Structural Aging: The Facial Recurve Concept

Cutaneous facial aging is responsible for the increasingly wrinkled and blotchy appearance of the skin, whereas aging of the facial structures is attributed primarily to gravity. This article purports to show, however, that the primary etiology of structural facial aging relates instead to repeated contractions of certain facial mimetic muscles, the age marker fascicules, whereas gravity only secondarily abets an aging process begun by these muscle contractions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has allowed us to study the contrasts in the contour of the facial mimetic muscles and their associated deep and superficial fat pads in patients of different ages. The MRI model shows that the facial mimetic muscles in youth have a curvilinear contour presenting an anterior surface convexity. This curve reflects an underlying fat pad lying deep to these muscles, which acts as an effective mechanical sliding plane. The muscle’s anterior surface convexity constitutes the key evidence supporting the authors’ new aging theory. It is this youthful convexity that dictates a specific characteristic to the muscle contractions conveyed outwardly as youthful facial expression, a specificity of both direction and amplitude of facial mimetic movement. With age, the facial mimetic muscles (specifically, the age marker fascicules), as seen on MRI, gradually straighten and shorten. The authors relate this radiologic end point to multiple repeated muscle contractions over years that both expel underlying deep fat from beneath the muscle plane and increase the muscle resting tone. Hence, over time, structural aging becomes more evident as the facial appearance becomes more rigid.     

Overtriage in trauma – what are the causes?

BACKGROUND: Different criteria are employed to activate trauma teams. Because of a growing concern about overtriage, the objective of this study was to investigate the performance of our trauma team's activation protocol. METHODS: Injured patients with trauma team activation (TTA), admission to an intensive care unit or surgical intermediate care unit with a trauma diagnosis, or trauma-related death in the emergency department were investigated retrospectively from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2005. Different TTA criteria were analysed with respect to sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV) and overtriage (1 - PPV). RESULTS: Eight hundred and nine patients were included, 185 (23%) of whom had an Injury Severity Score (ISS) of more than 15. The performance of our protocol showed a sensitivity of 87%, PPV of 22% and overtriage of 78%. The mechanism of injury as a TTA criterion had a sensitivity of 14%, PPV of 7% and overtriage of 93%. Physiological/anatomical criteria and interfacility transfer showed higher PPV and less overtriage. Undertriage (no TTA despite ISS > 15) was identified in 23 patients (13%), 18 of whom were hospital transfers. CONCLUSION: A TTA protocol based on physiological, anatomical and interfacility transfer criteria seems to yield a higher precision than, in particular, that based on mechanism of injury criteria. Because of substantial overtriage in our hospital, the TTA protocol needs to be re-evaluated.     

程序化流程腹腔镜胰十二指肠切除术的初步探讨

目的评价程序化流程设计进行腹腔镜胰十二指肠切除术(laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy, LPD)的安全性和有效性。 方法选取2016年1月至2017年12月期间在中山大学孙逸仙纪念医院接受LPD且所有临床资料均完整的100例患者的病例资料,包括按照程序化流程进行手术的试验组50例、非程序化流程进行手术的对照组50例,分析两组患者围手术期的各项指标。 结果试验组与对照组患者的术前资料对比,无明显差异(P> 0.05)。相对于对照组,试验组手术时间明显缩短[(256.4 ± 50.64)min vs (298.5±87.23)min]、出血量明显减少[(84.5 ± 32.82)ml vs ( 218.9 ± 88.73)ml](P<0.05);术后并发生症发生率、术后住院时间等比较,未见明显统计学差异(P> 0.05)。 结论经过精准的手术前评估,程序化流程LPD技术可行,并能明显缩短手术时间,近期治疗效果良好。     

成年国人腰椎棘突间区域的X线影像学研究及其临床意义

目的为腰椎棘突间内置物的临床应用提供影像学依据。方法根据正侧位X线片测量360例门诊患者L3－S1段脊柱的棘突间距、棘突顶距、棘突中央高度及棘突厚度,对测量数据行正态性检验和方差分析。数据均在医院PACS系统（Kodak Carestream Diagnostic Workstation软件）上测量,数值精确到0.01 mm。结果①L4/L5的棘突间距比L3/L4和L5/S1小。②棘突顶距自上而下逐渐减小。③棘突厚度无明显差异,大多为7－8 mm。④棘突中央高度从上到下逐渐减小。⑤男性L4/L5的棘突间距比女性大,所有棘突顶距男性均比女性大,男性S1棘突比女性厚,女性的棘突较短。⑥L4,5的棘突厚度年长的比年轻的厚一些。结论通过本研究,在一定程度上提供了国人腰椎棘突间区域的影像学数据,为腰椎棘突间内置物的临床应用提供了影像学基础。     

Does an interspinous device (Coflex?) improve the outcome of decompressive surgery in lumbar spinal stenosis? One-year follow up of a prospective case control study of 60 patients

A number of interspinous process devices have recently been introduced to the lumbar spinal market as an alternative to conventional surgical procedures in the treatment of symptomatic lumbar stenosis. One of those “dynamic” devices is the Coflex™ device which has been already implanted worldwide more than 14,000 times. The aim of implanting this interspinous device is to unload the facet joints, restore foraminal height and provide stability in order to improve the clinical outcome of surgery. Published information is limited, and there are so far no data of comparison between the implant and traditional surgical approaches such as laminotomy. The purpose of our prospective study is to evaluate the surgical outcome of decompressive surgery in comparison to decompressive surgery and additional implantation of the Coflex™ interspinous Device. 60 patients who were all treated in the Spine Center of Klinikum Neustadt, Germany for a one or two level symptomatic LSS with decompressive surgery were included. Two groups were built. In Group one (UD) we treated 30 patients with decompression surgery alone and group two (CO) in 30 patients a Coflex™ device was additional implanted. Pre- and postoperatively disability and pain scores were measured using the Oswestry disability index (ODI), the Roland–Morris score (RMS), the visual analogue scale (VAS) and the pain-free walking distance (WD). Patients underwent postoperative assessments 3, 6 and 12 month including the above-mentioned scores as well as patient satisfaction. In both groups we could see a significant improve (p < 0.001) in the clinical outcome assessed in the ODI, in the RMS for evaluation of back pain, in the VAS and in the pain-free WD at all times of reinvestigation compared to base line. At 1-year follow up there were no statistically differences between both groups in all ascertained parameters including patient satisfaction and subjective operation decision. Because there is no current evidence of the efficacy of the Coflex™ device we need further data from randomized controlled studies for defining the indications for theses procedures. To the best of our knowledge this is the first prospective controlled study which compares surgical decompression of lumbar spinal stenosis with additional implanting of an interspinous Coflex™ device in the treatment of symptomatic LSS.     

Prehospital triage and survival of major trauma patients in a Dutch regional trauma system: relevance of trauma registry

Background and aims Since 1999, the Dutch trauma care has been regionalized into ten trauma systems. This study is the first to review such a trauma system. The aim was to examine the sensitivity of prehospital triage criteria [triage revised trauma score (T-RTS)] in identifying major trauma patients and to evaluate the current level of trauma care of a regionalized Dutch trauma system for major trauma patients.Patients and methods Major trauma patients (n=511) (June 2001–December 2003) were selected from a regional trauma registry database. The prehospital T-RTS was computed and standardized W scores (Ws) were generated to compare observed vs expected survival based on contemporary US- and UK-norm databases.Results The T-RTS showed low sensitivity for the prehospital identification of major trauma patients [34.1% (T-RTS≤10)]. Nevertheless, 78.0% of all major trauma patients were directly managed by the trauma center. These patients were more severely injured than their counterparts at non-trauma-center hospitals (p<0.001). No significant difference emerged between the mortality rates of both groups. The Ws {−0.46 calculated on the US model [95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from −1.99 to 1.07]} [0.60 calculated on the UK model (95% CI ranging from −1.25 to 2.44)] did not differ significantly from zero.Conclusion The trauma center managed most of the major trauma patients in the trauma system but the triage criteria need to be reconsidered. The level of care of the regional trauma system was shown to measure up to US and UK benchmarks.     

Assessment of right ventricular lipomatosis by histomorphometry in control adult autopsy cases

A histomorphometry study was carried out to assess the degree of right ventricular lipomatosis in control autopsy cases and to evaluate if this was correlated with parameters such as sex, age, body mass index (BMI) and heart weight. A total of 70 adult cases were selected from cases of violent death between 1991 and 1999 and where autopsies were carried out in the Department of Pathology and Forensic Medicine in Garches. All cases with heart pathology, abnormal BMI or putrefaction were excluded. Cases with lung or liver pathology were also excluded. Furthermore, 10 adult autopsy cases who died suddenly of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) were compared with 10 age and sex-matched control cases. Details on sex, age, BMI and heart weight were obtained from the post-mortem records. For each case one sample of the right front ventricular wall was fixed in 10% neutral saline-buffered formalin and one 5-μm-section was stained with haematoxylin and eosin. The Leica Quantimet 500 analysis system was used for the histomorphometrical study. The mean degree of lipomatosis was measured under blind conditions in the ventricular wall and epicardial fat was excluded. Covariance analysis and the Wilcoxon test were used for statistics. The mean age of the control population was 37.5 years, the sex ratio was 1.9:1 (male:female). The mean degree of lipomatosis was 17.03% and the degree of lipomatosis was significantly correlated with age (p = 0.0029) but not with sex, BMI and heart weight. There was a statistically significant increase in fat in ARVC cases compared with age and sex-matched controls (p < 0.001). Fat infiltration of the right ventricle could be an adipose involution due to an ageing process and heavy fat infiltration can be difficult to distinguish from ARVC. Our study suggests that fat infiltration is not essential for the post-mortem diagnosis of ARVC which also requires fibrosis and degenerating myocytes trapped within areas of fibrosis. Received: 6 October 2000 / Accepted: 20 March 2001     

寰枢椎椎弓根螺钉固定治疗Jefferson骨折合并齿状突骨折

目的：探讨寰枢椎椎弓根螺钉固定治疗Jefferson骨折合并齿状突骨折的可行性及临床疗效。方法：2002年12月～2006年6月采用后路寰枢椎椎弓根螺钉内固定术治疗Jefferson骨折合并齿状突骨折患者9例，其中男7例，女2例，年龄23～58岁，平均39．6岁；新鲜骨折6例，陈旧性骨折3例；齿状突骨折按Anderson分型：Ⅱ型8例，Ⅲ型1例；术前神经功能JOA评分8～15分，平均10．9分。术前均行X线、螺旋CT等影像学检查及颅骨牵引术：均在全麻直视下行复位、寰枢椎椎弓根螺钉系统固定术。结果：术中无椎动脉、脊髓及神经根损伤发生，7例寰枢椎骨折脱位完全复位，2例不完全复位；术后第3～6天（平均第4天）在颈托保护下离床活动：随访6～24个月。平均15个月，临床症状得到明显改善；手术6个月后复查X线、螺旋CT示所有骨折均呈骨性愈合，螺钉位置良好，无松动、断钉。术后1年神经功能JOA评分13～17分，平均15．9分，平均改善率为85．3％。结论：寰枢椎椎弓根螺钉内固定技术具有直视下置钉、复位，短节段固定、固定可靠及骨愈合率高等特点，为Jefferson骨折合并齿状突骨折患者提供了一种较好的治疗方法。     

CT平扫及三维重建对齿状突合并周围骨折的诊断价值

目的：探讨CT平扫及三维重建对齿状突合并周围骨折的诊断价值。方法：回顾性分析在我院手术治疗的20例新鲜齿状突骨折合并周围骨折患者的X线片及CT平扫和三维重建资料。结果：20例患者术前影像学诊断齿状突合并周围骨折23处．术中另发现5例患者各有1处术前影像资料漏诊的周围骨折，合并存在的周围骨折共28处。其中单凭X线片确诊齿状突骨折5例，检出率25．0％（5/20），合并周围骨折2处，检出率7．1％（2／28）；CT平扫及三维重建确诊齿状突骨折20例，检出率100％（20／20），发现23处周围骨折，检出率82．1％（23/28）。结论：CT平扫及三维重建对齿状突合并周围骨折能作出较全面而准确的诊断，与X线片相比明显提高了骨折的检出率。建议对怀疑有齿状突合并周围骨折的患者进行CT平扫及三维重建检查。