Assessment of the impact of multiple mild-steam decontaminations on the protection performance of disposable KN95 filtering facepiece respirators

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous supply bottlenecks of single-use filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) leading to a growing need for a potential reuse. This study assesses the impact of multiple mild-steam decontaminations with 121 °C/2000 mbar/20 min on the protection performance of disposable FFRs. It focuses on FFRs of type KN95 that is recently dominating the markets, but its decontamination is not covered in the literature. It was found that up to ten cycles, only minor degradation in the filter efficiency, breathing resistance and none in the material structure is apparent, suggesting a potential for multiple decontamination cycles at almost unchanged protective properties of KN95 FFRs.

[Importance of computerized tomography in staging bladder tumors]

As an additional diagnostic part CT has been applied to 53 patients suffering from urinary bladder tumors and treated in the Urological Department of Detmold Hospital. In cases of small papillary, apparently clinically not invasive urinary bladder tumor, the application of CT is not indicated for staging. Additional information with respect to invasively growing bladder tumors, however, can be provided.

[Inverted urothelial papilloma]

A case of an inverted urothelial papilloma is presented and the cases published so far are summarized. As it easily can be mixed up with a transitional cell carcinoma, the cystoscopic appearance and the histology are of special importance. To know the microscopic pattern and the clinical parameter is mandatory for urologist and pathologist, since the prognosis of the inverted urothelial papilloma following endoscopic resection seems to be very good. In case of obstructive symptoms, as seen in prostatic hypertrophy, an inverted papilloma should be considered.

[Leiomyosarcoma--a rare malignant renal neoplasm (author's transl)]

Leiomyosarcomas are extremely rare renal tumors. As to symptoms, they do not differ from other malignant neoplasms of the kidney. In one case diagnosis revealed a sclerosed tumorous necrosis. Therapeutically, it is also in leiomyosarcoma that surgery is the approach of choice since other methods of treatment failed to show significant advantages. Bearing in mind the more fulminant growth of sarcomas, the prognosis is in general poorer than with the remaining malignant renal neoplasms.