[Prevalence of peripheral soft connective tissue lesions in patients referred to pathology department of Shahid Beheshti dental school, 1981-2006]

Peripheral soft connective tissue lesions are common in oral mucosa and despite their benign nature can make problems for patients. According to our knowledge, a comprehensive study for these lesions was not performed in Iran General practitioners are commonly encountered affected with these lesions. They have not enough information about their clinical prevalence, may make mistake in diagnosis and treatment plan. The aim of this study was to evaluate peripheral soft connective tissue lesions prevalence in patients referred to Pathology department of Shahid Beheshti Dental School during 1981-2006. In this descriptive retrospective study [existing data], cases were patients that referred to Pathology Dept. [1981-2006] with complete files recorded in the Dept. Questionnaires included age, sex, location of lesion and lesion type which were retrieved from patient's files. The incomplete files were excluded. Finally the collected data were analyzed descriptively by SPSS Ver 11.0 software. A total number of 900 cases had peripheral soft connective tissue lesions during 1981-2006 from 4529 files in the department. 29.7% [268 cases] were irritation fibroma, 21.9% [197 cases] were peripheral giant cell granuloma, 19.5% [176 cases] were pyogenic granuloma, 19.3% [174 cases] were epulis fissuratum, 8% [72 cases] were peripheral ossifying fibroma, 0.5% [5 cases] were giant cell fibroma, 0.4% [4 cases] were oral focal mucinosis and 0.4% were inflammatory papillary hyperplasia. The most prevalent age was 50-59 years [18.1%] and 20-29 years [16.3%]. The lesions were more prevalent in women [61.9%] and were 38.1% in men. The most prevalent site was gingival [54.3%] and the least prevalent site was floor of the mouth [0.1%]. 19.9% peripheral soft connective tissue lesions were reported, the most frequent lesion was irritation fibroma that was similar to other reports

Percutaneous, versus open epiphysiodesis

Epiphysiodesis is used for the treatment of leg-length discrepancy in skeletally immature patients. Phemister described an open technique that requires surgical dissection with potential morbidity. Recently, minimally invasive approaches that utilize intraoperative fluoroscopy have been introduced. The aim of this study is to compare our experience using the open and the minimally invasive percutaneous techniques. A prospective follow-up of 87 consecutive patients undergoing epiphysiodesis for correction of post traumatic leg-length discrepancy using either the open or the percutaneous technique at the Armed Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between January 1993 and December 2000. Out of the 87 patients, 52 were carried out using the open technique and 35 were utilized by this percutaneous technique. There was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of demographic date, operative time, perioperative complications or time required to achieve the growth arrest. However, there was a significant difference in the hospital stay and postoperative need for physiotherapy. The percutaneous group had a shorter hospitalization [average 2.5 days] compared to the open technique group [average 4 days]. Our experience is similar to what is reported in the literature and confirms that the percutaneous technique has an advantage over the open technique with shorter hospitalization and less duration of physiotherapy

Ambulatory twenty four hour ECG monitoring in post myocardial infarction patients

Twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction were monitored by Holter monitor [HM] and the standard ECG two weeks after the infarction. Arrhythmia were detected in 40% by the ECG and in 100% by HM. PVCs were recorded in 20% by ECG and in 85% by HM. The complexity of PVCs were evident by HM only. Ventricular tachycardia was recorded in one patient by HM. Atrial premature contractions were recorded in 80% by HM, only. Supra-ventricular tachycardia was recorded in one only by HM. Sinus bradycardia was recorded in 20% by HM only. Effect of sleep was analyzed. The arrhythmia at early phase of infarction was compared to those occurred after two weeks. It was concluded that recording by standard ECG was unreliable for estimating the incidence, frequency or complexity of arrhythmia. It was recommended not to rely patients symptoms for the perception of arrhythmia. Post myocardial infarction patients should undergo HM prior to hospital discharge, if it is available