and 7 days postoperatively), in Group 4 (5-FU) received intraperitoneally 5-FU (5 days preoperatively), in Group 5 (5-FU+EPO) received EPO (14 days preoperatively), and 5-FU (5 days preoperatively), in Group 6 (5-FU+ extended EPO) received EPO (14 days preoperatively and 7 days postoperatively)  and 5-FU (5 days preoperatively). Histopathological examination, bursting pressure, and hydroxyproline content were used for evaluation. Results: Significant differences were found between the Groups 1, 2, and 3 and Groups 4, 5, and 6 in bursting pressures. Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMNL) and lymphocyte infiltration was significantly less in group 3, compared to the control and group 2. The least PMNL infiltration was in group 6 compared to groups 4 and 5.  The hydroxyproline level was different in group 3 compared to the control and group 2. Furthermore, groups 5 and 6 were different compared to group 4. Conclusion: EPO had favorable effects on colonic anastomosis even in groups where 5-FU was used

Factors affecting the outcome of surgically treated non-iatrogenic traumatic cervical esophageal perforation: 28 years experience at a single center

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We reviewed our experience with non-iatrogenic traumatic cervical esophageal perforations, paying particular attention to factors affecting the outcome of such cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In total, 30 patients treated surgically between 1980 and 2008 for non-iatrogenic traumatic cervical esophageal perforation in our clinic were reviewed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 25 male and 5 female patients with a median age of 27.5 years. The type of injury was external trauma in 21 (70%) patients and endoluminal injury in the remaining 9 (30%) patients. The mechanism of injury was gunshot in 16 patients, stabbing in 4, falling in 1 (extraluminal injury), and foreign body in 9 (endoluminal injuries). The overall mortality rate was 16.6% (5/30). The mortality rate for extraluminal injuries was 19%, and for endoluminal injuries was 11.1%. Mortality in patients treated within 24 h of sustaining injury was substantially less than in those for whom diagnosis and treatment were delayed (12.5 and 21.4%, respectively). The mortality rate was 33.3% (3/9) for patients with tracheal injuries and 9.5% (2/21) for those without tracheal injuries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>A treatment delay greater than 24 h, the presence of tracheal injury, or extraluminal perforation significantly affected the outcome of surgically treated non iatrogenic traumatic cervical esophageal perforation.</p

Hydatid cysts in muscles: clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and management of this atypical presentation

ABSTRACTINTRODUCTION: Hydatid cysts are rarely detected in muscle tissue (0.7-0.9%), even in endemic countries. The aim of this study was to present information regarding the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and management of muscle echinococcosis.METHODS: Twenty-two patients with hydatid cysts in the muscle were followed from January 2006 through December 2014.RESULTS: Twenty-four sites of muscle involvement were observed in the 22 patients. Fifteen (68%) of our patients were women, while seven (32%) were men. The mean age was 28.1 ± 15.4 (6-61) years. The most frequent locations were the thigh (27.2%) and the paravertebral region (13.6%). Most patients reported a painless slow-growing mass with normal overlying skin. Most (90.2%) cases were treated by surgical excision and fine-needle aspiration.CONCLUSIONS: Primary muscle hydatid cyst should be considered in the differential diagnosis in cystic masses of the muscular system without pain and localized enlargement of soft tissue, especially in endemic areas. Hydatid cyst should be investigated using serological tests and imaging modalities. If possible, total surgical excision of hydatid cyst in the muscle should be performed

Posterior Mediastinal Bronchogenic Cyst: Case Report

Bronchogenic cysts are usually located in the mediastinum and pulmonary parenchyema, however they may occasionally be subdiaphragmatic or subcutaneous. Although seen in all age groups, symptomatic ones can be diagnosed in the newborn period whereas the asymptomatic ones are detected incidentally on chest X-ray in advenced ages. We present a 21-year-old man with a bronchogenic cyst in the posterior mediastinum that led to complaints of fatigue and back pain. A posteroanterior chest plain radiography showed enlargement of the mediastinum. Computerized thorax tomography showed a 4x3 cm cystic lesion in the left posterior mediastinum, in paravertebral location. The cyst was exised via a thoracotomy. The histopathological diagnosis was bronchogenic cyst. The patient was asymtomatic and without any radiological recurrence in the sixth-month follow up visit

Bilateral Spontaneous Pneumothorax due to Pulmonary Metastasis of Synovial Sarcoma: A Case Report

Spontaneous pneumothorax is a rarely seen complication in metastatic pulmonary diseases. It could be the first symptom and might be seen in the post chemotherapy period. We here report a 20-year-old male with surgically treated-bilaterally spontaneous pneumothorax who had hypopharyngeal synovial sarcoma initially and had been treated with surgery and chemotherapy. We emphasised that spontaneous pneumothorax could be caused by pulmonary mature metastais of synovial sarcoma, as a result of air leakage. Surgical treatment such as metastasectomy and pulmonary paranchimal repair and intraoperatively chemical pleurodesis would be require

A branch-and-cut approach for the distributed no-wait flowshop scheduling problem

The distributed no-wait flowshop scheduling problem (DNWFSP) is an extension of the permutation flowshop scheduling problem with multiple factories and no-wait constraints. The DNWFSP consists of two decisions, namely, assigning jobs to the factories and sequencing the set of jobs assigned to the same factory. The no -wait constraints require that jobs have to be processed without any interruption between operations. Since the introduction of the DNWFSP, a number of metaheuristic approaches were developed to solve it. However, there exists no exact solution approach for the DNWFSP to the best of our knowledge. In this regard, a branch -and-cut (BC) algorithm is proposed to solve the DNWFSP. The proposed BC is integrated with a heuristic algorithm to obtain good upper bounds. Moreover, a set of symmetry breaking constraints are employed in the models to strengthen the formulations. The performance of BC is evaluated on a set of benchmark problem instances available in the related literature. The proposed BC is numerically compared with mixed-integer programming formulations of the DNWFSP which are solved by a commercial solver. The results obtained from the computational experiments reveal the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The proposed BC is able to solve all small-size instances, as well as, 206 out of 660 large-size instances to optimality. Besides, it is worth to mention that the average percentage gap for the large-size instances with two factories is only 0.43%