Xylazine-Associated Necrotic Upper-Extremity Wounds: A Single Hospital System's Experience with 82 Patients and 125 Wounds.

Background: The rise in xylazine-adulterated heroin and fentanyl poses novel challenges to hand surgeons and a rising epidemic of necrotic upper-extremity wounds. While prior case studies have focused on particularly severe and complex xylazine-associated necrotic (XAN) wounds, the aim of this consecutive case series was to characterize the variability of presentations (ranging from mild to severe) at a single institution at the epicenter of the xylazine epidemic.

Methods: Patients presenting to a tertiary referral center for XAN upper-extremity wounds were retrospectively identified from emergency department visits and hospital admissions between January 2021 and December 2023.

Biometrics and Biomarkers in Patients With Psoriasis.

Psoriasis (PsO) is a chronic, systemic, and autoimmune dermatologic condition characterized by dry, scaly, and erythematous plaques on the skin. PsO can present in various forms, including guttate (small, round lesions commonly over the upper trunk and extremities that can be raised and scaly), inverse (smooth plaques of inflamed skin within skin folds of the groin, buttock, and breasts), pustular (white painful pustules within red inflamed blotches widespread over the body), and erythrodermic (red rash present over most of the body). Individuals with PsO can present differently, with unique symptoms and patterns on the skin.

Skin necrosis following digital wart intralesional injection of cantharidin.

A right-hand-dominant female presented 5 weeks following a right middle finger intralesional cantharidin injection for a common wart by a dermatologist. The patient experienced progressive stiffness, blistering, swelling, pain, and ultimately, full-thickness skin necrosis surrounding the injection site. Careful debridement followed by a full-thickness skin graft was performed with no evidence of involvement of the germinal matrix or terminal extensor tendon.

The Performance of a Customized Generative Pre-trained Transformer on the American Society for Surgery of the Hand Self-Assessment Examination.

Introduction:  Multimodal large language models (MLLMs), such as OpenAI's ChatGPT (San Francisco, CA), have the potential to improve medical care delivery and education, although important shortcomings in accuracy and image interpretation have been noted. The aim of this study was to assess the multimodal performance of a ChatGPT model customized with hand surgery-specific knowledge.

Methods: A customized generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) was trained using peer-reviewed literature recommended by the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH).

Active decompression during automated head-up cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Background: The combination of active compression-decompression cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ACD-CPR) with an impedance threshold device (ITD) and controlled head-up positioning (AHUP-CPR) is associated with improved outcomes compared with conventional CPR (C-CPR). This study focused on the role of active decompression (AD) during AHUP-CPR.

Methods: Farm pigs (n = 10, ∼40 kg) were anesthetized, intubated and ventilated.