Navigating the complexities and controversies of medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ): a critical update and consensus statement.

OBJECTIVES: To provide a critical update identifying the knowledge gaps and controversies in medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) within the Belgian healthcare context and outline opportunities for improvement and research in these areas. METHODS: A literature review was performed to identify guidelines from international clinical societies in oncology or oral and maxillofacial surgery on diagnosing, preventing, and treating MRONJ. The recommendations were critically assessed in light of recent developments in the field and confronted with the clinical experience of experts. RESULTS: Despite progress in the diagnostic criteria of MRONJ, the continued need for an 8-week timeout period should be reconsidered. Furthermore, 3D imaging techniques should be introduced to improve diagnosis and staging. The staging system remains ambiguous regarding Stage 0 MRONJ, and ongoing confusion exists regarding the term non-exposed MRONJ. The prevention of MRONJ should be tailored, considering the individual patient's risk of MRONJ, frailty, and life expectancy. More research seems needed into the efficacy and safety of drug holidays, considering the risks of rebound remodeling on fractures. With renewed interest in surgical and adjunct management techniques, adequately designed clinical studies are needed to help translate trial outcomes into universally applicable treatment guidelines taking into account individual patient characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Important knowledge gaps remain and hamper the development of clinical guidelines. Several controversies were identified where consensus is lacking, and further harmonization between stakeholders is necessary. Finally, the need for randomized controlled comparative clinical trials in MRONJ resonates harder than ever to identify the best treatment for individual patients.

Silicosis as an unusual cause of symptomatic cervical adenopathy.

A case of symptomatic cervical adenopathy is reported as a presentation of silicosis. Silicosis is one of the most important occupational health diseases worldwide caused by the inhalation of airborne silica particles. The presence of thoracic adenopathies is a common clinical feature of silicosis, cervical silicotic adenopathies on the other hand are rare and unknown to most clinicians and can therefore lead to a differential diagnostic problem. Awareness of the clinical, radiological, and histological features is key for the diagnosis.

Suture Autotransplantation and Dural Stripping for Craniosynostosis: A Long-Term Growth Study in Humans.

OBJECTIVE: Craniosynostosis treatment by suture autotransplantation and dura stripping has proven to be successful in animals. When applied clinically, it may reduce operative morbidity and postoperative growth disturbances known to occur after radical remodeling. It may prevent resynostosis, which is known to occur after simple synostostectomy. It may prevent subcutaneous fluid collections known to occur after synostectomy and dura stripping. STUDY DESIGN: Four synostostic infants have been treated using this concept and followed up by computerized scans. The distance between markers on each side of the transplanted sutures (6 in total) has been monitored from 1.5 to 7 years. RESULTS: The transplanted suture areas remained intact, and the sutures remained patent and experienced growth. A fifth patient with similar results was published earlier as a case report. CONCLUSIONS: Suture transplantation and dural stripping should be further studied in future multicenter studies with larger series, comprising syndromic and nonsyndromic synostosis patients.

Development of a cosmetic knee disarticulation prosthesis: A single-patient case study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: If a person does not become ambulant after an amputation, a knee disarticulation (KD) shouldbe considered and the person may then benefit from a cosmetic KD prosthesis. The features of a cosmetic KD prosthesis are, however, seldom described. The aim of this clinical note is to describe the development of a cosmeticKD prosthesis. TECHNIQUE: A non-ambulant person with bilateral KD formulated, together with her physiatrist, the criteria for a cosmetic KD prosthesis. On the basis of these, a lightweight, natural-looking, well-fitting, easy-to-put-on and take-off KD prosthesis, with no thigh lengthening during sitting, was made. This prosthesis was fixed on a wheelchair and does not impede transfer. DISCUSSION: A newly constructed cosmetic prosthesis for non-ambulant persons with a KD is described in detail. We hope that this will encourage physiatrists and prosthetists to offer non-ambulant persons with a KD a cosmetic prosthesis. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: A cosmetic leg prosthesis with good cosmetic properties, good sitting comfort, and no restrictions in making transfers is described in detail for non-ambulant persons with a knee disarticulation.

Major events in the genome evolution of vertebrates: paranome age and size differ considerably between ray-finned fishes and land vertebrates.

It has been suggested that fish have more genes than humans. Whether most of these additional genes originated through a complete (fish-specific) genome duplication or through many lineage-specific tandem gene or smaller block duplications and family expansions continues to be debated. We analyzed the complete genome of the pufferfish Takifugu rubripes (Fugu) and compared it with the paranome of humans. We show that most paralogous genes of Fugu are the result of three complete genome duplications. Both relative and absolute dating of the complete predicted set of protein-coding genes suggest that initial genome duplications, estimated to have occurred at least 600 million years ago, shaped the genome of all vertebrates. In addition, analysis of >150 block duplications in the Fugu genome clearly supports a fish-specific genome duplication (approximately equal to 320 million years ago) that coincided with the vast radiation of most modern ray-finned fishes. Unlike the human genome, Fugu contains very few recently duplicated genes; hence, many human genes are much younger than fish genes. This lack of recent gene duplication, or, alternatively, the accelerated rate of gene loss, is possibly one reason for the drastic reduction of the genome size of Fugu observed during the past 100 million years or so, subsequent to the additional genome duplication that ray-finned fishes but not land vertebrates experienced.