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Objective To determine the feasibility of local inhibition of osteoclast activity and control of tooth movement with local intraoral reveromycin A (RMA) injection in model mice for experimental tooth movement. Materials and methods Eight-week-old wild-type mice (n = 6 per group) were divided into four groups consisting of two non-RMA groups that received normal saline for 14 (14-day non-RMA group) or 21 consecutive days (21-day non-RMA group) and 2 RMA groups that received RMA (1.0 mg/kg of weight) for 14 (14-day RMA group) or 21 consecutive days (21-day RMA group). RMA was injected locally into the buccal mucosa of the left first maxillary molar twice daily starting 3 days before placement of the 10-gf Ni-Ti closed coil spring. Tooth movement distance was analysed using micro-computed tomography. The effects on surrounding alveolar bone were evaluated by measuring the ratio of bone surface area to tissue surface area with haematoxylin-eosin-stained sections and counting the number of osteoclasts in periodontal tissue with TRAP-stained sections. Blood tests were performed and bone volume and trabecular separation at the tibial neck were measured to analyse systemic side effects. Results Local RMA injection inhibited tooth movement by 40.6 per cent, promoted alveolar bone volume maintenance by 37.4 per cent, and inhibited osteoclast activity around the tooth root at 21 days by 40.8 per cent. Systemic effects on osteoclasts or osteoblasts were not observed. Conclusion Local injection of RMA enabled control of tooth movement without systemic side effects in a mouse model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The authors developed an evaluation tool to measure changes in exercise participants' awareness of disaster risk and their disaster preparedness behaviors. To create the tool, a mechanism was modeled to visualize the process of changing people's crisis awareness and behavior and questions were developed for each of the twelve factors and two outcomes within the mechanism. In this study, we conducted a disaster exercise in the pharmacy department of Hospital A, one of the disaster base hospitals, and measured the effectiveness of the exercise using the tool. Method: In the disaster exercise, participants were asked to perform dispensing tasks on five dummy prescriptions using actual medicines, based on the assumption that the dispensing support system was out of order due to a major earthquake. Participants were paired up and dispensed as much as possible within a time limit of 30 minutes. Pre- and post-education sessions were conducted before and after the exercise. Respondents were asked to score each question on a 5-point scale at three time points: before the pre-education, immediately after the disaster exercise, and after post-education. Results: 59 people, including 16 participants, responded to the questionnaire using the evaluation tool. The analysis of the evaluation results revealed that the disaster exercise increased the participants' crisis awareness. Furthermore, participants improved their scores on the questions on feelings of anxiety about the current situation, assumptions about the impact, sense of ownership, and fear of not acting, but no change was observed among non-participants. However, there was no significant difference in scores between the two groups regarding whether they had taken action for disaster preparedness in the period following the exercise. Conclusion: The exercise raised the participants' crisis awareness, but did not encourage them to change their behavior. Future research should consider ways to encourage staff members to take action to prepare for disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The removal of post-surgical drains requires suture cutting. We developed a novel and specialized device that can safely remove the threads fixing the drains, making drain removal safer and easier than the current removal approach using scissors or a scalpel., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Obturator hernia is a rare condition that commonly affects frail older women. A 54-year-old woman presented to our hospital with left hip joint pain. She had suffered a left pubic bone fracture and commenced maintenance hemodialysis. Pelvic computed tomography (CT) showed an incarcerated small intestine through the left obturator foramen, while abdominal CT showed marked intestinal dilatation. She underwent emergency laparotomy, and the incarcerated small intestine was found to be necrotic. Partial small intestinal resection and bilateral obturator hernioplasty were performed. Because obturator hernia is a potentially fatal condition, early detection and treatment are important.