Sentinel node biopsy status is strongly predictive of survival in cutaneous melanoma: Extended follow-up of Oxford patients from 1998 to 2014.

Introduction: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is widely used as a key investigatory tool for cutaneous melanoma, with results incorporated into the latest AJCC staging guidelines. We present the results of our extended follow-up of sentinel lymph node biopsy for melanoma over a sixteen-year period.

Methods: Data were collected prospectively from June 1998 to December 2014 from a single tertiary skin cancer referral centre.

Closure of the radial forearm donor site using a local hatchet flap: analysis of 45 consecutive cases.

Background: The radial forearm free flap (RFFF) is widely used in reconstructive surgery. Traditional donor-site closure by grafting may be associated with significant aesthetic and functional morbidity. We report our experience with primary closure using a local hatchet flap.

Generation of a vascularized organoid using skeletal muscle as the inductive source.

The technology required for creating an in vivo microenvironment and a neovasculature that can grow with and service new tissue is lacking, precluding the possibility of engineering complex three-dimensional organs. We have shown that when an arterio-venous (AV) loop is constructed in vivo in the rat groin, and placed inside a semisealed chamber, an extensive functional vasculature is generated. To test whether this unusually angiogenic environment supports the survival and growth of implanted tissue or cells, we inserted various preparations of rat and human skeletal muscle.