Stealthy role of size-driven stresses in biomechanics of breast implants capsular contracture.

Breast Capsular Contracture (BCC) is one of the adverse complications occurring with greater incidence in breast augmentation surgical procedures. Its formation can be interpreted as the conclusive result of the physiological process known as response to a foreign body. From a biochemical standpoint, the formation of the peri-prosthetic capsule is certainly a multifactorial process: many hypotheses concerning its etiology have been suggested in the literature and a number of related pharmacological protocols have been consequently proposed to clinically treat this pathology with the aim to prevent further complications and avoid future re-interventions.

The utility of the high-resolution ultrasound technique in the evaluation of autologous adipose tissue lipofilling, used for the correction of post-surgical, post-traumatic and post-burn scars.

Purpose: Lipofilling technique is significantly increasing and the need of a non-invasive method to assess the success of the procedure is becoming mandatory. In particular, US can be considered an alternative method to MRI for evaluation of tissue lipofilling due to the simplicity and easy access of the technique and can be also used for monitoring the efficacy of the surgical procedure. The goal of this study was to demonstrate, the utility of the high-resolution ultrasound technique in the evaluation of autologous adipose tissue lipofilling, used for the correction of post-surgical, post-traumatic and post-burn scars.

High-resolution color-Doppler ultrasound for the study of skin growths.

Unlabelled: High-resolution (17 MHz) color-Doppler ultrasound (US) is used in the evaluation of normal and pathological skin. To analyze retrospectively the sonographic pattern of healthy skin and of some skin lesions using Doppler US and to compare the results with dermoscopy examination and histology to identify specific patterns of ultrasound for differentiating benign from malignant lesions. To select among them the Melanomas to describe their US pattern, the presence and morphology of vascular signal and to compare their thickness at US with the Breslow index.

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma of the distal phalanx.

Calcifying aponeurotic fibroma is a rare benign soft tissue tumor that primarily occurs on the distal portion of the extremities of children and adolescents. It appears like a firm, painless and slowly growing mass with high local recurrence rates. The lesion has characteristic histological features with areas of proliferative plumps of fibroblasts, chondrocytes and foci of calcification.

Versatility of the posterior auricular flap in partial ear reconstruction.

Background: The posterior auricular flap alone has always been popular because of its prompt availability, its rich vascularity, and the ease of closing the donor-site defect primarily.

Methods: Fifty-seven patients with partial ear defects covered with posterior auricular flaps during the period between 2002 and 2007 were reviewed. In the authors' series, posterior auricular flaps were harvested based on a simple random vascularization and tailored to reach almost any defect of the ear by a simplified and standardized approach.

Overexpression of Chromatin Assembly Factor-1/p60 helps to predict the prognosis of melanoma patients.

Background: Cutaneous melanoma (CM) is the most lethal form of skin malignancy, which registers a constant increase in incidence worldwide. The identification of molecular alteration(s) involved in its biological aggressiveness represents a major challenge for researchers, considering that existing therapies are ineffective to treat metastasizing cases. The epigenetic control of chromatin dynamics during DNA synthesis, replication, and repair is fundamental for the orderly progression of cell proliferation.

Digital nerve reconstruction by multiple Y-shaped nerve grafts at the metacarpophalangeal joint level.

Digital nerve injuries are common; injuries of the common digital nerves are less frequent than those involving the proper digital nerves. Traditional techniques used to reconstruct peripheral nerves are: direct suture, autologous nerve grafts, autologous vein grafts, vascularised nerve graft and alloplastic nerve grafts. Autologous nerve grafts remain the most common conduits for segmental defects.

Non-surgical correction of deformational auricular anomalies.

Less severe congenital auricular anomalies can be corrected by appropriate splinting in the early neonatal period without anaesthetic and with minimal cost. We present a series of 46 patients affected by various ear deformities (non cryptotia, non Stahl's ear, non prominent ear) that we treated by splintage during the early neonatal period. These deformational auricular anomalies were classified according to the limitation to the external ear architecture development: vertically, horizontally and focally deformed ears.

Poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase 1 expression in malignant melanomas from photoexposed areas of the head and neck region.

The family of the poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase (PARP) proteins is directly involved in genomic stability, DNA repair, and apoptosis by DNA damage. In this study, we evaluated the role of PARP-1 in melanoma and its prognostic importance. We studied by immunohistochemistry and Western blot analysis PARP-1 expression in a selected series of 80 primary melanoma of the head and neck region.

Correction of congenital 'triple lobe type' auricular cleft.

Congenital cleft earlobe is a rare auricular malformation. Various techniques have been reported for the correction of this deformity. Few papers deal with surgical techniques to correct the triple lobe sub-type cleft.