BACKGROUND Reconstruction of the internal carotid artery (ICA) is an operative challenge for lesions involving the lateral skull base because of excessive blood loss, intraoperative cranial nerve injury, and difficulties in cerebral protection. METHODS Between January 2010 and October 2014, 9 patients with vascular lesions at the lateral skull base were treated with a "pre-reconstruction" tec...

Angiogenesis plays a key role in tumour progression, and undergoes structural changes associated to tumour biology itself. Although vessel density can be easily evaluated in brain tumours using a traditional immuno-histochemical approach, other parameters of conceptual/biological interest, such as the complex patterns of vascular growth, cannot be fully understood using a traditional bi-dimensi...

Pulsed photo-thermal radiometry (PPTR) is a non-invasive, non-contact diagnostic technique used to locate cutaneous chromophores such as melanin (epidermis) and hemoglobin (vascular structures). Clinical utility of PPTR is limited because it typically requires trained user intervention to regularize the inversion solution. Herein, the feasibility of automated regularization was studied. A secon...

BACKGROUND Inferior vena cava (IVC) leiomyosarcoma is a rare tumor of smooth muscle origin. It is often large by the time of diagnosis and may involve adjacent organs. A margin-free resection may be curative, but the resection must involve the tumor en bloc with the affected segment of vena cava and locally involved organs. IVC resection often requires vascular reconstruction, which can be done...

INTRODUCTION Surgical treatment of chronic complete acromioclavicular (AC) joint dislocation is still debated and no gold standard surgical procedure has been identified. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective series of 90 patients treated for AC dislocations is reported here. Patients were divided into three groups: group 1 receiving AC reconstruction with a Dacron vascular prosthesis; group ...

BACKGROUND There is a dearth of detailed published work on the anatomy of ulnar artery perforators. The objective of this study was to fully document the vascular basis of the free proximal ulnar artery perforator flap and report its use in reconstruction of the hand. METHODS (1) The ulnar artery perforators were studied in 25 fresh cadavers and 10 cast preparations. Cadavers were injected wi...

BACKGROUND Osteoradionecrosis is the most dreadful complication after head and neck irradiation. Orocutaneous fistula makes patients difficult to eat food. Fibular free flap is the choice of the flap for mandibular reconstruction. Osteocutaneous flap can reconstruct both hard and soft tissues simultaneously. This study was to investigate the success rate and results of the free fibular flap for...

In this study, we tested in vivo effectiveness of a previously developed poly-l-lactide/poly-ε-caprolactone armored vascular graft releasing heparin. This bioprosthesis was designed in order to overcome the main drawbacks of tissue-engineered vascular grafts, mainly concerning poor mechanical properties, thrombogenicity, and endothelialization. The bioprosthesis was successfully implanted in an...