A team of EPFL scientists, led by the Italians Giovanni de Micheli and Sandro Carrara, has developed a tiny device that can analyze the concentration of substances in the blood. Implanted just beneath the skin, it can detect up to five proteins and organic acids simultaneously, and then transmit the results directly to a doctor's computer. This method will allow a much more personalized level of care than traditional blood tests can provide. Health care providers will be better able to monitor patients, particularly those with chronic illness or those undergoing chemotherapy.

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Laparoscopic surgeons may improve certain aspects of surgical performance by regularly playing on a Nintendo® Wii, according to research published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Gregorio Patrizi and colleagues from the University of Rome, Italy.

Considering the technical skills required to perform laparascopic procedures, several studies aim to evaluate and improve training for surgeons outside the operating room. Previous studies have assessed the effect of playing video games on hand-eye coordination and spatial attention. In the current research, the authors combined these two aspects by analyzing how a four-week training regimen on the Nintendo® Wii impacted the laparoscopic skills of post-graduate residents in the first or second year of their surgical training. Half the surgeons were assigned to a training regimen on the Wii while the other half were not. Before and after the regimen, all the participants' performance was tested on a laparoscopic simulator.

The study found that participants in both groups improved their skills over the four week period, but those who had been trained on the Wii showed a significant improvement over the other group in their performance on several specific metrics like economy of instrument movements and efficient cautery. The study concludes, "The Nintendo® Wii might be helpful, inexpensive and entertaining part of the training of young laparoscopists, in addition to a standard surgical education based on simulators and the operating room."

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Antioxidant improves donated liver survival rate to more than 90 percent.The results of this research have just been published on Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), and suggest that the NAC effect on early graft function and survival is higher when suboptimal organs are used. "Liver transplantation is the standard treatment for end-stage liver disease," explains lead author Dr. Francesco D'Amico from Padova University in Italy. "Antioxidants such as NAC could potentially reduce damage to deceased donor livers, improving graft function." Studies have shown that ischemia-reperfusion injury (IFI)—damage to the liver tissue when blood supply returns to the liver after lack of oxygen (ischemia)—often occurs during storage and preservation of donated livers, and impacts early graft function post-transplantation.

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