Skin lesions in the elderly: precancer and cancer.

Skin lesions, both precancers and cancers, are more common among the elderly White population, especially in exposed body parts such as head face, neck, and hands. Earliest diagnosis is the key to treatment and survival. Awareness of a new skin lesion or change in a preexisting lesion, with or without pigmentation, flat or nodular, ulcerated or bleeding mandates prompt consultation followed by biopsy.

A surgical approach to the motor branch of the ulnar nerve.

Isolated injury to the motor branch of the ulnar nerve is a relatively rare injury, often initially misdiagnosed. If repair is attempted through the original laceration without complete motor branch exposure, results can be less than satisfactory. A recent case illustrates this injury and provides us with an opportunity to review the surgical anatomy of the motor branch of the ulnar nerve.

Treatment of keloids by combined surgical excision and immediate postoperative X-ray therapy.

Sixty-eight histopathologically confirmed keloids were excised in 40 patients from 1970 to 1979. Surgery involved intrakeloidal excision with wound closure by direct, multilayered advancement repair or split-thickness skin grafting. All patients received x-ray therapy totaling 1,500 rads delivered in 3 equal doses, the first within several hours after surgery and the rest at two- to three-day intervals.

Topical and systemic antimicrobial agents in burns.

Infection is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in burns. Burn wound infection is defined as burn wound bacterial proliferation in a density equal to or greater than 10(5) bacteria per gram of tissue. Gram-negative bacteria, notably Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as well as staphylococci and fungal opportunists, have been identified as prominent invaders.