Top videos
To understand congenital heart defects, it's helpful to know how a healthy heart works. Your child's heart is a muscle about the size of his or her fist. The heart works like a pump and beats 100,000 times a day. The heart has two sides, separated by an inner wall called the septum. The right side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen. The left side of the heart receives the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body. The heart has four chambers and four valves and is connected to various blood vessels. Veins are blood vessels that carry blood from the body to the heart. Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to the body.
Pancreatic cysts are saclike pockets of fluid on or in your pancreas, a large organ behind the stomach that produces hormones and enzymes that help digest food. Most pancreatic cysts aren't cancerous, and many don't cause symptoms. They're typically found during imaging testing for another problem. Some are actually noncancerous (benign) pockets of fluids lined with scar or inflammatory tissue, not the type of cells found in true cysts (pseudocysts). But some pancreatic cysts can be or can become cancerous. Your doctor might take a sample of the pancreatic cyst fluid to determine if cancer cells are present. Or your doctor might recommend monitoring a cyst over time for changes that indicate cancer.
Abdominal aortic aneurysms can weaken the aorta, your body’s largest blood vessel. This can develop into a potentially serious heath problem that can be fatal if the aneurysm bursts, causing massive internal bleeding. Endovascular stent grafting, or endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), is a newer form of treatment for abdominal aortic aneurysm that is less invasive than open surgery. Endovascular stent grafting uses an endovascular stent graft to reinforce the wall of the aorta and to help keep the damaged area from rupturing.
A closure device and method to close the abdomen between surgical procedures and maintain a normal physiologic tension on the fascia to prevent undue retraction. In one embodiment, the closure device includes a “needled carabiner” attached to a rubberband of specific tension. The rubberband mimics the physiologic tension the abdominal wall normally experiences during daily activities and allows the abdominal compartment to expand as needed to maintain a healthy intra-abdominal pressure. The bands contract to maintain the intra-abdominal pressure and slowly pull the abdominal fascia back to the midline to facilitate surgical closure of the abdomen. In one embodiment, the “needled carabiner” includes a hinged surgical needle with a protected cap. The hinged needle is placed outside the normal suture line, thereby limiting the amount of surgical trauma the fascia endures. The strength of the rubberbands may be varied to accommodate differently sized individuals.
Soft tissue biopsy from osteolytic lesions is a challenge for the interventionist. The Spirotome Bone is conceived for this intervention. The procedure is straigthforward and produces tissue specimens of high quality in sufficient amounts to allow quantitative molecular biology.
Macrobiopsy of breast lesions is a complicated procedure when performed with vacuum assisted biopsy tools. The Spirotome is a hand-held needle set that doesn't need capital investment, is ready to use and provides tissue samples of high quality in substantial amounts. In this way quantitative molecular biology is possible with one tissue sample. The Coramate is an automated version of this direct and frontal technology.