In vitro scolicidal activity of synthesised silver nanoparticles from aqueous plant extract against Echinococcus granulosus.

At present, biosynthesis of AgNPs is a very effective method to produce less toxic nanoparticles. The vision of this research is to use three different plant extracts derived from leaves of Piper nigrum, Ziziphus Spina-Christi and Eucalyptus globulus for rapid biosynthesis of AgNPs. This is in addition to investigating the scolicidal activity against Echinococcus granulosus. The methods of UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) were employed to characterise the nanoparticles. UV spectra disclosed a maximum absorption at 437 nm for the biosynthesised AgNPs using EUCGLO extract. The XRD patterns revealed the (fcc) structure of the AgNPs with slightly shifted characteristic peaks at 2θ degree of 37.3˚ and 43.4˚, respectively. The scolicidal activity against E. granulosus revealed that the AgNPs, which were synthesised using Eucalyptus globulus, have powered scolicidal of 47.8 % after 45 min. which is comparable to the treatment by Albendazole.

Awake Airtraq intubation in an immobile neck--a case report.

A 78 year old patient, whose neck was fixed with polyaxial lateral mass screws and rod was planned for an incisional hernia repair under general anaesthesia. Securing the airway in such an immobile neck is a challenge to the anesthesiologist. Although awake fibreoptic intubation is considered as the gold standard for such challenging patients, we successfully used the Airtraq optical laryngoscope for performing an awake intubation in this case. This example paves the way for the management of similar cases in the future.