BACKGROUND A hypertrophic scar is a unique fibrotic disease that only exists in humans. Despite advances in burn care and rehabilitation, as well as progress in the management during these decades, the hypertrophic scar remains hard to cure following surgical methods and drugs for treatment. In this study, we are looking forward to finding the multitude of possible traumatic mechanisms and the ...

The success of nonrigid motion analysis using physical finite element model is dependent on the mesh that characterizes the object’s geometric structure. We suggest a deformable mesh adapted to the natural features of images. The adaptive mesh requires much fewer number of nodes than the fixed mesh which was used in our previous work. We demonstrate the higher efficiency of the adaptive mesh in...

Strabon is a very scalable and efficient RDF store for storing and querying geospatial data that changes over time. We present the geospatial and temporal features of Strabon and we demonstrate their utilization in the fire monitoring and the burn scar mapping applications of the National Observatory of Athens.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to explore the effects of recombinant human granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) on deep second-degree burn wound healing. METHODS In this study, 95 patients with a total of 190 burn wounds were treated with either rhGM-CSF or placebo, separated into 2 groups by treatment type. Wound healing rate, wound healing time, histopathologica...

BACKGROUND In our preliminary experiments we found that composite skin grafts consisting of allogeneic acellular dermis and thin epidermal autologous grafts applied to the excised burn wound in one stage led to better results in terms of viscoelastic properties than autologous split-thickness skin grafts. PATIENTS AND METHODS In ten burn patients we applied composite skin grafts consisting of...

In their natural habitat, the peripheral nerve, Schwann cells (SCs) form nicely aligned pathways (also known as the bands of Büngner) that guide regenerating axons to their targets. Schwann cells that are implanted in the lesioned spinal cord fail to align in pathways that could support axon growth but form cellular clusters that exhibit only limited intermingling with the astrocytes and mening...

Fibroproliferative disorders are an ongoing clinical issue that is prevalent within society today. These disorders generally manifest themselves by an overproduction of fibrotic tissue with unknown provocation resulting in numerous detrimental defects. Cellular migration of blood-borne cells via the chemotactic pathway, consisting of stromal cell-derived factor 1 and its receptor, CXCR4, has be...

Marjolin's ulcer, which was first described more than 1.5 centuries ago, involves a rare malignant transformation of chronic scar tissue or ulcer. Marjolin's ulcer invading the skull, dura mater and the brain is quite exceptional. A case is presented of a patient with a massive Marjolin's ulcer arising in chronic scarring of the scalp following a fire burn 57 years previously. The tumour had in...

Excessive contraction of hypertrophic scar and subsequent contracture formation are a formidable problem after thermal injury. A comparison between fibroblasts from hypertrophic scar and normal skin was made with the use of fibroblast-populated collagen lattices as a measure of cellular generated contractile forces. Hypertrophic scar and normal skin fibroblasts were mixed with soluble tendon co...

A 78-year-old woman with burn-induced cervico-mento-sternal scar contracture was scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. During inhalational induction of sevoflurane, her airway patency deteriorated. The right lateral position and assist ventilation using a breathing bag dramatically improved her airway patency.