Intra-alveolar extraction of impacted distoangular mandibular third molars: A novel technique

Recent trends in maxillofacial surgery are to reduce the trauma to the adjacent soft tissue. The distoangular impaction presents a challenge to the maxillofacial surgeon and also results in more surgical morbidity. Here, we present a minimally invasive extraction technique for the distoangular mandibular third molar impaction.

Morbidity and Mortality at five years after initiating Category I treatment among patients with new sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background: Evaluation of disease outcome is central to the assessment of tuberculosis control programmes. Most of the follow up studies in RNTCP are short term. Five year follow up studies have not been done previously in this region. The objective of the present study is to evaluate the outcome of Category I treatment in smear positive tuberculosis, five years after treatment in terms of relapse, sequelae and death and to know the associated factors. Material and Methods: Patients who had registered for Category 1 treatment during the period 2002 – 2004 were followed up at five years with clinical evaluation, Chest X-ray, ESR and sputum AFB smear. Results: Of the 224 patients who were studied, 81% patients were males. Addictions, including smoking and alcoholism, were prevalent in 136 patients (61%). Treatment success rate at six months was 94.2%. At the end of five years, 124 patients (57.9%) were symptomatic, 59% patients had radiological sequelae, relapse in 10 patients (4.5%), and mortality in 12 (5.4%) patients. Diabetes mellitus was the most common comorbid illness. Smoking and age > 45 years were associated with radiological sequelae. Smoking was significantly associated with mortality. Smokers had worse outcomes in all parameters. Conclusions: Relapse rate was 4.5% and overall mortality was 5.4% at the end of five years. Significant proportion of patients has radiological sequelae. Smoking was the preventable risk factor associated with sequelae, relapse and mortality.

Maxillofacial intervention in trauma patients aged 60 years and older.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the incidence of trauma victims of age 60 years and older who required maxillofacial intervention. The study analyses the pattern of injuries and the various factors that predict the treatment plan of these patients. A retrospective study was carried out in 1820 trauma patients who reported to the Sri. Ramachandra Dental College and Hospital and required maxillofacial intervention, over a period of 5 years (October 2000 and September 2005). Of the total trauma victims, 185 patients were found to be aged 60 years more. In the majority of the patients, the injury was due to road traffic accidents (79.4%). Males (72.4%) sustained more injuries than females (27.6%). Soft tissue injuries were seen in 49.1% of the patients, while 14% had mandibular fractures. People in their early 60s were injured more often than their older counterparts. The findings of this study highlight the present situation with regard to maxillofacial trauma in patients aged 60 years and older and its management in this part of the country.

Translesion DNA polymerases Pol zeta, Pol eta, Pol iota, Pol kappa and Rev1 are not essential for repeat-induced point mutation in Neurospora crassa.

Pol zeta, Pol eta, Pol iota, Pol kappa and Rev1 are specialized DNA polymerases that are able to synthesize DNA across a damaged template. DNA synthesis by such translesion polymerases can be mutagenic due to the miscoding nature of most damaged nucleotides. In fact, many mutational and hypermutational processes in systems ranging from yeast to mammals have been traced to the activity of such polymerases. We show however, that the translesion polymerases are dispensable for repeat-induced point mutation (RIP) in Neurospora crassa. Additionally, we demonstrate that the upr-1 gene, which encodes the catalytic subunit of Pol zeta, is a highly polymorphic locus in Neurospora.

Diffuse hepatic hemangiomatosis: case report.

Hemangiomas of the liver are often incidental findings on routine abdominal ultrasonography. Majority are single and asymptomatic. We report a patient with diffuse hemangiomatosis of the liver who presented with thrombocytopenia and congestive cardiac failure.

Tolerance of Oscillatoria isolates to agrochemicals and pyrethroid components.

Four isolates of Oscillatoria sp from an Indian paddy field have been tested for their tolerance to agrochemicals and pyrethroid components. The isolates possessed considerable tolerance to agrochemicals and reduced toxicity of pyrethroid components towards fish.