Abdominoplasty and simultaneous laparoscopic ventral hernia repair. Clinical study about 45 patients.

INTRODUCTION: Abdominoplasty procedures sometimes reveal the presence of ventral hernias (umbilical or trocar-site hernias). Our objective is then to deal with the excess abdominal skin and fat tissue at the same time as the ventral hernia. This can be done with a single surgical procedure combining abdominoplasty with umbilical transposition and laparoscopic ventral hernia repair (LVHR) with mesh. The main objective of our study is to assess the outcome of the combined procedure of abdominoplasty and LVHR with mesh, compared to abdominoplasty alone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective single-centre cohort study was conducted, including patients operated on with the combined method (ABDO-LVHR group) and patients who underwent abdominoplasty alone (ABDO group). We noted major and minor complications, with infection issues as our main concern. RESULTS: We included 15 patients in the ABDO-LVHR group and 30 in the ABDO group. The results show no statistically significant difference for infectious complications in the ABDO-LVHR group compared to the ABDO group (20% vs 3.3%; P=0.100). There was no instance of complete umbilical necrosis. Other major and minor complications occurred at the rates typically described in the literature without difference between the two groups. CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between our two groups in terms of infectious complications. LVHR carried out at the same time as abdominoplasty with umbilical transposition is a positive combination of procedures. Further studies are necessary to confirm that the risk in terms of infectious complications is no higher than for abdominoplasty alone. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.

Non-linear actuation of cantilevers using giant magnetostrictive thin films

In the present paper, we report the first results concerning a centimetre cantilever driven through non-linear effects in thin magnetostrictive films. Bimorph centimetre beams (24 mm x 5 mm) were designed using 160 microns thick glass and 0.4 micron thick multilayer TbFe/Fe films deposited via RF sputtering, using several sputtering conditions. Dynamic magneto-elastic excitations were studied experimentally on the few eigenresonance modes of the cantilevers. Sub-harmonic excitation at half or one-third of the frequency of an eigenresonance mode has been achieved near the spin reorientation transition and the efficiency is as good as for eigenfrequency excitation. Specific magnetic properties of the samples led to a model of the thermodynamic potentials and behaviour of the excited resonator.

Image Upconversion from the Visible to the UV Domain: Application to Dynamic UV Microstereolithography.

We present what to our knowledge is a new application of optical frequency upconversion of images in quadratic materials to dynamic UV microstereolithography. A 150 x 150 point visible image transmitted by a liquid-crystal display was upconverted in a lithium triborate crystal, and the UV image was successfully used to polymerize a commercial stereolithographic resin.

Hyaluronate-alginate gel as a novel biomaterial: mechanical properties and formation mechanism.

With the aim of producing a biomaterial for surgical applications, the alginate-hyaluronate association has been investigated to combine the gel-forming properties of alginate with the healing properties of hyaluronate. Gels were prepared by diffusion of calcium into alginate-hyaluronate mixtures, with an alginate content of 20 mg/mL. The hyaluronate source was shown to have significant effect on the aspect and the properties of the gels. The gels have viscoelastic behaviour and the transient measurements carried out in creep mode could be interpreted through a Kelvin-Voigt generalised model: experimental data led to the steady state hardness and a characteristic viscosity of the gel. Gels prepared from Na rooster comb hyaluronate with weight ratio up to 0.50 have satisfactory mechanical properties, and fully stable gels are obtained after a few days; on the contrary, use of lower molecular weight hyaluronate led to loose gels for hyaluronate contents over 0.25. Gel formation was investigated by measurements of the exchange fluxes between the calcium chloride solution and the forming gel, which allowed thorough investigations of the occuring diffusion phenomena of water, calcium ion and hyaluronate. Strong interactions of water with hyaluronate reduce significantly the rate of weight loss from the gel beads and allows higher water content in steady-state gels. Calcium content in the gel samples could be correlated to the actual alginate concentration, whatever the nature and the weight ratio of hyaluronate.