Vascularized Composite Allograft Versus Prosthetic for Reconstruction After Facial and Hand Trauma: Comparing Cost, Complications, and Long-term Outcome

ABSTRACT

In the past decade, vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) has become clinical reality for reconstruction after face and hand trauma. It offers patients the unique opportunity to regain form and function in a way that had only been achieved with traditional reconstruction or with the use of prostheses. On the other hand, prostheses for facial and hand reconstruction have continued to evolve over the years and, in many cases, represent the primary option for patients after hand and face trauma. We compared the cost, associated complications, and long-term outcomes of VCA with prostheses for reconstruction of the face and hand/upper extremity. Ultimately, VCA and prostheses represent 2 different reconstructive options with distinct benefit profiles and associated limitations and should ideally not be perceived as competing choices. Our work adds a valuable component to the general framework guiding the decision to offer VCA or prostheses for reconstruction after face and upper extremity trauma.

Postoperative free flap monitoring in reconstructive surgery-man or machine?

Free tissue transfer is widely used for the reconstruction of complex tissue defects. The survival of free flaps depends on the patency and integrity of the microvascular anastomosis. Accordingly, the early detection of vascular comprise and prompt intervention are indispensable to increase flap survival rates. Such monitoring strategies are commonly integrated into the perioperative algorithm, with clinical examination still being considered the gold standard for routine free flap monitoring. Despite its widespread acceptance as state of the art, the clinical examination also has its pitfalls, such as the limited applicability in buried flaps and the risk of poor interrater agreement due to inconsistent flap (failure) appearances. To compensate for these shortcomings, a plethora of alternative monitoring tools have been proposed in recent years, each of them with inherent strengths and limitations. Given the ongoing demographic change, the number of older patients requiring free flap reconstruction, e.g., after cancer resection, is rising. Yet, age-related morphologic changes may complicate the free flap evaluation in elderly patients and delay the prompt detection of clinical signs of flap compromise. In this review, we provide an overview of currently available and employed methods for free flap monitoring, with a special focus on elderly patients and how senescence may impact standard free flap monitoring strategies.

The Limulus amebocyte lysate assay. A rapid and sensitive method for diagnosing early gram-negative peritonitis in patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

The Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay was used in a blinded, prospective fashion to analyze peritoneal fluids from 35 consecutive patients undergoing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), who presented with clinical peritonitis. The results were correlated with standard microbiologic culture results. The LAL assay was positive in all three patients with gram-negative peritonitis, was appropriately negative in 24 of 28 gram-positive infections (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 86%) and was positive in two of five cases in which there was no microbiologic growth. One of the two patients in this last group yielded a gram-negative organism two days later. It was then demonstrated that therapeutic concentrations of a variety of antibiotics (cefazolin sodium, gentamicin sulfate, tobramycin sulfate, ticarcillin disodium, penicillin G potassium, vancomycin hydrochloride, metronidazole hydrochloride, piperacillin sodium, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) did not interfere with the LAL assay. Together, these data indicate that the LAL assay is useful for identifying patients at high risk for gram-negative peritonitis and for excluding from possible aminoglycoside exposure the majority of patients with peritonitis undergoing CAPD, most of whom will have gram-positive infections. Furthermore, lack of antibiotic interference allows the possibility of monitoring treatment efficacy.