Initial experience with a tailor-made simulation and navigation program using a 3-D printer model of kidney transplantation surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Three-dimensional (3-D) printing systems allow for the creation of surgical models mimicking real tissue. We developed a kidney graft and pelvic cavity replica as a patient-specific 3-D model using a 3-D printing system with simultaneous jetting of different materials and subsequently evaluated the usefulness of surgical simulation and navigation of living kidney transplantation. METHODS: After generating a stereolithographic file of the organ surface based on multidetector computed tomographic data, we created a 3-D organ model using an inkjet 3-D printer and manufactured a pelvic cavity replica using patient-specific data. RESULTS: The patients' individual 3-D printed models were used to plan and guide the surgical procedures for laparoscopic donor nephrectomy and recipient transplantation surgery. The 3-D organ replicas obtained using transparent materials allowed for the creation of models that showed the visceral organs, blood vessels, and other details, thereby overcoming the limitations of conventional image-guided navigation. Our pelvic replicas can be made according to each patient's specific anatomical data, thus representing personalized surgical procedures. This level of detail of the anatomy enables the surgeons and trainees to virtually treat various pelvic conditions before they perform the surgical procedure. The use of these replicas may also reduce the length of the operation and provide better anatomical reference tools for tailor-made simulation and navigation of kidney transplantation surgery, consequently helping to improve training for the operating room staff, students, and trainees. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that our sophisticated personalized donor graft and pelvic replications obtained using a 3-D printing system are advantageous for kidney transplantation surgery.

Withdrawal from chronic morphine administration causes prolonged enhancement of immobility in rat forced swimming test.

RATIONALE: Opiate-dependent subjects experience severe depression as one of the subjective symptoms during withdrawal. No experimental work, however, has focused on the ability of opiate-withdrawal to produce depression-like behavior in dependent animal. OBJECTIVES. We therefore investigated whether withdrawal from chronic morphine treatment affects immobility in forced swimming test in rats. METHODS: Morphine was administered in a dose escalation fashion using doses ranging from 20 to 140 mg/kg twice daily for 14 days, followed by 1-6 days of withdrawal, and their duration of immobility was assessed. RESULTS: After the last morphine treatment. an increase in immobility occurred late on day 3 and persisted to at least day 6 of withdrawal without any change in ambulatory activity. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the morphine withdrawal resulted in prolonged enhancement of depression-like behavior in drug-dependent laboratory animals.

Effects of indeloxazine HCl on kindled amygdaloid seizures in rats: comparison with the effects of phenytoin, diazepam, ethanol, and imipramine.

The anticonvulsant effect of [(+/-)-2-[(inden-7-yloxy)methyl]morpholine (indeloxazine) HCl, a new cerebral activator, was investigated in rats against kindled seizures from the amygdala, an assumed model of secondarily generalized seizures in human. Indeloxazine (0.25-10 mg/kg, IP) dose-dependently depressed the kindled seizure and shortened the evoked amygdaloid afterdischarge. A high dose of indeloxazine (40 mg/kg, IP), however, induced generalized seizures. Comparison of the effects on the kindled seizures of indeloxazine to those of phenytoin, diazepam, ethanol, and imipramine revealed that the anticonvulsant actions of indeloxazine are similar to those of imipramine but not to those of phenytoin, ethanol, and diazepam. The results suggest that indeloxazine may exert its action through the monoaminergic system in the brain.

A new type of antiserum to thyrotropin-releasing hormone; detection of new TRH-immunoreactive cell groups in rat hypothalamus.

We produced a new type of antiserum to thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) in rabbits. The immunogen is TRH-BSA, the production of which is based on the formation of an amide bond using carbodiimide (EDC). The specificity of the antiserum was assessed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA) and immunohistochemistry. When using the anti-TRH serum for immunohistochemistry in rat hypothalamus, new magnocellular groups were detected in the ventrolateral parts of the posterior hypothalamus and the dorsal parts of the third ventricle. Colchicine treatment was found not to be necessary to visualize perikarya containing TRH.

A new dopaminergic terminal plexus in the ventral horn of the rat spinal cord. Immunohistochemical studies at the light and electron microscopic levels.

It has been thought that the ventral motor column in the rat spinal cord is virtually free of dopaminergic fibers. However, a new dopaminergic terminal plexus was visualized at all spinal levels in the ventral horn using electron as well as light microscopic immunohistochemistry.