Injury
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A 22-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of polytrauma following a car accident. The instrumental investigations detected parenchymatous and bone lesions, including a floating elbow (articular distal humerus fracture associated with ipsilateral forearm fracture). After initial temporary stabilization with external fixator and restoration of hemodynamics, we proceeded to the fixation of the upper limb. To reduce local and general risks of complications, a two-stage reconstruction technique has been applied.
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A 20-year-old man was admitted to our hospital having sustianed bilateral high-energy femoral fractures. The right femoral fracture was an open grade 3B with OTA grade 3 bone loss. The patient had also a brain contusion with a subdural haematoma and a closed fracture of the left clavicle. ⋯ After the operation the patient started progressive weight bearing. A year after trauma and following union of the femur, the patient underwent soft tissue reconstruction of the anterior side of the thigh with a free vascularised flap. At final follow upo the patient had a good functional recovery with return to his previous occupation.
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Open pelvic fractures are caused by high-energy trauma. Injuries to other organs are common and the mortality rate can be as high as 50%. Perineal injury is reported in 5% of open pelvic fractures. ⋯ He underwent an early diverting colostomy in order to prevent pelvic sepsis and subsequent stage reconstruction of the pelvic ring. At a 4-year follow-up a full recovery was present. The aim of this paper is to underline the importance of a safe, approach to manage open pelvic fractures.
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CISD2 is known to have roles in calcium metabolism, anti-apoptosis, and longevity. However, whether CISD2 is involved in the inflammatory response associated with injuries of the central nervous system (CNS) remains unclear. This issue is particularly relevant for traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCIs), which lack therapeutic targeting and often cause long-term disability in patients. The authors previously demonstrated the neuroprotective effects of curcumin against RANTES-mediated neuroinflammation. In this study, we investigated (1) the role of CISD2 in injury-induced inflammation and (2) whether curcumin influences CISD2 expression in acute SCI. ⋯ To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the following: (1) CISD2 exerts anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory effects in neural cells; and (2) curcumin can attenuate the downregulation of CISD2 in SCI and LPS-treated astrocytes.
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This study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of Bone Morphogenetic Protein-7 (BMP-7) transduced muscle cells on bone formation and to further develop an innovative abbreviated ex vivo gene therapy for bone repair. As conventional ex vivo gene therapy methods require an elaborative and time-consuming extraction and expansion of cells we evaluated an expedited approach. Fragments of muscle tissue were directly activated by BMP-7 cDNA and implanted into bone defects. ⋯ This study shows that BMP-7 gene activated muscle fragments have the potential to regenerate critical-size segmental bone defects in rats. However, further development of this promising expedited treatment modality is required to improve the healing rate and to investigate if the high infection rate is related to treatment with BMP-7 activated muscle grafts.