Horizontal advancement flap for lateral dorsal nasal defects

BACKGROUND: Repairing dorsal nasal defects is a frequent challenge for dermatologic surgeons, mainly due to the high frequency of basal cell carcinomas on this site. Obvious scars, mismatched skin and distortion of the nasal contour are the surgical hazards that must be avoided in these cases. AIM: Our aim was to perform surgery involving a simple flap in order to repair medium to large defects on the dorsal side of the nose. METHODS: The dorsal horizontal advancement flap was studied in 12 patients, in order to evaluate the benefits and limits of this surgical procedure. RESULTS: The resulting scars on most of our patients were well-camouflaged among their natural skin lines, and there was neither distortion of the alar contour nor the nostril. CONCLUSIONS: This flap is easy to perform and, in selected cases, provides an outstanding alternative to second-intention healing, full-thickness skin grafts, transposition, rotation and pedicle flaps.     

Clinicians' routine use of non-disclosure: prioritizing "protection" over the information needs of adolescents with cancer.

This is a qualitative study of clinicians' use of partial information disclosure and its consequences for adolescents' ability to participate in the management of their cancer treatment. A total of 17 pediatric cancer patients, their families, and clinicians were observed during 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Eighty-six hours of videotaped medical and social activities were analyzed micro-interactionally and longitudinally. Clinicians used 4 strategies to evade direct answers to adolescents' questions: contingent answers, narrow answers, non-answer responses, and question forestalling. Information withholding by clinicians was shown to greatly limit adolescents' ability to participate in the management of their treatment and to be ineffective in its implicit goals of protecting the patient and containing uncertainty and anxiety. The author concludes that if clinicians were to integrate adolescents' individual information needs into their communicative practices they would be able to better assess what information to disclose as well as how and when to disclose it.     

Laboratory investigation: Effects of propofol on the systemic inflammatory response during aortic surgery

PURPOSE: A laboratory investigation was undertaken to assess the effects of propofol on renal function, through modulation of the systemic inflammatory response, in an in vivo experimental model of aortic surgery in comparison with sevoflurane. METHODS: Twenty young male piglets were anesthetized with either propofol 4 mg.kg(-1).hr(-1) (n = 10) or sevoflurane 1.5% end-tidal concentration (n = 10). Animals were subjected to aorta-aortic bypass with suprarenal aortic clamping for 30 min. At specific intervals (basal -before the start of surgery; reperfusion 15 min after unclamping the aorta; at 24, 48 and 72 hr after surgery, and on the seventh day after surgery) the levels of the following were determined: plasma creatinine, renal myeloperoxidase, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin 1-ss, and interferon-gamma; kidney superoxide anion and its detoxifying enzyme superoxidase dismutase, kidney malondialdehyde and the activity of inducible nitric oxide synthase. Seven days after surgery, the animals were anesthetized using the described techniques, and after blood withdrawal and kidney sampling they were sacrificed. RESULTS: In comparison with sevoflurane, propofol was associated with a lower concentration of plasma creatinine (P < 0.05) together with lower concentrations of myeloperoxidase, tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin 1-ss, interferon-gamma, superoxide anion and superoxidase dismutase, malondialdehyde and inducible nitric oxide synthase (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: In an experimental model of aortic reconstructive surgery, and compared with sevoflurane, propofol anesthesia is associated with less neutrophil infiltration, lower plasma proinflammatory cytokine levels, lower production of oxygen free radicals, less lipid peroxidation, and reduced inducible nitric oxide synthase activity. These observations suggest a possible renal protective effect of propofol in this surgical setting.     

Acute subcortical stroke and early serotonergic modification: a IDAP study

The intensity dependence of the auditory-evoked potentials (IDAP) is inversely related to serotonergic tone. Depression is frequently observed after stroke, associated with cognitive impairment and increased mortality. Aim of this study was to investigate the serotonergic tone in acute stroke patients by IDAP. Consecutive patients with an acute stroke admitted in our stroke unit were evaluated using clinical and instrumental examinations and compared with healthy controls. The IDAP was calculated as the linear amplitude/stimulus intensity function (ASF) slope, by measuring the peak-to-peak amplitude of Nl-P2 on four blocks of different stimulus intensities. Twenty patients were enrolled; 11 had a right brain infarction; nine had depressive symptoms (DS). The ASF slope of the auditory-evoked potentials was markedly increased in stroke patients compared with controls ( P  = 0.021). Stroke patients with DS had a significant steeper ASF slope than controls ( P  = 0.017). There was no statistical difference in ASF slope between stroke patients without DS and controls. Post-stroke depression pathophysiology is still debated. Our study suggests that in acute stroke patients with DS, there is a direct involvement of the serotonergic system, regardless the degree of disability and the site of the lesion.     

Bacterial lipase and high-fat diets in canine exocrine pancreatic insufficiency: A new therapy of steatorrhea?

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Nutrients and properties of lipases affect survival of lipolytic activity during aboral gastrointestinal transit. Whether different doses and formulations of bacterial lipase and diets affect steatorrhea was tested in pancreatic-insufficient dogs. METHODS: A dose of 0-600,000 IU of powdered and 135,000 and 300,000 IU of liquid bacterial lipase was given with a standard meal to 5 dogs with ligated pancreatic ducts. In 4 dogs, 0 or 300,000 IU (normal 6-hour postprandial amount) of powder bacterial lipase was also given with five meals containing 850 kcal with different nutrient caloric densities (mixture design). Coefficients of fat absorption during 72- hour fecal balance studies were used to assess treatments. RESULTS: With the standard meal, powder bacterial lipase reduced steatorrhea in a dose-dependent manner (P = 0.03), and 135,000 and 300,000 IU of the liquid form decreased steatorrhea more than powder bacterial lipase (P = 0.017 and 0.057, respectively). Coefficients of fat absorption with 300,000 IU of powder bacterial lipase correlated (r2 = 0.79; P < 0.001) with increasing proportions of fat calories in diets. CONCLUSIONS: Liquid bacterial lipase decreases steatorrhea more than powder, and 300,000 IU of powder bacterial lipase ingested with high-fat meals corrects canine pancreatic steatorrhea. The combination of adequate mixing of small amounts (milligrams) of bacterial lipase and high-fat meals abolishes canine steatorrhea and may abolish human pancreatic steatorrhea. (Gastroenterology 1997 Jun;112(6):2048-55)     

S-nitrosoglutathione-containing hydrogel accelerates rat cutaneous wound repair

BACKGROUND: Nitric oxide (NO) plays a key role in wound repair and S-nitrosothiols like S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) are well known NO donors. METHODS: Animals were separated in two groups and submitted to excisional wounds on the dorsal surface at the first day. GSNO (100 microm)-containing hydrogels were topically applied on the wound bed in the GSNO group, daily, during the first 4 days. Control group was topically treated with hydrogel without GSNO for the same period. Wound contraction and re-epithelialization were measured. Animals were sacrificed 21 days after wounding. Samples of lesion and normal tissue were formalin-fixed, paraffin embedded for histological analysis. RESULTS: Wound contraction, measured 14 and 21 days after wounding, was greater in the GSNO group than in the control group (P<0.05 for both). The re-epithelialized wound area, measured 14 days after wounding, was higher in the GSNO group than in the control group (P<0.05). A higher amount of inflammatory cells was observed in superficial and deep areas of the granulation tissue of the control group compared to the GSNO group. Twenty-one days after wounding, thin red-yellow collagen fibers arranged perpendicularly to the surface were found in the granulation tissue of the control group, whereas in the GSNO-treated group collagen fibers were thicker and arranged parallel to the surface. Increased number of mast cells was observed in the GSNO group compared with that in the control group. Vascularization and myofibroblast distribution were similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: Topical application of GSNO-containing hydrogel during the early phases of rat cutaneous wound repair accelerates wound closure and re-epithelialization and affects granulation tissue organization.     

Transfection of pancreatic acinar cells (AR4-2J) by bFGF modifies cell morphology and biosynthesis of pancreatic secretory enzymes]

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF or FGF-2) is present in the basal membrane of pancreatic cells during the pancreatic embryonic development. The expression of bFGF receptors has been described in normal pancreatic cells. By contrast, pancreatic cancer cells express not only the bFGF receptors but also the bFGF itself. With the aim of understanding the effects induced by the production of bFGF by pancreatic cancer cells, the pancreatic acinar cell line (AR4-2J) was used. AR4-2J cells do not produce bFGF but express bFGF receptors. These cells were transfected with a vector containing the bFGF cDNA encoding the three different forms of bFGF characterized in tumor cells. Results showed that the bFGF expression induced important phenotypic and enzymatic modifications. The transfected cells lost some morphological features of the acinar cells and expressed amylase and lipase at low levels (a 90% decrease for amylase activity, whereas lipase activity was barely detectable). These results suggest that bFGF could be involved in maintaining pancreatic cells in a slightly differentiated state.