Pulmonary function and complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Objective: To investigate the impairment of pulmonary function and complications after laparoscopic compared with open cholecystectomy through an upper midline incision.Design: Prospective randomised trial.Setting: Teaching hospital, Spain.Subjects: 40 patients, 20 in each group.Interventions: Clinical examination, spirometry, arterial blood gas analysis, and chest radiographs before and after operation.Results: 48 hours postoperatively FVC and FEV had decreased to 56.7% and 53%, respectively, in the patients who had had open cholecystectomy, compared with 85.3% and 84.8% in the laparoscopic group (p < 0.0001). The mean (SD) postoperative percentage reductions in both Pa02 (86.1 (11.1) comp…

Vitamin K, and Anaphylactic Shock

Reliability assessment of granular filters in embankment dams

SUMMARY Empirical criteria have been used successfully to design filters of most embankment large dam projects throughout the world. However, these empirical rules are only applicable to a particular range of soils tested in laboratory and do not take into account the variability of the base material and filter particle sizes. In addition, it is widely accepted that the safety of fill dams is mainly dependent on the reliability of their filter performance. The work herein presented consists in a new general method for assessing the probability of fulfilling any empirical filter design criteria accounting for base and filter heterogeneity by means of first-order reliability methods (FORM), s…