Conservative treatment of traumatic finger amputations using negative-pressure wound therapy.

Replantation is widely regarded as the first choice of treatment for finger amputations. However, if the fingertip of a traumatic finger amputation is missing after an injury, the following procedures are often performed to reconstruct this portion: flap surgery, stump surgery, or conservative treatment, including occlusive dressings. To our knowledge, no existing English literature reports using negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) to treat traumatic finger amputations.

Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia caused by an antibody specific for a newly identified allele of human platelet antigen-7.

Background: Neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia (NAIT) is a neonatal disorder characterized by maternal alloimmunization against fetal platelet (PLT) antigens inherited from the father. A healthy 30-year-old Japanese woman (Hit) gave birth to her second child after an uneventful pregnancy. Nine hours after birth, the infant presented with severe petechiae and a PLT count of 6 x 10(9)/L.

History of microsurgery.

In the mid-1500s, the techniques of vascular ligature and vascular suture were developed sporadically by several pioneers in this field. However, vascular surgery became realistic experimentally as a result of the work by Carrel and Guthrie in the early 1900s, in which they performed replantations and transplantations of several composite tissues and organs, including amputated limbs, kidneys, and others using experimental animals. In contrast, the development of heparin by Howell and Holt in 1918 accelerated the rate of these types of operations being performed with increasing success in humans.

Indications for free vascularized fibular grafting for the treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

Background: The present study aimed to determine the indications for free vascularized fibular grafting for the treatment of osteonecrosis of the femoral head.

Methods: Seventy-one hips (60 patients) were clinically followed for a minimum of 3 years. Average follow-up period was 7 years.

Radial forearm flaps for reconstruction in hand surgery.

Thirty-seven patients were treated using distally-based island radial forearm flaps. There were 31 men and six women. Reconstructed sites involved the dorsum of the hand (n = 17), the thumb (n = 11), the fingers (n = 5), the first web (n = 3), and the palm (n = 1).

Vascularized fibular grafting in the treatment of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus osteomyelitis and infected nonunion.

Twenty patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) osteomyelitis and bone infection were treated with vascularized fibular grafts. There were 16 males and four females, and the patient ages at operation ranged from 17 to 73 years. Nine of the lesions affected the femur, eight the tibia, and there were three others.

Vascularized composite tissue transfers or open fractures with massive soft-tissue defects in the lower extremities.

From 1982 to 1998, we treated 39 patients with type IIIB and IIIC fractures in the lower extremities by vascularized composite tissue transfers. Thirty-four of the lesions affected the lower leg, and 5 the foot and ankle. The peroneal flap was used in 25 cases, the latissimus dorsi musculocutaneous flap in 12, the scapula flap in 1, and the gracilis muscle flap in 1.