Unusual Idiopathic Calcinosis Cutis Universalis in a Child.

Calcinosis cutis is an uncommon disorder characterized by the progressive deposition of crystals of calcium phosphate (hydroxyapatite) in the skin in various areas of the body. It is classified into four types according to etiology, namely as dystrophic if calcium and phosphorus levels are normal and tissue damage is present, as idiopathic if calcium and phosphorus levels are normal and no tissue damage is present, or as metastatic if there is hypercalcemia or hyperphosphatemia. Medical and surgical treatments are options to cure calcinosis cutis.

Median artery arising from the radial artery: its significance during harvest of a radial forearm free flap.

Variations in the radial arterial system, although rare, may still be encountered during harvest of a radial forearm flap. The reconstructive surgeon should be aware of these possible variations as some may significantly affect the harvest, jeopardising the survival of the radial forearm flap as well as causing ischaemia in the hand. We present a case with coexisting anomalies of the radial arterial system encountered during the harvest of the radial forearm flap, which has never before been described in the reconstructive surgery literature.

Upper extremity salvage with a flow-through free flap.

In complex extremity injuries, which include composite tissue lost with devascularization caused by segmental vascular damage, simultaneous coverage of the defects with revascularizations should be required. One-stage reconstruction of both soft tissue coverage and vascular damage can be performed by a flow-through-type free flap. In this series, 5 patients between 13 and 36 years of age with wide composite tissue defects in the cubital region and segmental defects in brachial arteries were operated at our clinic between 1996 and 2003.

Coverage of scalp defects following contact electrical burns to the head: a clinical series.

Fifteen patients with various scalp defects resulting from contact electrical burns to the head, were reconstructed between the periods of January 1989 and October 2004 in our burns unit. The incidence of scalp burns in our patient population was 2.99% for electrical injuries and 0.

Reconstruction of deep cubital fossa defects with exposure of brachial artery due to high tension electrical burns and treatment algorithm.

In this paper, we selected eight patients who had cubital fossa electrical burns with exposure or damage of the brachial artery, during the period 2000 to 2004 and formulated an algorithm to salvage upper limbs. We demonstrated the effectiveness of the algorithm to rescue the extremity from amputation and to restore the functional ability combined with coverage of the defects. After initial management with decompression and debridement of the nonviable tissues surrounding the brachial artery, we used local fasciocutaneous flaps or pedicled latissimus dorsi (LD) muscle/musculocutaneous flaps immediately to cover and also to avoid the perforation of this artery with a mean of 5.