The Role of External Fixation in Trauma and Reconstruction of the Mandible in the Age of Rigid Fixation.

Internal rigid fixation is the gold-standard treatment for facial fractures, but there are some specific cases that are more amenable to external fixation (ex-fix) application. Herein, we discuss advantages and disadvantages to ex-fix in the modern treatment of comminuted mandible fractures, infected mandible fractures, fractures of the condylar region, oncologic mandibular resection, pediatric mandible fractures, and fractures in the edentulous patient.

Pediatric patient with a rash.

A 2 year old fully immunized male with no personal history of chicken pox presented to the emergency department with a chief complaint of a rash for one week after returning from a hiking trip in a remote island in Canada. After initially being diagnosed with contact dermatitis, a diagnosis of herpes zoster was made by confirmatory viral polymerase chain reaction testing. The purpose of this case report is to examine the literature for the incidence and etiology of shingles in children without a prior history of a primary varicella rash outbreak.

Early detection of colorectal cancer recurrence in patients undergoing surgery with curative intent: current status and challenges.

Despite advances in neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy, attention to proper surgical technique, and improved pathological staging for both the primary and metastatic lesions, almost half of all colorectal cancer patients will develop recurrent disease. More concerning, this includes ~25% of patients with theoretically curable node-negative, non-metastatic Stage I and II disease. Given the annual incidence of colorectal cancer, approximately 150,000 new patients are candidates each year for follow-up surveillance.

Current approaches and challenges for monitoring treatment response in colon and rectal cancer.

Introduction: With the advent of multidisciplinary and multimodality approaches to the management of colorectal cancer patients, there is an increasing need to define how we monitor response to novel therapies in these patients. Several factors ranging from the type of therapy used to the intrinsic biology of the tumor play a role in tumor response. All of these can aid in determining the ideal course of treatment, and may fluctuate over time, pending down-staging or progression of disease.