Clinical effect of free medial plantar flap on reconstruction of severe thumb defect caused by electric burn / 中华显微外科杂志

Objective:To explore the technique and clinical effects of free medial plantar flap on reconstruction of the severe defect of thumb caused by electric burn.Methods:Surgical techniques and clinical effects were explored in reconstruction with free medial plantar flap for treatment of severe electric burns of thumbs. From July 2016 to July 2021, 18 patients suffered from severe electric burns of thumbs were admitted in the Department of Burn, Zhengzhou First People's Hospital. All the wounds were the entrance of electric burns. After thorough debridement, the arteries, nerves, tendons, phalanges and interphalangeal joints were exposed to various degrees. Damaged digital proper palmar arteries were ligated and defected proper palmar digital nerves were marked and further anastomosed with the nerves carried by the flap. Palmaris longus tendon grafts were employed to reconstruct the defects of flexor pollicis longus tendon. Wounds were closed by transfer of free medial plantar flaps, and the flap donor sites were closed by inguinal skin grafts. Survival of the flap was observed 1 week after surgery, and the survival of the skin graft in the foot donor site 12 days after surgery. Outpatient follow-up including observation of the appearance and texture of the flap, evaluation of sensory function, thumb alignment and finger flexion according to the Evaluation Trial Standards of Upper Limb Partial Functional of Hand Surgery of Chinese Medical Association. Evaluate the scar hyperplasia in the foot donor site and the standing and walking functions of the donor foot.Results:All flaps survived,at 1 week after surgery. On the 12th day after surgery, all 16 foot flap survived, and 2 patients had local necrosis, and the necrosis healed completely after dressing change for 10 days, the wound healed completely. Among them, 3 patients without tendon transfer experienced a rupture of the flexor pollicis longus tendon at 2 months after surgery, and underwent another palmaris longus tendon transfer. After the surgery, functional exercise was performed with the palm and flexor fingers. After 6-12 months of follow-up, the blood supply, appearance, and texture of the flap were good and similar to that of the palmar skin of the thumb, with varying degrees of recovery in sensation. The TPD was 6-11 mm, and the thumb was restored to varying degrees. According to the Evaluation Trial Standards of Upper Limb Partial Functional of Hand Surgery of Chinese Medical Association, 13 cases in excellent and 5 cases in good. Mild scar hyperplasia remains in the flap site of donor feet, which does not affect the standing and walking functions of the donor foot.Conclusion:The texture of medial plantar skin is similar to that of palmar skin, with good wear resistance and good sensation. Furthermore, it causes a little damage to the donor site and without obvious complication. The medial plantar flap is ideal for reconstruction of a severe wound caused by electric burn in thumb.

Specific Mutations in APC, with Prognostic Implications in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

Purpose@#Loss-of-function mutations in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene are common in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). However, the characteristic of APC specific mutations in mCRC is poorly understood. Here, we explored the clinical and molecular characteristics of N-terminal and C-terminal side APC mutations in Chinese patients with mCRC. @*Materials and Methods@#Hybrid capture-based next-generation sequencing was performed on tumor tissues from 275 mCRC pati-ents to detect mutations in 639 tumor-associated genes. The prognostic value and gene-pathway difference between APC specific mutations in mCRC patients were analyzed. @*Results@#APC mutations were highly clustered, accounting for 73% of all mCRC patients, and most of them were truncating mutations. The tumor mutation burden of the N-terminal side APC mutations group (n=76) was significantly lower than that of the C-terminal side group (n=123) (p < 0.001), further confirmed by the public database. Survival analysis showed that mCRC patients with N-terminus side APC mutations had longer overall survival than C-terminus side. Tumor gene pathway analysis showed that gene mutations in the RTK/RAS, Wnt and transforming growth factor β signaling pathways of the C-terminal group were significantly higher than those of the N-terminal group (p < 0.05). Additionally, KRAS, AMER1, TGFBR2, and ARID1A driver mutations were more common in patients with C-terminal side APC mutations. @*Conclusion@#APC specific mutations have potential function as mCRC prognostic biomarkers. There are obvious differences in the gene mutation patterns between the C-terminus and N-terminus APC mutations group, which may have certain guiding significance for the subsequent precise treatment of mCRC.

Early diagnosis and treatment for burn complicated with severe paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity / 中华烧伤杂志

Objective@#To investigate the early diagnosis and treatment for burn complicated with severe paroxysmal sympathetic hyperactivity (PSH).@*Methods@#Medical records of patients with burn complicated with severe PSH, admitted to our department from April 2016 to March 2019 and meeting the inclusion criteria were analyzed retrospectively. There were 4 males and 1 female, aged 17 months to 39 years, with an average of (21±16) years. During occurrence of PSH, the vital signs of patients were routinely monitored and oxygen were given. Other treatment included central venous catheterization and infusion of electrolyte solution, infusion of plasma according to patients′ condition, use of opioid analgesics and benzodiazepine sedatives, physical cooling and drug cooling, and establishment or maintenance of artificial airway and use of ventilator. Heart rate was controlled below 120 beats per minute in adults and 140 beats per minute in children with comprehensive treatment dominated by analgesia and sedation. Besides, single or multiple vasoactive agents, even in large doses were used to maintain normal blood pressure of patients. The occurrence characteristics, time, and treatment outcome of PSH were analyzed.@*Results@#PSH happened rapidly, with a sharp increase in several minutes to dozens of minutes. Five patients were with symptoms such as high body temperature, shortness of breath, very fast heart rate, normal or elevated systolic blood pressure, hyperhidrosis, and dystonia at the onset. The symptoms occurred simultaneously or successively. According to the Clinical Feature Scale, the above-mentioned 6 indexes achieved the highest score of 3 points except of systolic blood pressure. Four patients showed dilated pupils and impaired consciousness. Among the patients, PSH occurred in the acute exudation stage in 3 patients, in the fluid reabsorption stage in 1 patient, and in the late repair stage in 1 patient. PSH of patients lasted for 3 hours to 12 days. The symptoms of 4 patients were effectively controlled, and 1 patient died of deterioration. No PSH occurred in the cured patients during follow-up of 3 to 14 months.@*Conclusions@#Burn complicated with PSH can occur at any time before wound repair and in patients with different injury conditions. The causes of PSH include sudden burn, persistent pain, fright and fear, strange environment, low blood volume, and other adverse stimuli, and PSH is more likely to occur in children with underdeveloped brain function. Intravenous infusion of analgesics sedatives, physical therapy and medication to lower body temperature, stabilizing blood pressure and respiration are effective measures to treat PSH. PSH should be distinguished from the common complications of burns, such as sepsis, cerebral edema, hyperpyretic convulsion, transfusion response, stress disorder, etc.

One case of severely burned patient complicated by acute hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis and fungal infection / 中华烧伤杂志

One severely burned patient, caused by heat lead slag and combined with shock, was hospitalized in our burn unit on 2nd June, 2016. The patient received treatments including anti-shock, intensive care, anti-infection, and organ protection. On post injury day 16, the patient suffered outbreak of acute hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis after eating dumplings. Plasma and albumin were given, octreotide was intravenously infused to inhibit the secretion of intestinal fluid, the broad-spectrum antibiotics were used for anti-infection, abdominal puncture and drainage were performed, sodium tanshinone ⅡA sulfonate was applied to improve the intestinal microcirculation, ulinastatin was applied to alleviate inflammatory reaction, somatostatin was given to reduce intestinal bleeding, and voriconazole was given for antifungal treatment. The patient gradually recovered and was finally cured and discharged. Among critically ill patients, gastrointestinal tract is not only the initiating organ of sepsis, but also one of the target organs which can be easily damaged during sepsis. This case reminds us the importance of gastrointestinal management in severely burned patients.

Proteomic analysis and qRT-PCR verification of temperature response to Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis.

Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis (ASP) is a representative filamentous, non-N2-fixing cyanobacterium that has great potential to enhance the food supply and possesses several valuable physiological features. ASP tolerates high and low temperatures along with highly alkaline and salty environments, and can strongly resist oxidation and irradiation. Based on genomic sequencing of ASP, we compared the protein expression profiles of this organism under different temperature conditions (15°C, 35°Cand 45°C) using 2-DE and peptide mass fingerprinting techniques. A total of 122 proteins having a significant differential expression response to temperature were retrieved. Of the positively expressed proteins, the homologies of 116 ASP proteins were found in Arthrospira (81 proteins in Arthrospira platensis str. Paraca and 35 in Arthrospira maxima CS-328). The other 6 proteins have high homology with other microorganisms. We classified the 122 differentially expressed positive proteins into 14 functions using the COG database, and characterized their respective KEGG metabolism pathways. The results demonstrated that these differentially expressed proteins are mainly involved in post-translational modification (protein turnover, chaperones), energy metabolism (photosynthesis, respiratory electron transport), translation (ribosomal structure and biogenesis) and carbohydrate transport and metabolism. Others proteins were related to amino acid transport and metabolism, cell envelope biogenesis, coenzyme metabolism and signal transduction mechanisms. Results implied that these proteins can perform predictable roles in rendering ASP resistance against low and high temperatures. Subsequently, we determined the transcription level of 38 genes in vivo in response to temperature and identified them by qRT-PCR. We found that the 26 differentially expressed proteins, representing 68.4% of the total target genes, maintained consistency between transcription and translation levels. The remaining 12 genes showed inconsistent protein expression with transcription level and accounted for 31.6% of the total target genes.