Evaluation of sarcopenia and myosteatosis to determine the impact on mortality after emergency laparotomy.

Background: Emergency laparotomy is performed for a wide range of life-threatening conditions and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Risk prediction models facilitate accurate communication of operative risk with patients and relatives, in addition to benchmarking unit outcomes. Greater understanding of the impact of sarcopenia or myosteatosis will encourage the adoption of routine radiological reporting of body composition and the incorporation of skeletal muscle gauge (SMG) into risk prediction models.

Risk of surgical site infection in hand trauma, and the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A cohort study.

Background: Despite the ubiquity of hand trauma, there remains insufficient published data to reliably inform these patients of surgical site infection (SSI) risk. We describe the risk of SSI in a single-centre cohort of patients with hand trauma, with an analysis of the impact of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Methods: Retrospective data collection of consecutive patients who underwent surgery for hand and wrist trauma in a single plastic surgery centre over two, three-month periods.

Diquaternary ammonium compounds in zeolite synthesis: cyclic and polycyclic N-heterocycles connected by methylene chains.

An additional dimension has been added to our long-standing studies in high silica zeolite synthesis via a guest/host synergism. We have created and studied the impact of making symmetric diquaternary ammonium compounds, by varying the chain length between nitrogen charge centers, and the heterocycle size and geometry containing the nitrogen. This allows the introduction of a second spatial parameter in the use of the charged organo-cation guest in the zeolite synthesis.