Facelift complications and the risk of venous thromboembolism: a single center's experience.

Background: The number of facelifts performed in the United States has steadily increased over the past decade. Moreover, the risk of venous thromboembolism in plastic surgery has been established in recent studies.

Objectives: The authors investigate the overall complication rate in a single-center series to identify risk factors and determine the risk of venous thromboembolism.

Bilayer dermal matrix for the treatment of painful burn scars.

Unlabelled:  Background. Outcomes following burn injury have improved considerably in recent years due to early excision and skin grafting. Despite a reduction in late burn complications, up to 70% of patients experience long-term pain at both the injured area and the skin-grafted scar.

Management of full-thickness abdominal wall defects following tumor resection.

Objectives: Abdominal wall reconstruction continues to evolve with improvement in technique and technology. This study reviews our experience with challenging full thickness (skin, muscle, and fascia) defects following tumor resections often in high-risk patients.

Methods: All patients who underwent abdominal wall reconstruction following full thickness tumor resection were included in the series.

Autologous fat grafting in secondary breast reconstruction.

Autologous fat grafting has become a common technique for revisional breast surgery. The purpose of this series is to review our experience with fat grafting for the correction of acquired breast deformities. A retrospective review was performed on 107 patients with a history of breast cancer between 1996 and 2010, who had autologous fat grafting at the time of secondary breast reconstruction.

Current options in the management of complex abdominal wall defects.

The management of complex abdominal wall defects is challenging and often requires an individualized strategy with additional measures to minimize morbidity and recurrence. We retrospectively reviewed all patients who underwent reconstruction of complex abdominal wall defects at Emory Hospital by the senior author over a 7-year period. Abdominal hernia defects were categorized into primary, secondary, and tertiary hernias; infection; composite tumor defects; and dehiscence.

Combined nephrectomy and major hepatectomy: indications, outcomes, and recommendations.

Background: Simultaneous nephrectomy with major hepatectomy (NMH) is uncommon. We reviewed our experience with NMH.

Study Design: Records of patients who underwent NMH at Emory Hospital between January 1995 and May 2008 were examined.

Inorganic nanoparticles for predictive oncology of breast cancer.

Nanoparticles (NPs) and nanosized objects are being incorporated rapidly into clinical medicine and particularly into the field of medical oncology, including breast cancer. A number of novel methods for breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, which are based on NPs and other nanodevices, are now available for translation into clinical practice. Computer tomography and MRI with iron-based magnetic NPs are promising methods for radiological detection of cancers.

Proton-sponge coated quantum dots for siRNA delivery and intracellular imaging.

We report the rational design of multifunctional nanoparticles for short-interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery and imaging based on the use of semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) and proton-absorbing polymeric coatings (proton sponges). With a balanced composition of tertiary amine and carboxylic acid groups, these nanoparticles are specifically designed to address longstanding barriers in siRNA delivery such as cellular penetration, endosomal release, carrier unpacking, and intracellular transport. The results demonstrate dramatic improvement in gene silencing efficiency by 10-20-fold and simultaneous reduction in cellular toxicity by 5-6-fold, when compared directly with existing transfection agents for MDA-MB-231 cells.

Saphenous vein graft conduits for insertion of hepatic arterial infusion pumps in patients with abnormal hepatic arterial anatomy.

Background And Objectives: Hepatic arterial infusion (HAI) chemotherapy offers improved hepatic control for liver metastases from colon cancer. Optimal catheter insertion requires an adequate gastroduodenal artery (GDA). Limited data exists on using saphenous vein grafts (SVG) as conduits when native vasculature is inadequate.

Bioconjugated quantum dots for multiplexed and quantitative immunohistochemistry.

Bioconjugated quantum dots (QDs) provide a new class of biological labels for evaluating biomolecular signatures (biomarkers) on intact cells and tissue specimens. In particular, the use of multicolor QD probes in immunohistochemistry is considered one of the most important and clinically relevant applications. At present, however, clinical applications of QD-based immunohistochemistry have achieved only limited success.

Nanoparticles as a novel class of autophagy activators.

Nano-sized objects exist as engineered tools as well as natural or anthropogenic environmental factors. Recent progress in the field of nanotechnology allows for a deeper understanding of their impact on organisms. Recently, we showed that the size-dependent cell interaction with quantum dots is autophagy-mediated.

Quantum dots for human mesenchymal stem cells labeling. A size-dependent autophagy activation.

Lately certain cytotoxicity of quantum dots (QDs) and some deleterious effects of labeling procedure on stem cells differentiation abilities were shown. In the present study we compared cytotoxicity and intracellular processing of two different-sized protein-conjugated QDs after labeling of the human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC). An asymmetrical intracellular uptake of red (605 nm) and green (525 nm) quantum dots was observed.

Emerging use of nanoparticles in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

The biological application of nanoparticles is a rapidly developing area of nanotechnology that raises new possibilities in the diagnosis and treatment of human cancers. In cancer diagnostics, fluorescent nanoparticles can be used for multiplex simultaneous profiling of tumour biomarkers and for detection of multiple genes and matrix RNA with fluorescent in-situ hybridisation. In breast cancer, three crucial biomarkers can be detected and accurately quantified in single tumour sections by use of nanoparticles conjugated to antibodies.