This study aimed to compare the safety and efficacy of laser lithotripsy and pneumatic lithotripsy, the two most commonly used transurethral lithotripsy methods for treating bladder stones in children in Iraq. Between January 2013 and December 2016, 64 children with bladder stones were included in this prospective randomized study, after ethical committee approval and written consent from the children’s parents or caregivers were obtained. Patients were assigned randomly by computer software to two groups treated with either pneumatic cystolithotripsy or laser lithotripsy. A 9 Fr. semirigid ureteroscope was used to pass the lithotripter through and fragment the stone. A catheter of 8–12 Fr. was then introduced and kept in place for 24 h. All children were hospitalized for 24 h, and the catheter was removed the next morning. Outpatient follow-up was maintained for 6–12 months. In terms of operation outcomes and complications, the laser lithotripsy group had a significantly longer duration of operation (74.5 ± 26.6 min vs. 51.5 ± 17.2 min, p = 0.001), whereas the number of patients requiring an extended hospital stay was significantly higher in the pneumatic lithotripsy group (48.5% vs. 16.1%, p = 0.006). Moreover, pneumatic lithotripsy was associated with a significantly greater risk of having at least one adverse effect (64% greater than that in the laser group). Stone clearance rates did not significantly differ between treatment groups. In conclusion, both pneumatic and laser lithotripters can be used to treat children with bladder stones with high efficacy and safety.
Time-domain spectral matching commonly used to define seismic inputs to dynamic analysis in terms of acceleration time history compatible with a specific target response spectrum is used in this study to investigate the second-order geometric effect of P-delta on the seismic response of base-isolated high-rise buildings. A synthetic time series is generated by adjusting reference time series that consist of available readings from a past earthquake of the 1940 El Centro earthquake adopted as an initial time series. The superstructure of a 20-story base isolated building is represented by a 3-D finite element model using ETABS software. The results of the base isolated building show that base isolation technique significantly reduces inter-s
... Show MoreBackground: Considering the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties of green tea, this study aimed to evaluate the histopathological effect of the sulcular irrigation of green tea extract in the treatment of experimental gingivitis in rabbit.
Materials and methods: For this experimental study, 45 male rabbits, separated in two groups, control non- irrigated group (5rabbits) and study group (40 rabbits), gingivitis induced by ligatures was packed subgingivally in the lower right central incisors of the experimental group for seven days. Then, the animals were randomly designated to two irrigated groups (20 rabbits
... Show MoreFree vibration behavior was developed under the ratio of critical buckling temperature of laminated composite thin plates with the general elastic boundary condition. The equations of motion were found based on classical laminated plate theory (CLPT) while the solution functions consists of trigonometric function and a continuous function that is added to guarantee the sufficient smoother of the so-named remaining displacement function at the boundaries, in this research, a modified Fourier series were used, a generalized procedure solution was developed using Ritz method combined with the imaginary spring technique. The influences of many design parameters such as angles of layers, aspect ratio, thickness ratio, and ratio of initial in-
... Show MoreThis study was done to find a cheap, available and ecofriendly materials that can remove eosin y dye from aqueous solutions by adsorption in this study, two adsorbent materials were used, the shells of fresh water clam (Cabicula fluminea) and walnut shells. To make a comparison between the two adsorbents, five experiments were conducted. First, the effects of the contact time, here the nut shell removed the dye quickly, while the C. flumina need more contact time to remove the dye. Second, the effects of adsorbent weight were examined. The nut shell was very promising and for all used adsorbent weight, the R% ranged from 94.87 to 99.29. However C. fluminea was less effective in removing the dye with R% ranged from 47.59 to 55.39. The thi
... Show MoreIn the present study, an attempt has been made to experimentally investigate the flexural performance of ten simply supported reinforced concrete gable roof beams, including solid control specimen (i.e., without openings) and nine beams with web openings of different dimensions and configurations. The nine beams with openings have identical reinforcement details. All beams were monotonically loaded to failure under mid-span loading. The main variables were the number of the created openings, the total area of the created openings, and the inclination angle of the posts between openings. Of interest is the load-carrying capacity, cracking resistance and propagation, deformability, failure mode, and strain development that represent the behav
... Show MoreBackground: The healing process involves the restoration of the body’s structural integrity. The extracellular matrix, blood cells, cytokines, and growth factors are all involved in this dynamic, intricate, multicellular process. Hemostasis, the inflammatory phase, the proliferative phase, and the maturation phase are all included. Opuntia ficus-indica oil (OFI) and Punica grantum (PGS) oil are extensively used natural treatments that are regarded as advantageous for their sedative, spasmolytic, and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as for angiogenesis promotion, fibroblast increase, collagen production and deposition, and extracellular-matrix remodeling. Materials and methods: Twenty-four New Zealand rab
... Show MoreAbstract: Polarization beam splitter (PBS) integrated waveguides are the key components in the receiver of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. Their function is to analyze the polarization of polarized light and separate the transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations into different waveguides. In this paper, a performance study of polarization beam splitters based on horizontal slot waveguide has been investigated for a wavelength of . PBS based on horizontal slot waveguide structure shows a polarization extinction ratio for quasi-TE and quasi-TM modes larger than with insertion loss below and a bandwidth of . Also, the fabrication tolerance of the structure is analyzed.<
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