Surgical outcomes of unwrapped acrylic orbital implants: A review of 192 patients.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to report the results in a series of acrylic orbital implant placements without the use of wrapping material. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the records of the patients who underwent enucleation with acrylic orbital implant insertion without scleral wrapping at the Department of Ophthalmology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poland, between 2013 and 2020. RESULTS: There were 192 patients: 102 women and 90 men, mean age: 60 years (range: 13-90 years). In the majority of cases, the reason for enucleation was uveal melanoma (148 patients-77.1%), followed by secondary glaucoma in 22 patients (11.5%) and painful, phthisical eye in 16 (8.3%). The median follow-up was 23 months (range: 1-96 months). The stability of the implants was satisfactory in the majority of cases, and there were no cases of implant migration identified during the study period. We noted a total of 4 (2%) implant exposures. Other postoperative complaints included eyelid malposition-21 patients (11%), Tenon's capsule thinning (15 patients-7.8%) and post-enucleation eye socket syndrome (PEES)-7 patients (3.6%). The rate of postoperative complications was associated only with a history of previous ocular surgery (P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: The stability and functional outcomes of unwrapped acrylic orbital implants in this group of patients were satisfactory during the follow-up period.

Effects of natural organic matter removal by integrated processes: alum coagulation and PAC-adsorption.

This paper presents the results of bench-scale research into the efficiency of NOM removal by integrated processes-alum coagulation and PAC-adsorption. Experiments were conducted using riverine water samples (collected from the Odra River, Poland) and commercial powdered activated carbon. It has been shown that a PAC-enhanced coagulation process reduces the coagulant dose required and increases the process efficiency at the same time. For example, a coagulant dose of 2.0 mgAl/L and a PAC dose of 5 mg/L have produced results comparable to those of a coagulation process with no adsorbent aid but with a coagulant dose increased by 54%. The coagulation-adsorption tests were carried out at a pH of 6.0, which was lower than the pH(IEP) of the adsorbent. This procedure yielded a high extent of DOC and UV-254 removal, at 90% and 77%, respectively. The drop observed in the SUVA value after the process implied a decrease in reactive DOC forms and consequently a diminished risk that disinfection by-products might form. HPSEC analyses made it possible to describe the changes in the molecular weight distribution for the organic substances persisting in the water both after coagulation and after PAC-aided coagulation, and to evaluate their propensity to removal by the two methods. The coagulation process was effective as far as the removal of high-molecular-weight fractions is concerned. An increase in the removal of the low molecular weight NOM was achieved when the PAC-adsorption process had been combined with coagulation.