Plastic surgery in the Norwegian undergraduate medical curriculum: students' knowledge and attitudes. A nationwide case-control study.

OBJECTIVE: Changes in medical education have resulted in less available time for plastic surgery, which might jeopardise the availability of plastic surgery for patients. The aims of this study were to investigate the level of knowledge within and attitudes towards plastic surgery among medical students, and find predictors for a wish to pursue a career in plastic surgery. METHODS: A previously used questionnaire was sent to all clinical medical students. Law students were used as a control group. RESULTS: Thirty per cent of all clinical medical students in the country responded. The majority of students considered education in plastic surgery valuable/very valuable and 23% were considering it as a career. Nonetheless, about half of the students were unaware of the plastic surgical education at their faculty and reported non-academic sources of learning. Only 44% of medical students were able to name five common plastic surgical procedures and 8% were unable to name any. Law students were superior to medical students in the task (p = 0.005). Forty-two per cent of medical students were successful in indicating on which body parts plastic surgeons operate, whereas law students were less successful (p = 0.001). Male gender and positive valuing of clinical attachment could predict a wish for a career in plastic surgery. CONCLUSION: In some aspects, medical students are only as knowledgeable as their non-medical peers. These results call for higher quality plastic surgery teaching, to secure referral of the correct patients and successful specialist recruitment to plastic surgery.

Can spectral-spatial image segmentation be used to discriminate experimental burn wounds?

Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a noncontact and noninvasive optical modality emerging the field of medical research. The goal of this study was to determine the ability of HSI and image segmentation to discriminate burn wounds in a preclinical porcine model. A heated brass rod was used to introduce burn wounds of graded severity in a pig model and a sequence of hyperspectral data was recorded up to 8-h postinjury. The hyperspectral images were processed by an unsupervised spectral­spatial segmentation algorithm. Segmentation was validated using results from histology. The proposed algorithm was compared to K-means segmentation and was found superior. The obtained segmentation maps revealed separated zones within the burn sites, indicating a variation in burn severity. The suggested image-processing scheme allowed mapping dynamic changes of spectral properties within the burn wounds over time. The results of this study indicate that unsupervised spectral­spatial segmentation applied on hyperspectral images can discriminate burn injuries of varying severity.

Pulsatility index variations using two different transit-time flowmeters in coronary artery bypass surgery.

OBJECTIVE: Transit-time flow measurement is widely accepted as an intra-operative assessment in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). However, the two most commonly applied flowmeters, manufactured by MediStim ASA and Transonic Inc., have different default filter settings of 20 and 10 Hz, respectively. This may cause different flow measurements, which will influence the reported results. The aim was to compare pulsatility index (PI) values recorded by the MediStim and Transonic flowmeters in two different clinical settings: (1) analysis of the flow patterns recorded simultaneously by both flowmeters in the same CABGs; and (2) evaluation of flow patterns under different levels of filter settings in the same grafts. METHODS: Graft flow and PI were measured using the two different flowmeters simultaneously in 19 bypass grafts. Finally, eight grafts were assessed under different digital filter settings at 5, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100 Hz. RESULTS: The Transonic flowmeter provided substantially lower PI as compared with the MediStim flowmeter. By increasing the filter setting in the flowmeter, PI increased considerably. CONCLUSIONS: The Transonic flowmeter displayed a lower PI than the MediStim, due to a lower filter setting. In the Transonic,flow signals are filtered at a lower level, rendering a 'smoother' pattern of flow curves. Because different filter settings determine different PIs, caution must be taken when flow values and flowmeters are compared. The type of flowmeter should be indicated whenever graft flow measurements and derived indexes are provided [corrected].