Advance in Functional Restoration of Injured Nerve with Low Level Laser and its Utilization in the Dental and Maxillofacial Region

The inferior alveolar nerve and facial nerve are the two most important nerves in the dental and maxillofacial region. The injury to them is one of the major postoperative complications after alveolar surgery and orthognathic surgery. However, recovering the nerve function after injury takes a long time and the recovery effect tends to be unsatisfactory. In recent years, an intensively investigated technique, low level laser which has been applying in assisting the recovery of nerve function, has been gradually proved to be effective in clinically treating postoperative nerve injury. In this article we review in terms of the mechanisms involved in low level laser-assisted functional restoration of nerve injury and its clinical application in the recovery of nerve function in the dental and maxillofacial area as well.     

Prevalence of Apical Periodontitis and Conventional Nonsurgical Root Canal Treatment in General Adult Population: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cross-sectional Studies Published between 2012 and 2020

IntroductionThis study aimed to summarize data on apical periodontitis (AP) and nonsurgical root canal treatment (NSRCT) prevalence and risk factors related to age, gender, and quality of restorative and endodontic treatment in the general population from cross-sectional studies published between 2012 and 2020.MethodsAn electronic search was performed in the following databases: Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed. The conducted literature search covered studies published between 2012 and 2020, without restrictions on language. The STROBE and NOS tools were used for quality assessment of the included studies.ResultsSixteen articles were included in the review. In total, 200,041 teeth were examined. On average, 6.3% of teeth had AP, and 7.4% had NSRCT. Forty-one percent of RCT teeth had AP, and 3.5% of untreated teeth had AP. Female patients were less prone to AP in endodontically treated teeth only, compared with male patients (P < .001). Variable stratification of age subgroups among included studies prevented us from conducting a meta-analysis. An increase in AP frequency was found in teeth with inadequate restorative and endodontic treatment (P < .001 and P < .001, respectively). Because of high heterogeneity, these results should be taken with caution.ConclusionsThere is an increased AP prevalence in the adult general population compared with data from 2012 (6.3% versus 5.4%) in both endodontically treated (41.3% versus 35.9%) and untreated teeth (3.5% versus 2.1%). In addition, AP developed less frequently in female patients with endodontically treated teeth and in teeth with inadequate compared with adequate restorative and endodontic treatment.     

激光联合复方血栓通胶囊治疗糖尿病视网膜病变合并黄斑水肿的疗效观察

目的:分析糖尿病视网膜病变合并黄斑水肿联合采用激光与复方血栓通胶囊治疗的临床疗效。方法:选取我院2017年1月—2019年1月收治的200例糖尿病视网膜病变合并黄斑水肿患者为研究对象,随机分为两组。对照组单独行激光治疗,观察组于对照组基础上联合复方血栓通胶囊治疗,对比两组临床疗效、治疗前后IL-6(白介素-6)、VEGF(血管内皮生长因子)、NOS(血清一氧化氮合成酶)水平变化情况。结果:对照组总有效率(68.00%,68/100)较观察组总有效率(98.00%,98/100)更高(P<0.05);与对照组对比,观察组治疗后NOS水平更高,IL-6、VEGF水平更低(P<0.05)。结论:糖尿病视网膜病变合并黄斑水肿联合采用激光与复方血栓通胶囊治疗的临床疗效显著,值得推广。     

Ospemifene plus fractional CO2 laser: a powerful strategy to treat postmenopausal vulvar pain

Abstract

This study is a single-center, retrospective analysis of postmenopausal women presenting with dyspareunia and vulvar pain, aiming to evaluate relative effectiveness of vestibular CO₂ laser therapy as a treatment. Three monthly sessions of laser were performed to each patient and thereafter a three-months follow-up was stablished. A total number of 72 patients undergoing vestibular laser treatment were recruited from patient files in the period between 2016 and 2018. Among these, 39 women also received a concomitant treatment with ospemifene (60?mg/day) during the study period. There was a statistically significant reduction of all the symptoms in both groups up to the three month follow-up. Regarding dryness and dyspareunia, the relief tent to be more prominent in the ospemifene?+?laser group at all follow-ups and remained statistically significant at three-month follow-up. Specifically, vestibular dryness was significantly lower in the ospemifene?+?laser group compared with the laser treatment group (?87% vs???34%, respectively), and the vestibular health score started declining faster in the ospemifene?+?laser group. Although, additional research is needed to understand the mechanism of action, our data shows that a combination regimen of laser and ospemifene may improve clinical effectiveness for long-term treatment of symptoms associated with the under-recognized genitourinary syndrome of menopause.     

经纤支镜气道内膜下注射药物治疗对支气管内膜结核患者并发症的影响

目的探讨纤支镜气道注射药物治疗对支气管内膜结核患者并发症的影响。方法选择2018年1月—2019年1月在湖北省潜江市中心医院治疗的支气管内膜结核患者66例,分为对照组和研究组各33例。对照组给予药物雾化吸入疗法,研究组经过纤支镜气道内膜下注射药物治疗。比较两组治疗效果和症状缓解的影响。结果研究组总有效率为90.91%,对照组总有效率为84.85%,研究组的治疗效果均高于对照组(P<0.05);对照组并发症发生率为39.39%,研究组并发症发生率18.18%,研究组并发症发生率明显低于对照组(P<0.05)。结论经纤支镜气道内膜下注射药物治疗支气管内膜结核患者并发症的发生率较小。     

Visumax飞秒激光辅助制瓣LASIK术中不透明气泡层及相关因素

目的：研究Visumax飞秒激光辅助的准分子激光原位角膜磨镶术（LASIK）术中不透明气泡层（OBL）产生的类型、相关影响因素及其临床意义。方法：回顾性分析。收集2016 年7 月1 日至8 月20 日在南京医科大学附属眼科医院行飞秒LASIK的患者154 例（300 眼）的临床资料，等效球镜度为（-5.88±1.51）D。飞秒激光采用Zeiss公司 Visumax飞秒激光仪，将术中产生的OBL分为瓣外OBL、瓣内快速OBL和瓣内慢速OBL。300 眼按角膜曲率平均K值分为A组（<42 D）、B组（42～46 D）和C组（>46 D）；按角膜瓣的厚度分为D组（100 μm）、E组（110 μm）和F组（120 μm）；按角膜厚度分为G组（<500 μm）、H组（500～540 μm）和I组（>540 μm）。统计不同角膜曲率、角膜瓣厚度、角膜厚度情况下3 种OBL产生的比例，并采用多元Logistic回归模型进行统计分析。结果：300 眼均发生OBL。以瓣外OBL作为参照，角膜瓣越薄，越容易出现瓣内快速OBL（r=-0.719，P=0.034）和瓣内慢速OBL（r=-0.875，P=0.044）。以瓣内慢速OBL作为参照，角膜曲率越高，越容易出现瓣内快速OBL（r=0.923，P=0.046）；角膜瓣越厚，越容易出现瓣外OBL（r=0.897，P=0.044）。结论：OBL的产生与角膜曲率、角膜瓣厚度、角膜厚度均存在一定的相关性，但瓣外OBL、瓣内快速OBL和瓣内慢速OBL对Visumax飞秒激光辅助的LASIK术后视觉质量的影响及远期疗效仍有待进一步观察研究。