Normal sensorimotor plasticity in complex regional pain syndrome with fixed posture of the hand.

Background: Movement disorders associated with complex regional pain syndrome type I have been a subject of controversy over the last 10 years regarding their nature and pathophysiology, with an intense debate about the functional (psychogenic) nature of this disorder. The aim of this study was to test sensorimotor plasticity and cortical excitability in patients with complex regional pain syndrome type I who developed a fixed posture of the hand.

Methods: Ten patients with complex regional pain syndrome type I in the right upper limb and a fixed posture of the hand (disease duration less than 24 months) and 10 age-matched healthy subjects were enrolled.

A free vein graft cap influences neuroma formation after nerve transection.

Introduction: : Neuroma formation is a major problem in nerve surgery and consensus about its prevention has not been reached. It has been suggested that vein covering can reduce neuroma formation in transected nerves. In this article, the Authors propose an easy and novel method of covering by nerve stump capping with a free vein graft.

An anterior-lateral thigh perforator flap on a recipient brachial-radial vein graft for complex wound reconstruction: a case report.

A case of challenging microsurgical reconstruction of a difficult defect in a radiated upper limb is reported. A difficult wound, with tendon and bone exposition, developed on the dorsum of the forearm in a 76-year-old patient; she had been radiated since almost 50 years and her left hand had also been revascularized twice with venous grafts between the humeral artery and the superficial palmar arch. After failure of a local flap, an anterior-lateral thigh perforator flap was successfully transferred with end-to-side anastomoses on the arterialized venous graft.

The distally based sural flap for lower leg reconstruction: versatility in patients with associated morbidity.

Introduction: Coverage of soft tissue defects in the lower leg is often made by use of free flap, also because of the improving of anaesthesiology techniques in the last decades. However, there are disadvantages in the use of free flaps like the need for a remote donor site, increased operative time, use of a major vessel to the leg, and microsurgical skills. Besides these, trauma in the lower limb are often cause of damage for a major vessels of the leg, so the use of free flaps in these patients may be related to an higher incidence of complications; also associated pathologies, like diabetes and vascular pathology, can increase the incidence of complications when a free flap is utilized.

Ulnar nerve repair by end-to-side neurorrhaphy on the median nerve with interposition of a vein: an experimental study.

Our study used a rat animal model to verify that Schwann cell migration, collateral axonal sprouting, and regeneration were not hindered by interposition of a 10-mm vein segment between the distal stump of the transected ulnar nerve and the donor median nerve in end-to-side reconstruction. Reconstructed nerves were withdrawn at 7, 14, 30, and 60 days after surgery, then analyzed by confocal laser microscopy after immunolabeling with anti-neurofilament-200 kD (an axonal marker) and anti-S100 (a glial marker) antibodies. Results are reported at 7, 14, 30, and 60 days after surgery.

Solitary asymptomatic nodule of the great toe.

Subungual exostosis is a benign osteocartilaginous tumor of the ungual apparatus, particularly of the toes. It affects both sexes equally, more frequently in the second and third decades of life. We describe a 6-year-old girl who came to our attention because of the enlargement of a pinkish nodule in the distal part of the nail bed of the first toe, progressively elevating the nail plate.