A Novel Minimally Invasive Surgically Induced Skeletal Muscle Injury Model in Sheep.

Sports-related muscle injuries account for 10-55% of all injuries, which is a growing concern, especially given the aging world population. To evaluate the process of skeletal muscle injury and compare it with muscle lesions observed in humans, we developed a novel in vivo model in sheep. In this model, muscle injury was induced by an ultrasound-guided transverse biopsy at the myotendinous junction of the medial gastrocnemius muscle.

Maternal anaesthesia in open and fetoscopic surgery of foetal open spinal neural tube defects: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Prenatal myelomeningocele repair by open surgery can improve the neurological prognosis of children with this condition. A shift towards a fetoscopic approach seems to reduce maternal risks and improve obstetric outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to report on the anaesthetic management of women undergoing prenatal open or fetoscopic surgery for neural tube defects.

Isolation, characterization, and differentiation of multipotent neural progenitor cells from human cerebrospinal fluid in fetal cystic myelomeningocele.

Despite benefits of prenatal in utero repair of myelomeningocele, a severe type of spina bifida aperta, many of these patients will still suffer mild to severe impairment. One potential source of stem cells for new regenerative medicine-based therapeutic approaches for spinal cord injury repair is neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). To this aim, we extracted CSF from the cyst surrounding the exposed neural placode during the surgical repair of myelomeningocele in 6 fetuses (20 to 26weeks of gestation).

The quantitative lung index and the prediction of survival in fetuses with congenital diaphragmatic hernia.

Introduction: The lung-to-head ratio (LHR) is routinely used to select the best candidates for prenatal surgery and to follow-up the fetuses with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). Since this index is gestation-dependent, the quantitative lung index (QLI) was proposed as an alternative parameter that stays constant throughout pregnancy. Our objective was to study the performance of QLI to predict survival in fetuses with CDH.