Antithrombotic treatment and risk of complications after head and neck full thickness skin graft surgery.

Head and neck skin cancer surgery using a full thickness skin graft is a common procedure. Evidence concerning the effects of perioperative antithrombotic treatment on complications is limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether perioperative antithrombotic treatment is associated with risk of necrosis, bleeding or infection after full thickness skin graft surgery.

Benefit of measuring basal serum calcitonin to detect medullary thyroid carcinoma in a Danish population with a high prevalence of thyroid nodules.

Background: Routine measurement of serum calcitonin to detect medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) continues to be fiercely debated, although less attention has been paid to the positive predictive value (PPV) of this method.

Methods: We collected data from 959 patients with nontoxic nodular goiter; thyroidectomy was performed in 307 of these patients.

Results: Thirty-nine patients had elevated serum calcitonin; 6 of these patients had MTC detected by the initial diagnostic setup.