May 12th, 2022 - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common interstitial lung disease. Although the cause of IPF is unknown, factors thought to increase an individual's risk of developing IPF include a history of smoking, gastroesophageal reflux disease, environmental exposures, and genetic predispositions. Patients with IPF present with fatigue, dry cough, and progressive respiratory distress of mo...

May 4th, 2022 - Mitral valve (MV) repair is a well-accepted surgical approach for infective endocarditis (IE). In our hospital, extensive MV reconstruction with fresh autologous pericardium (AP) and artificial chordae (AC) has been performed for patients with profoundly extensive and destructive IE in which valve reconstruction would be extremely challenging, especially in young patients to avoid mechanical va...

May 3rd, 2022 - By Reuters Staff NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among kidney-transplant recipients, two doses of an mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine will lower the risk for infection, although perhaps not as much compared with the general population, according to a study from the Czech Republic. Kidney-transplant recipients are considered particularly vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 and the real-world protection provided by SARS...

May 3rd, 2022 - The study covered in this summary was published on researchsquare.com as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed. Key Takeaway Donor hematopoietic stem cell infusions (DSIs) improve the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy and overall survival for patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who initially respond to the therapy after allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplant has...

Mar 31st, 2022 - Femoral neck fractures in young patients are mostly caused by high-energy trauma and demonstrate more displacement and vertical fracture surfaces, which increase nonunion and osteonecrosis risks. Free vascularized fibula graft (FVFG) is effective in treating old femoral neck fractures and nonunion; however, available data are limited to patients within 2 years after injury or revision surgery. ...

Mar 29th, 2022 - Reduced-intensity conditioned allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) yielded "better than expected" survival outcomes for adults with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in first complete remission, a prospective British trial found. In the study of nearly 250 older adults, reduced-intensity conditioned HSCT with fludarabine, melphalan, and alemtuzumab resulted in ev...

Mar 15th, 2022 - The buccal fat flap is an encapsulated mass originating from a specific fat tissue that is easily accessed and richly vascularized. The aim of this study was to report the effect of using the buccal fat flap on the oronasal fistula rate in primary palatoplasty. A case-controlled study of 94 patients who underwent primary cleft palate repair. Patients were divided into two groups: (1) two-flap p...

Mar 13th, 2022 - Anterior debridement, decompression, bone grafting, and instrumentation are safe and effective techniques for patients with lower cervical spine tuberculosis. However, there is no consensus regarding the methods for using autogenous bone grafts. The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare the clinical outcomes of anterior surgical management for cervical spine tuberculosis by using a...

Mar 10th, 2022 - Respiratory and survival outcomes in the year after receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) for severe COVID-19 were excellent in a highly selected group treated at one New York City hospital early in the pandemic. Of 30 such patients who underwent venovenous (VV) ECMO from March 10 to May 1, 2020 after conventional mechanical ventilation failed, 27 (90%) survived to discharge and ...

Mar 9th, 2022 - Angiosarcoma is a rare subtype of malignant vascular tumours which has been only anecdotally described in patients submitted to lower limb revascularization. This paper reports a patient previously submitted to a femoropopliteal bypass using autologous great saphenous vein (GSV). Nine years after the initial surgery, a primary angiosarcoma of the thrombosed vein graft was diagnosed, requiring e...

Mar 7th, 2022 - Reconstruction of large tibial defects is often a major challenge in limb salvage. This study aimed to evaluate initial follow-up results of ipsilateral fibula transfer for the treatment of large tibial defects in children. A retrospective study was performed between September 2014 and April 2021. Ten children were identified as having large tibial defects. The children underwent ipsilateral fi...

Mar 4th, 2022 - Pediatric reconstruction of lateral malleolus was necessary and challengeable. Up to now, vascularized fibular was the optimal graft to reconstruct epiphyseal defection. However, the sophisticated microvascular operation has limited the wide application of this technique. We present the case of a 9-year-old boy with Ewing sarcoma in left distal fibula. In order to restore the growth capacity, w...

Feb 28th, 2022 - Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a connective tissue disorder characterized by skin hyperextensibility, joint hypermobility, and tissue friability. Hypermobile type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) is considered one of the EDS subtypes characterized by generalized joint hypermobility. Although there have been a few case reports which described surgical considerations for anterior cruciate ligament ...

Feb 25th, 2022 - Leukotrichia is one of the difficulties of vitiligo treatment. Hair follicle transplantation is an efficient method to treat vitiligo-associated leukotrichia. A trichiasis electrolyzer, commonly used for treating trichiasis, can be used to damage and remove the depigmented hair follicles. To evaluate the efficacy of the electrolysis of depigmented hair using a trichiasis electrolyzer combined w...

Feb 24th, 2022 - Vascularized lymph node transplantation is a surgical approach for the treatment of chronic lymphedema. However, there is no clinical standard for flap placement nor vascular anastomoses. The authors propose a novel flowthrough configuration for an omental vascularized lymph node transplant in the popliteal space. To prepare the popliteal space for an omental free flap, the medial popliteal fat...

Feb 20th, 2022 - Post-traumatic syringomyelia (PTS) affects patients with chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) and is characterized by progressive deterioration of neurological symptoms. To improve surgical treatment, we studied the therapeutic effects of neuroepithelial-like stem cells (NESCs) derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in a rat model of PTS. To facilitate clinical translation, we studied ...

Feb 11th, 2022 - BATF3-deficient mice that lack CD8+ dendritic cells (DCs) showed an exacerbation of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), including T follicular helper (Tfh) cell and autoantibody responses, whereas mice carrying the Sle2c2 lupus-suppressive locus with a mutation in the G-CSFR showed an expansion of CD8+ DCs and a poor mobilization of plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) and responded poorly to cGVHD i...

Jan 31st, 2022 - Adoptive immunotherapy (AIT) using autologous zoledronate-activated killer (ZAK) cells has been performed for developing a novel modality of cancer treatment. In this study, data series from incurable pancreatic cancer were analyzed. Patients were treated with AIT using intravenous administration of ZAK cells every 3 to 4 weeks in combination with standard chemotherapy and possible clinical ben...

Jan 27th, 2022 - Three doses of mRNA vaccine was effective against severe COVID-19 for both immunocompetent and immunocompromised adults during the Delta wave, researchers found. From Aug. to Dec. 15, 2021, vaccine effectiveness (VE) against COVID-related hospitalization was 97% (95% CI 95-99) for immunocompetent adults who received a two-dose Pfizer or Moderna series followed by a booster dose and 88% (95% CI ...

Jan 18th, 2022 - The purpose of this article was to describe a modification to the traditional Gundersen flap technique that expands eligible eyes to include those with severe conjunctival scarring and to report results from a clinical case. A 68-year-old woman with a history of herpes simplex keratitis, multiple failed penetrating keratoplasties, lagophthalmos, persistent epithelial defect, and low visual pote...