Delayed development of toxic shock syndrome following abdominal tissue expansion in a pediatric reconstruction patient: case report.

Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a potentially fatal postoperative complication, and even more so if the diagnosis is delayed. We present the case of a 7-month-old male infant who developed TSS as a complication of tissue expansion using an external port device. There have been 5 documented cases of TSS after tissue expander or breast prosthesis placement occurring in the adult population, however, there has not been a reported case of TSS in an infant.

Nanofiber applications for burn care.

Nanotechnology is a growing field of manufactured materials with sizes less than 1 mum, and it is particularly useful in the field of medicine because these applications replicate components of a cell's in vivo environment. Nanofibers, which mimic collagen fibrils in the extracellular matrix (ECM), can be created from a host of natural and synthetic compounds and have multiple properties that may be beneficial to burn wound care. These properties include a large surface-area-to-volume ratio, high porosity, improved cell adherence, proliferation and migration, and controlled in vivo degradation rates.

Cellular incorporation into electrospun nanofibers: retained viability, proliferation, and function in fibroblasts.

Nanofibers are an emerging scaffold for tissue engineering. To date no one has reported cell incorporation into nanofibers. Human foreskin fibroblasts and human adipose-derived adult stem cells (hADAS) were grown to confluence, resuspended in phosphate-buffered saline, and then solubilized in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA).