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In the active duty population, over-the-counter performance enhancing supplements are readily available and consumed, primarily in an unsupervised manner. While some of the active ingredients, such as caffeine and creatine, have been well studied, other sympathomimetic and vasoactive components in these products have minimal data regarding their safety profile. Further potentiating the associated risks of consumption, the quantities and purities of the reported ingredients are often unverified and can vary from serving to serving. We present a case of the deleterious side effect profiles of these lesser studied components in overconsumption in an active duty soldier. Although improvements are being made regarding product safety, the paucity of ingredient regulation and quality assurance can result in warfighter morbidity and mortality, especially when these supplements are abused or combined with other products., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Purpose: To compare technical success, complications, and long-term clinical success following radiofrequency ablation of osteoid osteomas in pediatric and adult patients., Materials and Methods: Ninety-two patients underwent percutaneous computed tomography-guided radiofrequency ablation for osteoid osteomas including 54 pediatric (mean age 12.9 years) and 38 adult (mean age 24.1 years) patients. Presenting indication, osteoma location, ablation method, technical success, complications, visual analog score, radiographic follow-up, clinical success, reintervention rate, and total follow-up were reported. Technical success was defined as placement of the probe in the radiolucent nidus with ablation. Clinical success was defined as resolution of symptoms., Results: Ablation indications included: pain localized to the lesion, night pain, and an osteoma on imaging in all patients. Majority of osteoid osteomas were localized to the femur (pediatric [n = 22, 40.7%]; adult [n = 12, 34.2%]) and tibia (pediatric [n = 21, 38.9%]; adult [n = 10, 26.3%]). Mean lesion size was 9.6 mm in pediatric patients and 9.0 mm in adults. Technical success was achieved in all pediatric patients (100%) and 97.4% of adults. Two complications occurred. Primary clinical success was achieved in 49 (90.7%) pediatric and 35 (92.1%) adult patients. Five (9.3%) pediatric and 3 (7.9%) adult patients sought reintervention for residual symptoms, and all had secondary clinical success. Mean total follow-up was 95.2 ± 58.7 months in pediatric and 90.0 ± 61.6 months in adult patients. No differences in outcomes were identified between pediatric and adult patients., Conclusion: Radiofrequency ablation of osteoid osteomas is safe with excellent technical and clinical success rates in pediatric and adult patients.

Purpose: To report the chest radiograph measurement technique for placing bedside peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs)., Materials and Methods: Two hundred and thirty-two consecutive pediatric patients, mean age of 56.3 months (range: 0-203 months), underwent PICC placement from January 2015 to May 2017 (28 months) with a total of 232 PICCs placed. Measurements were taken from the cavoatrial junction to clavicle, clavicle to medial margin of mid-humeral head, and medial margin of mid-humeral head to mid-humerus. The difference between total radiographic measured length and actual PICC length was then calculated, and the percent difference (from actual cut length) was recorded. An equivalence test was performed using the two, one-sided test method., Results: Mean ± standard deviation cavoatrial junction to clavicle length was 5.29 ± 2.20 cm (range: 2.1-12.6 cm). Mean clavicle to shoulder length was 8.20 ± 3.59 cm (range: 3.23-19.06 cm). Mean shoulder to mid-humerus length was 7.88 ± 3.87 cm (range: 2.01-16.8 cm). Mean total radiographic measured length was 21.37 ± 9.19 cm (range: 7.42-43.6 cm). Mean actual cut PICC length was 20.64 ± 8.72 cm (range: 8.5-44 cm). The mean difference between predicted, or total radiographic measured length, and actual cut PICC length was 0.73 ± 2.51 (range: - 5.42-8.60 cm). The mean percent difference was 4.07 ± 12.65% (range: - 23.84-47.80%). An equivalence test rejected the null hypothesis of the true percent difference greater/less than ± 6.67% with a p value of 0.002., Conclusion: The chest radiograph measurement technique is an accurate method to determine catheter length for PICC placement at bedside in the pediatric population.

Image-guided biopsy techniques are widely used in clinical practice. Commonly used methods employ either ultrasound (US) or computed tomography (CT) for image guidance. In certain patients, US or CT guidance may be suboptimal, or even impossible, because of artifacts, suboptimal lesion visualization, or both. We recently began performing magnetic resonance (MR)-guided biopsy of focal liver lesions in select pediatric patients with lesions that are not well visualized by US or CT. This report describes our experience performing MR-guided biopsy of focal liver lesions, with case examples to illustrate innovative techniques and novel aspects of these procedures.

Background: A paucity of literature describes the use of imaged-guided percutaneous core needle biopsy for the diagnosis and characterization of pediatric soft-tissue masses and lesions., Objective: To retrospectively determine whether image-guided percutaneous core needle biopsy is adequate for diagnosing and characterizing benign and malignant pediatric soft-tissue masses and lesions., Materials and Methods: We identified children (≤18 years old) who underwent US- or CT-guided percutaneous core needle biopsy of a soft-tissue mass or other lesion between January 2012 and March 2014. Using medical records, we documented the following data: age and gender, site of the mass or lesion, size and number of biopsy specimens, whether the biopsy procedure was diagnostic, whether sufficient tissue was obtained for necessary ancillary testing (e.g., cytogenetic evaluation), and whether there was a procedural complication within 1 week., Results: One hundred eight soft-tissue masses or lesions were biopsied under imaging guidance in 84 children; 39 (46%) were girls. Mean age ± standard deviation (SD) was 12.1 ± 5.1 years (range 6 months to 18 years). Of these procedures, 105/108 (97%) were diagnostic; 82/108 (76%) were US-guided; 87/108 (81%) were performed using a 17-gauge introducer needle/18-gauge biopsy instrument. The mean number ± SD of core needle biopsy specimens obtained was 8.9 ± 5.0. For newly diagnosed malignancies, adequate tissue was obtained for ancillary testing in 28/30 (93%) masses. One minor complication was documented., Conclusion: Image-guided percutaneous core needle biopsy of pediatric soft-tissue masses is safe, has a high diagnostic rate, and provides sufficient tissue for ancillary testing.

Background: The role of US-guided fine-needle aspiration biopsy (US-FNAB) of thyroid nodules is not well-established in children., Objective: To retrospectively assess the utility of US-FNAB of pediatric thyroid nodules., Materials and Methods: We reviewed Department of Radiology records to identify children who underwent US-FNAB of the thyroid between 2005 and 2013. Two board-certified pediatric radiologists reviewed pre-procedural thyroid US exams and documented findings by consensus. We recorded cytopathology findings and compared them to surgical pathology diagnoses if the nodule was resected. We also recorded demographic information, use of sedation or general anesthesia, and presence of on-site cytopathological feedback. The Student's t-test was used to compare continuous data; the Fisher exact test was used to compare proportions., Results: US-FNAB was conducted on a total of 86 thyroid nodules in 70 children; 56 were girls (80%). Seventy-eight of the 86 (90.7%) US-FNAB procedures were diagnostic; 69/78 (88.5%) diagnostic specimens were benign (including six indeterminate follicular lesions that were proved at surgery to be benign) and 9/78 (11.5%) were malignant/suspicious for malignancy (all proved to be papillary carcinomas). There was no difference in size of benign vs. malignant lesions (P = 0.82) or diagnostic vs. non-diagnostic lesions (P = 0.87). Gender (P = 0.19), use of sedation/general anesthesia (P = 0.99), and presence of onsite cytopathological feedback (P = 0.99) did not affect diagnostic adequacy. Microcalcifications (P < 0.0001; odds ratio [OR] = 113.7) and coarse calcifications (P = 0.03; OR = 19.4) were associated with malignancy. Diagnoses at cytopathology and surgical pathology were concordant in 27/29 (93.1%) nodules; no US-FNAB procedure yielded false-positive or false-negative results for malignancy., Conclusion: US-FNAB of pediatric thyroid nodules is feasible, allows diagnostic cytopathological evaluation, and correlates with surgical pathology results in resected nodules.

A 37-year-old patient undergoing operative hysteroscopy developed noncardiogenic pulmonary edema after fluid absorption of 6 L of Ringer's lactate distension solution. No electrolyte or neurologic sequelae were associated with this fluid absorption. A subsequent 35-year-old patient having similar surgery in which a device was used to control intrauterine pressure and fluid absorption, developed a venous air embolus. The use of Ringer's lactate solution reduces the consequences associated with fluid absorption but it is not without risks. A device to limit intrauterine pressure and fluid absorption does not eliminate other risks.