Incidence of Instrument Fall During Caesarean Section: An Enigma.

Objective: The aim of the study was to analyse and compare statistically the incidence of accidental fall of instruments during elective and emergency caesarean section. Material and Methods: A prospective study was carried out at (V. C. S. G. G. Medical Sciences and Research Institute) Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal, India over a period of 24 months. The instrument fall during elective and emergency caesarean sections was observed. The observer counted the number of times an instrument fell during surgery. The personnel responsible were identified. A note of the nature of instrument falling was made. Results: We observed 362 surgeries which included 242 emergency caesarean sections and 120 elective caesarean sections. There were a total of 159 falls. Falls were classified as major and minor. There were 22 falls (18.33%) during elective caesarean sections and 137 falls (56.61%) during emergency caesarean sections. There were 53 major and 106 minor falls. Two or more falls were noted in 31 surgeries. In 96 instances (60.37%) the operating surgeon was responsible for the fall. In 37 cases (23.27%) assisting surgeon and in 17 cases (10.69%) the scrub nurse was responsible for the fall of the instruments. Nine falls (5.66%) were unaccountable. Most falls in elective caesarean section were in later half of the surgery while in emergency caesarean section, they were before and during the extraction of the baby. The surgeries were delayed, on an average by 5.7 minutes after a major fall of an instrument. Conclusions: Falling of instruments in the theatre is a common problem all over the world. This leads to increase in operating time, more resources and quality compromise. The operating surgeon was mainly responsible for the fall. Ashort training programme in instrument handling should be conducted for operating surgeons which may be helpful in preventing such avoidable falls.

Screening for disease resistance in barley cultivars against Bipolaris sorokiniana using callus culture method.

Screening for resistant barley genotypes in response to fungal toxin of Bipolaris sorokiniana was assessed on standing barley plants as well as in selected callus lines of the same. For the standing lines tested, those manifesting chlorosis in response to toxin infiltration showed a significantly slower disease progress as compared to the necrotic lines. Also, necrosis in the callus tissues of the susceptible cultivar in MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of the crude toxin was significantly higher than in the callus tissues of the chlorotic lines studied. Similar host response to the toxin in in vitro and field situations open up the possibility of screening barley cultivars for resistance to spot blotch using callus culture as against classical methods of screening in order to increase accuracy and save time and space.

Production of L-phenylacetylcarbinol by free and immobilized yeast cells.

Production of L-phenylacetylcarbinol (L-PAC) through biotransformation of benzaldehyde by free and immobilized cells of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been attempted. L-PAC production was found to be maximum (0.4 microliter/ml) when anaerobically grown free cells were used as biocatalyst during aerobic biotransformation for two hours with magnetically stirred bioreactor. Growth under oxygen limited conditions led to accumulation of higher amount of pyruvate decarboxylase enzyme and co-substrate, pyruvate, resulting in higher L-PAC formation. L-PAC yield was low when biotransformations were carried out anaerobically either for aerobically or anaerobically grown free cells. Free cells were found to be more efficient biocatalyst for L-PAC production, as compared with the immobilized cells, with the investigated benzaldehyde concentration (0.3% v/v) and cell density (17.5% w/v). The study has explored and indicated the possibility of optimizing the yield of L-PAC by growing the yeast cells under oxygen limited condition for suitable aerobic mode of benzaldehyde biotransformation.