Long-Term Operative Outcomes of Preoperative Computed Tomography-Guided Virtual Surgical Planning for Osteocutaneous Free Flap Mandible Reconstruction.

Background: Osteocutaneous free flaps have become the primary reconstructive modality for segmental mandibulectomy defects. The advent of preoperative virtual surgical planning with stereolithic models and cutting templates has led to significant refinements in operative technique. In this article, the authors examine the value of computed tomography-guided preoperative virtual surgical planning on operative outcomes and efficiency after mandibular reconstruction with osteocutaneous free flaps.

Time to Surgery and Breast Cancer Survival in the United States.

Importance: Time to surgery (TTS) is of concern to patients and clinicians, but controversy surrounds its effect on breast cancer survival. There remains little national data evaluating the association.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the time from diagnosis to breast cancer surgery and survival, using separate analyses of 2 of the largest cancer databases in the United States.

Asymptomatic Deep Peroneal Vein Thrombosis During Free Fibula Flap Harvest: A Review of the Literature, Strategies for Preoperative Assessment, and an Algorithm for Reconstruction.

The free fibula flap is the preferred reconstructive method for oncologic defects of the mandible. Arterial inflow of the extremity is routinely evaluated with several modalities; however, venous screening is rarely performed. Patients with cancer are at elevated risk of occult deep venous thrombosis (DVT).

Improved operative efficiency of free fibula flap mandible reconstruction with patient-specific, computer-guided preoperative planning.

Background: Free fibula osteocutaneous flaps are the primary option for reconstruction after segmental mandibulectomies. This study evaluates the impact of CT-guided preoperative planning on operative outcomes after free fibula mandible reconstruction.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all patients undergoing free fibula reconstruction of the mandible from 2002 to 2011.

Impact of adjuvant chemotherapy on abdominal wall hernias and bulges after muscle-sparing free TRAM flaps for breast reconstruction.

Background: Free tissue transfer from an abdominal donor site has become a popular method for postmastectomy breast reconstruction. The detrimental effects of adjuvant chemotherapy on healing and the resulting clinical impact on patient outcome remains somewhat unclear for abdominal bulges and hernias resulting after free tissue transfer from the abdominal donor site.

Methods: An institutional review board-approved retrospective review of 155 free muscle-sparing transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous (MS-TRAM) flaps performed for breast reconstruction was undertaken to evaluate the effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on abdominal donor-site morbidity.

Preoperative delays in the US Medicare population with breast cancer.

Purpose: Although no specific delay threshold after diagnosis of breast cancer has been demonstrated to affect outcome, delays can cause anxiety, and surgical waiting time has been suggested as a quality measure. This study was performed to determine the interval from presentation to surgery in Medicare patients with nonmetastatic invasive breast cancer who did not receive neoadjuvant chemotherapy and factors associated with a longer time to surgery.

Methods: Medicare claims linked to Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data were reviewed for factors associated with delay between the first physician claim for a breast problem and first therapeutic surgery.

NCCN Task Force Report: breast cancer in the older woman.

Breast cancer is common in older women, and the segment of the U.S. population aged 65 years and older is growing rapidly.

Beauty and the beast: management of breast cancer after plastic surgery.

Objectives: Cosmetic surgery procedures increase in incidence annually, with 11 million performed in 2006. Because breast cancer is the most frequently occurring malignancy in women, a personal history of cosmetic surgery in those undergoing treatment for breast cancer is becoming more common.

Methods: This review identified key studies from the PubMed database, to consolidate existing data related to treatment of breast cancer after plastic surgery.

Effect of transforming growth factor beta 2 on marrow-infused foam poly(propylene fumarate) tissue-engineered constructs for the repair of critical-size cranial defects in rabbits.

This study investigates the osseointegration of poly(propylene fumarate) (PPF) with beta-tricalcium phosphate (beta-TCP) scaffolds in a critical-size (diameter, 1.6 cm), cranial defect in 4-month-old rabbits (n = 51), killed at 6 or 12 weeks. Two molecular weights of PPF were used to produce bilayer scaffolds with 0.

Reconstruction for lower extremity limb salvage in soft tissue carcinoma.

Limb salvage procedures for the lower extremity have a 95% success rate and have essentially supplanted primary amputation as the primary treatment for limb-threatening malignancies. En bloc tumor resection involving major neural and vascular structures that once led to amputation are now successfully reconstructed using free-tissue transfer in combination with neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemoradiation therapies and brachytherapy. Planning for reconstruction of complex lower extremity wounds begins at the time of diagnosis and extends to postoperative rehabilitation.

Poly(propylene fumarate) and poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) as scaffold materials for solid and foam-coated composite tissue-engineered constructs for cranial reconstruction.

This pilot study investigates the osseointegration of four types of critical-size (1.5-cm diameter) rabbit cranial defect (n = 35) bone graft scaffolds. The first is a solid poly(propylene fumarate)/beta-tricalcium phosphate(PPF/beta-TCP) disk; the three remaining constructs contain a PPF/beta-TCP core coated with a 1-mm resorptive porous foam layer of PPF or PLGA [poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid)], and bone marrow.