Journal Reviews archive for October 2014
Free flap reconstruction in stage 3 bisphosphonate related osteonecrosis
There is no widely accepted gold standard for the treatments of bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis (BRONJ). Whereas the lesser stages of this BRONJ seem to respond well to conservative and minimal invasive therapies there is controversy regarding the treatment of the later...
Additional venous anastomoses to safeguard DIEP flaps
That DIEP flaps can be troublesome is not news and many descriptions exist trying to circumvent these problems. The most common problem is venous congestion in the flap and this paper presents an ingenious method of anticipating and forestalling such...
Coupler microvascular anastomoses: how good?
This is a paper written by a group of reconstructive surgeons and school of computing. This study used computational fluid dynamics to model blood flow through ‘idealised sutured and coupled’ vessels. They investigate if the anastomotic technique affects intra vascular...
Patient-reported outcomes in oculoplastic surgery
This is an important if somewhat difficult to grasp article which tries to formally address the subject of patient-reported outcomes in oculofacial surgery. The authors have conducted an extensive review of the literature searching for instruments (questionnaires) which have been...
A tarso-conjunctival flap for paralytic ectropion
This is a review of 110 patients with paralytic ectropion who underwent a lateral tarso-conjunctival flap procedure. The technique involves fashioning a 4-8mm wide lateral tarso-conjunctival flap in a similar way to a lateral Hughes flap. This is then sutured...
USA resident working patterns and on-call
As debate rages at home regarding the uneasy relationship between the restriction on trainees’ working hours, on-call patterns and the goals and outcomes of plastic surgery training programmes, it is interesting to read of similar concerns across the Atlantic. This...