[Skin Wrinkling on Hands and Feet: Theory and Practice].

The wrinkling of the skin on hands and feet when submersed in water is a well-known phenomenon. However, the explanation for this is not quite trivial. The peripheral nervous system seems to have an influence.

Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) in DIEP-Flap Breast Reconstructions-A Comparison of Two Reconstructive Centers with and without ERAS-Protocol.

Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) is established for autologous breast reconstruction. ERAS leads to a shortened hospital stay and improved outcome after elective surgery. In this retrospective, two-center case−control study, we compared two different treatment regimens for patients undergoing a DIEP-flap breast reconstruction from two centers, one with an established ERAS protocol and one without.

Intraluminal Monitoring of Micro Vessels. A Surgical Feasibility Study.

Monitoring of vessel perfusion is of high clinical importance in vascular anastomosis of free flaps. Current sensor systems are based on different principles and show limitations in validity and accuracy. Fiber optic pressure sensors exhibit high accuracy and are small in size.

[Smartphone-based thermography for perforator localisation in microvascular breast reconstruction].

Background: Thermography permits non-invasive examination and presentation of cutaneous temperature differences. When planning microvascular flaps, thermography may illustrate these differences and may portray patterns of blood circulation near to perforators. As an additional tool, thermography may enhance quality and diversity in free flaps.

The transverse myocutaneous gracilis muscle flap: a fast and reliable method for breast reconstruction.

Background: Autologous breast reconstruction is predominantly performed using free transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous or deep inferior epigastric perforator flaps. However, some patients are not suitable candidates for flaps from the lower abdomen. The transverse skin island of the gracilis muscle presents an additional option, as it includes tissue from the posterior upper thigh/lower buttock and thus delivers the amount of tissue necessary for breast reconstruction.

Reconstruction of peripheral nerves using acellular nerve grafts with implanted cultured Schwann cells.

The bridging of nerve gaps is still one of the major problems in peripheral nerve surgery. The present experiment describes our attempt to engineer different biologic nerve grafts in a rat sciatic nerve model: cultured isogenic Schwann cells were implanted into 2-cm autologous acellular nerve grafts or autologous predegenerated nerve grafts. Autologous nerve grafts and predegenerated or acellular nerve grafts without implanted Schwann cells served as controls.