Venous drainage dominance of the dural venous sinuses may be defined as the drainage only or mainly into one of the transverse sinuses, as shown by bilateral carotid angiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the venous drainage dominance in bilateral carotid angiograms of 189 cases retrospectively. Among these cases 41.3% showed drainage mainly to the right side, 37.6% showed equal drainage to each side, 18.5% showed drainage mainly to the left side, 2.1% showed drainage only to the right side and 0.53% showed drainage only to the left side. Cerebral venous drainage dominance is of great importance and should be considered before operations on patients for radical neck dissection, removal of tumors in the neck that invade the internal jugular vein or tumors of the glomus jugulare which may require ligation of the internal jugular vein.

The use of tissue adhesives as an alternative to or replacement for sutures in wound closure has long been an area of interest. One of these tissue adhesives is a cyanoacrylate. In 15 patients, who underwent root resections of the upper incisors on both sides, the incision lines were closed with silk sutures on one side and by n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate on the other side of the frenum. Clinical comparison was made on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21st postoperative days. On the seventh postoperative day following the removal of sutures and the coating, small punch biopsies were obtained from n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate treated and sutured sides. The tissue specimens were examined under transmission electron microscope. Clinical observations revealed that on the third and seventh postoperative days epithelialization was better on the sides treated with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate. On the twenty-first postoperative day it was observed that the scar formation was significantly more marked and there was more local inflammation during the healing period on the sutured side. Electron microscopic observations of both tissue specimens revealed normal ultrastructural morphology.

Skin specimens obtained from rats showed striking differences between the intrauterine and postpartum groups. Moreover, the postpartum group showed considerable intra-group differences.

The synthetic tissue adhesive n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate (Histoacryl Blue) and silk sutures were compared on the backs of guinea-pigs as the means for closing skin incisions. On the post-operative 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21st days, specimens from each group were obtained and evaluated under light microscopy. Sections were analysed for the degree of inflammation, giant cell reaction, fibroblastic and capillary cell activity and were ranked statistically. The results showed that the silk sutures caused severe inflammatory and giant cell reaction when compared with Histoacryl and the healing process was slower than with n-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate.

Objectives: Cyclosporine A (CsA) is a widely used immunosuppressive agent that is implicated in the formation of free oxygen radicals. Melatonin is known to be a free radical scavenger and an antioxidant agent. This study was designed to investigate the effects of melatonin on CsA-induced liver damage by histopathological examination. Materials and Methods: Thirty-two male rats of Sprague-Dawley origin were divided into 4 groups of 8 and treated for 28 days as follows: group 1 received daily doses of 0.1 ml/kg olive oil s.c.; group 2 received 4 mg/kg of melatonin; group 3 received 10 mg/kg CsA diluted in 0.1 ml/kg olive oil; group 4 was treated with 4 mg/kg melatonin i.p. and 10 mg/kg CsA s.c. Finally, the rats were sacrificed by terminal anesthesia, and liver tissue specimens were processed for light microscopy, stained with HE and examined under a light microscope. Results: Specimens of the control group showed normal liver histology, whereas group 3 showed major histopathological changes, such as cytoplasmic vacuolization, dilatation of the sinusoids, apoptosis and many mitotic figures. In group 4, the normal histology of the liver was preserved, although apoptosis, mitotic figures and cytoplasmic vacuolization were still infrequently observed. Nevertheless, there were significant differences between group 2 (melatonin) and group 3 (CsA) and between group 3 (CsA) and group 4 (CsA + melatonin) concerning these 3 parameters (vacuolization, sinusoidal dilatation and apoptosis). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that CsA-related liver toxicity in rats could be significantly reduced by melatonin administration.