Search

Patients with mitral valve disease undergoing cerebrovascular surgery face increased inherent risks due to their associated cardiac comorbidities. As such, the anaesthetic management of such patients is distinctly challenging. Simultaneous consideration of both the cerebrovascular and underlying cardiac conditions determines key anaesthetic issues, as fluids and vasopressors or inotropes need to be titrated according to haemodynamic variables in order to optimise cerebral blood flow without compromising cardiac function. We report a 45-yearold female patient with mild mitral stenosis and moderate-to-severe mitral regurgitation who presented to the Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman, in 2016 following a ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm requiring urgent surgical intervention. As highlighted in this case, the VolumeView EV1000™ (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, California, USA) system is a minimially invasive haemodynamic monitor that can help immensely in the perioperative management of such patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An awake craniotomy is a continuously evolving technique used for the resection of brain tumours from the eloquent cortex. We report a 29-year-old male patient who presented to the Khoula Hospital, Muscat, Oman, in 2016 with a two month history of headaches and convulsions due to a space-occupying brain lesion in close proximity with the left motor cortex. An awake craniotomy was conducted using a scalp block, continuous dexmedetomidine infusion and a titrated ultra-low-dose of propofol-fentanyl. The patient remained comfortable throughout the procedure and the intraoperative neuropsychological tests, brain mapping and tumour resection were successful. This case report suggests that dexmedetomidine in combination with titrated ultra-low-dose propofolfentanyl are effective options during an awake craniotomy, ensuring optimum sedation, minimal disinhibition and a rapid recovery. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first awake craniotomy conducted successfully in Oman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern and south-eastern Arabia, the Neolithic developed between 6500 and 3100 BCE. In the Sultanate of Oman, occupation occurred along wadi banks, around paleolakes, and at large shellmiddens accumulated on the shores of the Arabian Sea. Nevertheless, the origins and development of human occupation on the Arabian Sea islands are poorly known, if not totally undocumented. After exploring the archaeological potential of the large island of Masirah, we focused our research on the small Al-Hallaniyat archipelago (formerly known as the Kuria Muria islands). A preliminary archaeological survey led us to test several sites belonging to different occupational phases on the island, and we explored the largest shell-midden at the HLY-4 site in 2014 and 2019. Radiocarbon dating results, along with lithic analysis, demonstrate that at around 4200-4000 BCE, a Neolithic community settled the largest island (Al-Hallaniyah). While goats and dogs had been introduced as livestock, fish and dolphins were regularly fished and captured as a main food resource together with marine turtles and nesting birds. At HLY-4, not only lithic and bone artifacts characterize the assemblage, as standardized discoid marine-shell beads were also manufactured. The Neolithic conquest of Masirah Island occurred early in the Neolithic (at the beginning of the sixth millennium BCE), while the settlements on the Farasan islands (in the Red Sea) are dated to around 4500 BCE, and thus the ones on the Al-Hallaniyat archipelago to the end of the fifth millennium BCE. In Arabia, their chronological assessment marks the final conquest of the insular areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We successfully measured four radiocarbon dates on two specimens of a black geometric rock painting with a fragment in jeopardy of naturally spalling off in the wall of a rock shelter in the Ẓufār region, in the south of the Sultanate of Oman. Extraction of carbon dioxide (CO2) for radiocarbon dating of the binder in the black pigment of the rock painting specimen was conducted in the plasma oxidation laboratory at the Office of Archeological Studies in Santa Fe, NM. The radiocarbon content was measured on the Swiss ETH-Zürich accelerator mass spectrometer MICADAS. The dates obtained agreed with one another within the statistical uncertainty and the average date of the four samples was 1500 ± 35 radiocarbon years BP. The calendric equivalents of the average date results in calendric calibration date ranges that span the mid-fifth through mid-seventh centuries (440–453 CE, 478–496 CE, and 534–646 CE). This research demonstrates that it is possible to date the black paintings of the Jebel al-Qara' area of Oman; this is the first pictogram that was dated using radiocarbon dating in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2013 fieldwork of the French archaeological mission along the shores of the Arabian Sea, mancala games were discovered on the seashore of Salalah at the site of Ad-Dahariz. They are cup-hole carvings made directly into rock slabs and distributed in six distinct zones of the site. They usually consist of fourteen cup-holes aligned in two lines of seven, two supplementary holes being sometimes present on each side. They are the first of their kind in South Arabia and can be compared to similar configurations of carved games elsewhere in Arabia, such as at Jebel al-Jassasiya, Qatar. This paper presents the potential origins of this game in the region, as well as a plausible dating of their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]