Characterizing long-term outcomes following AMA discharges after assault-related penetrating trauma.

Background: Patients discharged against medical advice do not receive adequate treatment and have a greater risk of readmission. This study assessed the rate of discharges against medical advice following assault-related penetrating trauma, with secondary aims to evaluate long term pre/post-injury hospitalizations and mortality.

Methods: Adult assault-related penetrating injuries admitted to a Level 1 Trauma Center were identified in the prospectively maintained database.

Pooled Analysis of Trauma Centers Better Predicts Risk Factors for Firearm Violence Reinjury.

Introduction: Many trauma centers use the first firearm injury admission as a reachable moment to mitigate reinjury. Understanding repeat firearm violence can be difficult in metropolitan areas with multiple trauma centers and laws that prohibit sharing private health information across health systems. We hypothesized that risk factors for repeat firearm violence could be better understood using pooled data from two major metropolitan trauma centers.

Firearm injury survival is only the beginning: The impact of socioeconomic factors on unplanned readmission after injury.

Background: Firearm trauma remain a national crisis disproportionally impacting minority populations in the United States. Risk factors leading to unplanned readmission after firearm injury remain unclear. We hypothesized that socioeconomic factors have a major impact on unplanned readmission following assault-related firearm injury.

Burden of unintentional pediatric firearm injury: An examination of the Nationwide Readmission Database.

Background: Significant increases in firearm-related mortality in the US pediatric population drive an urgent need to study these injuries to drive prevention policies. The purpose of this study was (1) to characterize those with and without readmissions, (2) to identify risk factors for 90-day unplanned readmission, and (3) to examine reasons for hospital readmission.

Methods: The 2016-2019 Nationwide Readmission Database of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project was used to identify hospital admissions with unintentional firearm injury in patients younger than 18 years.

Comparing Firearm and Stabbing Injuries in the Pediatric Trauma Population Using Propensity Matching.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare differences in mortality and nonhome discharge in pediatric patients with firearm and stab injuries, while minimizing bias. Our secondary objective was to assess the influence of insurance on these same outcomes.

Methods: Patients aged 0 to 17 years included in the National Trauma Data Bank (2007-2015) with firearm and stabbing injury were matched by propensity score.

Severe Hypothermia and Frostbite Requiring ECMO and Four Limb Amputations.

Severe hypothermia and frostbite can result in significant morbidity and mortality. We present a case of a patient with severe hypothermia and frostbite due to cold exposure after a snowmobile crash. He presented in cardiac arrest with a core temperature of 19°C requiring prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation, active internal rewarming, venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and subsequently amputations of all four extremities.

Guidance of Axons by Local Coupling of Retrograde Flow to Point Contact Adhesions.

Unlabelled: Growth cones interact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) through integrin receptors at adhesion sites termed point contacts. Point contact adhesions link ECM proteins to the actin cytoskeleton through numerous adaptor and signaling proteins. One presumed function of growth cone point contacts is to restrain or "clutch" myosin-II-based filamentous actin (F-actin) retrograde flow (RF) to promote leading edge membrane protrusion.

Current state of virtual reality simulation in robotic surgery training: a review.

Background: Worldwide, the annual number of robotic surgical procedures continues to increase. Robotic surgical skills are unique from those used in either open or laparoscopic surgery. The acquisition of a basic robotic surgical skill set may be best accomplished in the simulation laboratory.

Synaptic regulation of microtubule dynamics in dendritic spines by calcium, F-actin, and drebrin.

Dendritic spines are actin-rich compartments that protrude from the microtubule-rich dendritic shafts of principal neurons. Spines contain receptors and postsynaptic machinery for receiving the majority of glutamatergic inputs. Recent studies have shown that microtubules polymerize from dendritic shafts into spines and that signaling through synaptic NMDA receptors regulates this process.

CIP4 coordinates with phospholipids and actin-associated proteins to localize to the protruding edge and produce actin ribs and veils.

Cdc42-interacting protein 4 (CIP4), a member of the F-BAR family of proteins, plays important roles in a variety of cellular events by regulating both membrane and actin dynamics. In many cell types, CIP4 functions in vesicle formation, endocytosis and membrane tubulation. However, recent data indicate that CIP4 is also involved in protrusion in some cell types, including cancer cells (lamellipodia and invadopodia) and neurons (ribbed lamellipodia and veils).

Adhesive micro-line periodicity determines guidance of axonal outgrowth.

Adhesive micro-lines of various sub-cellular geometries were created using a non-traditional micro stamping technique. This technique employed the use of commercially available diffraction gratings as the molds for the micro stamps, a method which is quick and inexpensive, and which could easily be adopted as a patterning tool in a variety of research efforts. The atypical saw-tooth profile of the micro stamps enabled a unique degree of control and flexibility over patterned line and gap widths.

The F-BAR protein CIP4 inhibits neurite formation by producing lamellipodial protrusions.

Neurite formation is a seminal event in the early development of neurons. However, little is known about the mechanisms by which neurons form neurites. F-BAR proteins function in sensing and inducing membrane curvature.

Dynamic microtubules promote synaptic NMDA receptor-dependent spine enlargement.

Most excitatory synaptic terminals in the brain impinge on dendritic spines. We and others have recently shown that dynamic microtubules (MTs) enter spines from the dendritic shaft. However, a direct role for MTs in long-lasting spine plasticity has yet to be demonstrated and it remains unclear whether MT-spine invasions are directly influenced by synaptic activity.