Using a muscle pump activator device to stimulate healing for non-healing lower leg wounds in long-term care residents.

Chronic non-healing wounds are a burden in the Long-Term Care (LTC) sector, increasing costs, morbidity, and mortality and causing pain and suffering. The objective of this LTC Innovation pilot was to test the value of a promising new neuromuscular stimulation device in elevating the experience and satisfaction of the residents, engaging and empowering the nursing staff, and improving healing and/or reducing costs. Small, wireless, and worn at the knee, this muscle pump activator is self-contained, wearable, and battery-powered to increase lower-leg blood circulation (up to 60% of that achieved by walking).

Enhanced cell volume regulation: a key mechanism in local and remote ischemic preconditioning.

We have previously shown that ischemic preconditioning (IPC) protection against necrosis in whole hearts and in both fresh and cultured cardiomyocytes, as well as the improved regulatory volume decrease to hypoosmotic swelling in cardiomyocytes, is abrogated through Cl(-) channel blockade, pointing to a role for enhanced cell volume regulation in IPC. To further define this cardioprotective mechanism, cultured rabbit ventricular cardiomyocytes were preconditioned either by 10-min simulated ischemia (SI) followed by 10-min simulated reperfusion (SR), by 10-min exposure/10-min washout of remote IPC (rIPC) plasma dialysate (from rabbits subjected to repetitive limb ischemia), or by adenoviral transfection with the constitutively active PKC-ε gene. These interventions were done before cardiomyocytes were subjected to either 60- or 75-min SI/60-min SR to assess cell necrosis (by trypan blue staining), 30-min SI to assess ischemic cell swelling, or 30-min hypoosmotic (200 mosM) stress to assess cell volume regulation.

Utilizing the Canadian Emergency Department Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS) in an oncology urgent care clinic: the university health network experience.

The Canadian Triage Acuity Score (CTAS) is a validated triage method used in Canadian emergency departments (ED) that groups patients according to severity of presenting illness (CIHI, 2005). According to Tanabe, Gimbel, Yarnold and Adams (2004), five-level triage systems can be utilized in order to benchmark with similar programs. CTAS, a five-level triage system, can also be used as an instrument to determine triage quality and to predict admission rates, hospital length of stay and diagnostic utilization (Jiminez et al.

What should define a "perforator flap"?

In spite of the Gent consensus on perforator flap terminology, widespread confusion still exists regarding the true description of these flaps, making it hard to understand these surgical procedures in comparison with conventional flap techniques. The value of perforator flaps can be better understood by further clarifying certain aspects of previous descriptions. The authors would like to propose enriching the standard Gent nomenclature with optional terms that specify additional aspects of the perforator flap such as including the vessel of origin, the type of vascular dissection, the muscle involved, and the type of perforator vessel.

[Description of an original conservative method for the surgical management of the Blauth IIIb thumb hypoplasia: "relative lengthening - thumb stabilization"].

Problematic: Thumb hypoplasia is a rare congenital hand disorder. Despite the recent clarifications concerning many surgical indications, dealing with Blauth IIIb type remains a polemic subject. We hereby suggest "The relative lengthening - thumb stabilization", an original and simple conservative surgery technique for the Blauth IIIb type, in order to satisfy parents and big kids requests of a "five fingered hand".