The First Incision

What if you loved someone so much that you were willing to do anything for them? It is a question Todd Williams never expected to have to answer. Then one night Matthew Eliot, the man Todd has had his eye on, doesn't come home from work. After that, Todd finds the question posed to him at every turn down the path he follows to try and find Matthew.The people that took Matthew don't like it when folks get in their way and Todd is definitely in the way. They might think Todd will be easily dispatched, but they don't know the full truth of what they're dealing with. Todd is a breed apart; he's a serial killer, he's smart and his motivations are not what any sane person would expect. Todd uses that to his advantage and cuts a path through his adversaries in the name of reaching his goal.As the stakes rise, so does the possibility that Todd might not make it out of this alive. One thing remains crystal clear: He will have Matthew Eliot back and he doesn't care how many corpses he has to walk over to get to him.

Confronted with worldwide evidence of substantial public health harm due to inadequate patient safety, the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2002 adopted a resolution (WHA55.18) urging countries to strengthen the safety of health care and monitoring systems. The resolution also requested that WHO take a lead in setting global norms and standards and supporting country efforts in preparing patient safety policies and practices. In May 2004, the WHA approved the creation of an international alliance to improve patient safety globally; WHO Patient Safety was launched the following October. For the first time, heads of agencies, policy-makers and patient groups from around the world came together to advance attainment of the goal of "First, do no harm" and to reduce the adverse consequences of unsafe health care. The purpose of WHO Patient Safety is to facilitate patient safety policy and practice. It is concentrating its actions on focused safety campaigns called Global Patient Safety Challenges, coordinating Patients for Patient Safety, developing a standard taxonomy, designing tools for research policy and assessment, identifying solutions for patient safety, and developing reporting and learning initiatives aimed at producing 'best practice' guidelines. Together these efforts could save millions of lives by improving basic health care and halting the diversion of resources from other productive uses. The Global Patient Safety Challenge, brings together the expertise of specialists to improve the safety of care. The area chosen for the first Challenge in 2005-2006, was infection associated with health care. This campaign established simple, clear standards for hand hygiene, an educational campaign and WHO's first Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care. The problem area selected for the second Global Patient Safety Challenge, in 2007-2008, was the safety of surgical care. Preparation of these Guidelines for Safe Surgery followed the steps recommended by WHO. The groundwork for the project began in autumn 2006 and included an international consultation meeting held in January 2007 attended by experts from around the world. Following this meeting, expert working groups were created to systematically review the available scientific evidence, to write the guidelines document and to facilitate discussion among the working group members in order to formulate the recommendations. A steering group consisting of the Programme Lead, project team members and the chairs of the four working groups, signed off on the content and recommendations in the guidelines document. Nearly 100 international experts contributed to the document (see end). The guidelines were pilot tested in each of the six WHO regions--an essential part of the Challenge--to obtain local information on the resources required to comply with the recommendations and information on the feasibility, validity, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the interventions.

Primary knee arthroplasty (PKA) has a long history and modern mobile bearing knee implants are successfully implanted worldwide since 1977. Primary Knee Arthroplasty focuses on basic science, personal surgical experiences, clinical, functional and radiographic outcomes of PKA, with special focus on challenging knees such as severe varus and valgus deformities with associated bone defects, fixed flexion deformities, soft tissue contractures, and arthrodesed knees. Patella treatment with or without resurfacing is addressed in great detail. Early criterion-based rehabilitation and the patient’s return to participating in sports are discussed as is the management of prosthetic or surgery related complications. Lavishly illustrated to complement the text, Primary Knee Arthroplasty is a ‘must-have’ for all practicing knee replacement surgeons, orthopedic surgeons in training, orthopedic nurses, and physiotherapists with a special interest in knee arthroplasty. Tips and tricks provided by experienced knee surgeons are indispensable for daily clinical practice.

In 1786, Guatemalan priest Pedro José de Arrese published a work instructing readers on their duty to perform the cesarean operation on the bodies of recently deceased pregnant women in order to extract the fetus while it was still alive. Although the fetus’s long-term survival was desired, the overarching goal was to cleanse the unborn child of original sin and ensure its place in heaven. Baptism Through Incision presents Arrese’s complete treatise—translated here into English for the first time—with a critical introduction and excerpts from related primary source texts. Inspired by priests’ writings published in Spain and Sicily beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, Arrese and writers like him in Peru, Mexico, Alta California, Guatemala, and the Philippines penned local medico-religious manuals and guides for performing the operation and baptism. Comparing these texts to one another and placing them in dialogue with archival cases and print culture references, this book traces the genealogy of the postmortem cesarean operation throughout the Spanish Empire and reconstructs the transatlantic circulation of obstetrical and scientific knowledge around childbirth and reproduction. In doing so, it shows that knowledge about cesarean operations and fetal baptism intersected with local beliefs and quickly became part of the new ideas and scientific-medical advancements circulating broadly among transatlantic Enlightenment cultures. A valuable resource for scholars and students of colonial Latin American history, the history of medicine, and the history of women, reproduction, and childbirth, Baptism Through Incision includes translated excerpts of works by Spanish surgeon Jaime Alcalá y Martínez, Mexican physician Ignacio Segura, and Peruvian friar Francisco González Laguna, as well as late colonial Guatemalan instructions, and newspaper articles published in the Gazeta de México, the Gazeta de Guatemala, and the Mercurio Peruano.

Dentistry has been undergoing enormous changes, and the field of endodontics has certainly been at the forefront. Recent advances in technology, materials, and equipment have changed the way endodontics is practiced today, thereby facilitating treatments with greater efficiency, precision, and success, ultimately leading to better outcomes. Current Therapy in Endodontics encompasses the recent discoveries and applications for this field in one clinically relevant volume. Evidence-based presentation of recent advances in the field of endodontics Objective comparison of materials and instruments on the market Tables present key data and instruction for quick viewing and comprehension

This handbook covers the technical, social and cultural history of surgery. It reflects the state of the art and suggests directions for future research. It discusses what is different and specific about the history of surgery - a manual activity with a direct impact on the patient’s body. The individual entries in the handbook function as starting points for anyone who wants to obtain up-to-date information about an area in the history of surgery for purposes of research or for general orientation. Written by 26 experts from 6 countries, the chapters discuss the essential topics of the field (such as anaesthesia, wound infection, instruments, specialization), specific domains areas (for example, cancer surgery, transplants, animals, war), but also innovative themes (women, popular culture, nursing, clinical trials) and make connections to other areas of historical research (such as the history of emotions, art, architecture, colonial history). Chapters 16 and 18 of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com