Faculty Bibliography

During wound healing, stem cells provide functional mature cells to meet acute demands for tissue regeneration. Simultaneously, the tissue must maintain a pool of stem cells to sustain its future regeneration capability. However, how these requirements are balanced in response to injury is unknown. Here we demonstrate that after wounding or ultraviolet type B irradiation, melanocyte stem cells (McSCs) in the hair follicle exit the stem cell niche before their initial cell division, potentially depleting the pool of these cells. We also found that McSCs migrate to the epidermis in a melanocortin 1 receptor (Mc1r)-dependent manner and differentiate into functional epidermal melanocytes, providing a pigmented protective barrier against ultraviolet irradiation over the damaged skin. These findings provide an example in which stem cell differentiation due to injury takes precedence over stem cell maintenance and show the potential for developing therapies for skin pigmentation disorders by manipulating McSCs.

The tips of mammalian digits can regenerate after amputation, like those of amphibians. It is unknown why this capacity is limited to the area associated with the nail. Here we show that nail stem cells (NSCs) reside in the proximal nail matrix and that the mechanisms governing NSC differentiation are coupled directly with their ability to orchestrate digit regeneration. Early nail progenitors undergo Wnt-dependent differentiation into the nail. After amputation, this Wnt activation is required for nail regeneration and also for attracting nerves that promote mesenchymal blastema growth, leading to the regeneration of the digit. Amputations proximal to the Wnt-active nail progenitors result in failure to regenerate the nail or digit. Nevertheless, beta-catenin stabilization in the NSC region induced their regeneration. These results establish a link between NSC differentiation and digit regeneration, and suggest that NSCs may have the potential to contribute to the development of novel treatments for amputees.

BACKGROUND: A number of historical texts published during the first half of the twentieth century played a pivotal role in shaping and defining modern plastic surgery in the United States. METHODS: Blair's Surgery and Diseases of the Mouth and Jaws (1912), John Staige Davis's Plastic Surgery: Its Principles and Practice (1919), Gillies's Plastic Surgery of the Face (1920), Fomon's Surgery of Injury and Plastic Repair (1939), Ivy's Manual of Standard Practice of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery, Military Surgery Manuals (1943), Padgett and Stephenson's Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (1948), and Kazanjian and Converse's The Surgical Treatment of Facial Injuries (1949) were reviewed. RESULTS: These texts were published at a time when plastic surgery was developing as a distinct specialty. Each work represents a different point in this evolution. All were not inclusive of all of plastic surgery, but all had a lasting impact. Four texts were based on clinical experience from World War I; one included experience from World War II; and two included experience from both. CONCLUSIONS: One text became a military surgical handbook in World Wars I and II, playing an important role in care for the wounded. History has demonstrated that times of war spark medical/surgical advancements, and these wars had a dramatic impact on the development of reconstructive plastic surgery. Each of these texts documented surgical advancements and provided an intellectual platform that helped shape and create the independent discipline of plastic surgery during peacetime. For many future leaders of plastic surgery, these books served as their introduction to this new field.

We report a case of a traumatic proximal interphalangeal joint injury with loss of the middle phalangeal base and articular surface, which was reconstructed with an autologous hemi-toe osteochondral graft. The patient had a 72 degrees improvement in proximal interphalangeal joint motion and excellent functional improvements. Postoperative computed tomography imaging indicated bony union and articular congruence.

BACKGROUND: Many health organizations sponsor overseas surgical outreach initiatives, yet none has published a standardized protocol to prevent and manage unforeseen emergencies. Surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and administrators-working together on a brief overseas humanitarian initiative-benefit from education and training to maximize their collective emergency responsiveness. This article outlines the emergency response protocol instituted by the Global Smile Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit global outreach organization providing comprehensive cleft care for the past 25 years. METHODS: The Global Smile Foundation emergency response protocol was constructed to provide all team members resources and training needed to emulate the high emergency response standards of developed nations. In this article, the authors share their education/training strategy, emergency "crash" cart inventory, site-specific safety checklist, and team member roles and responsibilities during various emergencies. RESULTS: The authors' protocol emphasizes equipment portability, location-specific adaptability, clear workflow/communication, and standardized team roles. On-site training is likewise portable, standardized, reproducible, efficient, and adaptive to each setting. These characteristics make the authors' protocol widely adoptable. CONCLUSIONS: Most morbidity and mortality during overseas surgical outreach initiatives result from unfamiliarity with the host hospital and other team members during operative (e.g., airway, bleeding, circulatory, anesthetic) or location-based (e.g., power outage, fire, oxygen shortage) emergencies. These complications are prevented and managed with aggressive team education and training. The Global Smile Foundation protocol adapts to the uncertainties of providing medical care in underresourced settings and reflects experience accumulated over the past quarter century. It is the authors' hope that other humanitarian outreach groups will adopt, customize, and build on these basic tenets.

BACKGROUND: The greater omentum is easily harvested for coverage of sternal wounds without muscle sacrifice. Its major disadvantage is a laparotomy incision with potential bowel injury, adhesions, or hernia. Over the past 20 years, the authors' technique has evolved to use a transdiaphragmatic opening for omental harvest when possible. METHODS: The authors performed a retrospective cohort analysis of 140 consecutive patients undergoing omental flap harvest for treatment of sternal wounds following median sternotomy. Patients were divided into two groups by access incision: laparotomy incision (n = 80) versus a transdiaphragmatic opening (n = 60). RESULTS: The authors found that both techniques provided reliable closure of sternal wounds, but the transdiaphragmatic approach was faster, with less blood loss. There was no significant difference in rates of ventral hernias. We had only one bowel injury (laparotomy group) and no postoperative abdominal bleeding or small bowel obstruction. CONCLUSION: Transdiaphragmatic omental harvest provides safe and efficient coverage of deep sternal wounds without a laparotomy incision.

Objective : In developing countries there are many adults with unrepaired cleft lip deformities. These countries often lack the equipment and personnel to provide general anesthesia for all patients; therefore, a technique for repair under local anesthesia would be useful. Method : A retrospective review was performed of 22 adolescent/adult patients on whom primary cleft lip repair was performed under local anesthesia in Bamako, Mali, in 2008 and 2009. Inclusion criteria for this technique were age greater than 12 with unilateral or bilateral deformity and ability to understand and tolerate the procedure under local anesthesia alone. Exclusion criteria included cardiopulmonary disease or inability to tolerate the procedure while awake. Demographic information and outcome data were collected including total time in the operating room, surgical time, and day of discharge. Results : Twenty-two primary cleft lip repairs were completed in 12 male and 10 female patients. Mean age was 22.3 years and mean weight was 50 kg. Overall, mean total operating room time was 145 minutes. Mean operating room time was significantly (p < .01) longer in 2008 (159 minutes) than in 2009 (114 minutes). Although mean surgical time was 110 minutes, there was a similar significant (p = .03) decrease from 2008 (119 minutes) to 2009 (91 minutes). All patients tolerated the procedure without requiring intubation or intravenous sedation, and all were discharged the same day. Conclusion : Cleft lip repair in adults under local anesthesia is safe and effective. Improvements in technique and efficiency have made this valuable in developing countries.

A subset of hydrocephalic patients in whom shunts are placed at an early age will develop craniocerebral disproportion (CCD), an iatrogenic mismatch between the fixed intracranial volume and the growing brain. The lack of a reliable, reproducible method to diagnose this condition, however, has hampered attempts to treat it appropriately. For those practitioners who acknowledge the need to create more intracranial space in these patients, the lack of agreed-upon therapeutic end points for cranial vault expansion has limited the use of such techniques and has sometimes led to problems of underexpansion. Here, the authors present a definition of CCD based primarily on the temporal correlation of plateau waves on intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring and headache exacerbation. The authors describe a technique of exploiting continued ICP monitoring during progressive cranial expansion in which the goal of distraction is the cessation of plateau waves. Previously encountered problems of underexpansion may be mitigated through the simultaneous use of ICP monitors and gradual cranial expansion over time.