Early oral diet may enhance recovery from benign gynecologic surgery: A single center prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Early dietary intake enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS). There remains a gap in the recognition and implementation of early diet after surgery in medical institutions in Taiwan. This study aimed to investigate whether early oral intake after benign gynecologic surgery results in favorable outcomes in Taiwanese patients. METHODS: This was a prospective controlled nonrandomized cohort study. Patients who underwent benign gynecological surgery were included in the early- and conventional-diet groups. The primary outcome was length of hospital stay, and the secondary outcome was postoperative complications. RESULTS: Forty and 38 patients were included in the early and conventional-diet groups, respectively. The early-diet group demonstrated significantly reduced length of hospital stay (the early-diet group, 2.58 ± 0.93 days; conventional-diet group, 4.16 ± 1.13 days; p < 0.001). No increase in postoperative complications was observed in the early-diet group. Laparoscopic surgery reduced the length of hospital stay (ß, -0.65; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.22 to -0.08; p = 0.027), while an increased length of hospital stay was associated with higher visual analog scales (VAS, ß, 0.21; 95% CI, 0.03-0.39; p = 0.026) and the conventional-diet group (ß, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.65-1.61; p < 0.001) as assessed by multivariate regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Patients who underwent benign gynecologic surgery tolerated an early oral diet well without an increase in complications. Laparoscopic surgery and lower pain scores also enhanced postoperative recovery.

Use of the Cover-Lifting Technique in Mandibular Cemento-Ossifying Fibroma Excision to Preserve the Inferior Alveolar Nerve.

Cemento-ossifying fibroma (also known as ossifying fibroma or cementifying fibroma) is a benign osteogenic neoplasm. Pain and paresthesia are rarely associated with cemento-ossifying fibroma; thus, nerves must be preserved during excision. With the advent of computer-aided techniques, the use of virtual surgical planning and a customized template can improve the precision of resection and reconstruction, reduce operating time, and improve postoperative outcomes. In this report, we describe a case of cemento-ossifying fibroma in a female patient who underwent segmental mandibulectomy and reconstruction with an iliac bone graft. Additionally, we describe a simple and effective way to preserve the inferior alveolar nerve.

Thermally Stable High-Performance Polymer Solar Cells Enabled by Interfacial Engineering.

Interfacial engineering plays an important role in determining the performance and stability of polymer solar cells (PSCs). In this study, thermally stable highly efficient PSCs are fabricated by incorporating a solution-processed cathode interfacial layer (CIL), including 4,4'-({[methyl(4-sulfonatobutyl)ammonio]bis(propane-3,1-diyl)}bis(dimethylammoniumdiyl))bis(butane-1-sulfonate) (MSAPBS) and polyethylenimine (PEI). For PSCs based on blends of poly{4,8-bis[5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl]benzo[1,2-b;4,5-b']dithiophene-2,6-diyl-alt-[4-(2-ethylhexyl)-3fluorothieno[3,4-b]thiophene-2-carboxylate-2,6-diyl]} (PBDTTT-EFT) and [6,6]-phenyl C71 -butyric acid methyl ester (PC71 BM), the maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of inverted PSCs reaches 8.1 % and 7.2 % for MSAPBS and PEI CILs, respectively. The inverted PEI devices exhibit remarkable stability (lifetime >6000 h) under accelerated thermal aging (at 80 °C in ambient environment), which is much superior to that of the device with commonly used LiF CIL (lifetime≈33 h). This stability represents the best result reported for PSCs. The promising results based on this strategy can stimulate further work on the development of novel CILs for PSCs and pave the way towards the realization of commercially viable PSCs with high performance and long-term stability.