Emergency department presentations with mammalian bite injuries: risk factors for admission and surgery.

Objectives: The incidence of animal bite injuries in Australia is high. There is currently no established method for reliably predicting whether a patient with a bite injury will require admission to hospital or surgery.

Design: A retrospective audit of mammalian bite injuries at seven major hospitals in Melbourne, Victoria, over a 2-year period.

The functional free innervated medial gastrocnemius flap.

Background: The functional free innervated medial gastrocnemius flap has been described in four previous articles for the management of foot drop, Volkmann contracture, and upper limb muscle defects. We expand the indications by describing the use of free innervated medial gastrocnemius musculocutaneous flap in functional reconstruction of the tongue and upper limb musculature.

Methods: The right medial gastrocnemius muscles were raised as myocutaneous flaps in six patients.

The arterial supply of the cervical and thoracic spinal muscles and overlying skin: Anatomical study with implications for surgical wound complications.

Postoperative spinal wound dehiscence is a significant complication following the posterior midline approach. It is postulated that this approach disrupts the vasculature supplying the paraspinal muscles and overlying skin. Although the spinal vasculature has been investigated previously, the smaller arterioles have not been described in the context of the posterior midline approach.