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INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Conjoined twin is a rare congenital anomaly characterized by a fusion of certain anatomical structures. Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) is a new emerging infectious respiratory disease affecting worldwide and potentially leads to acute respiratory distress (ARDS) in children. COVID-19 has reconstructed the healthcare system, including surgical care and decision-making. CASE PRESENTATION: Herein we describe a surgical separation of 2.5 months old omphalopagus conjoined twins, with one of them (Baby A) presenting COVID-19-associated respiratory distress, as well as the challenges faced during the preparation and the execution of the complex surgical procedure. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: Baby A underwent antiviral therapy, oxygen supplementation, and ventilation in the ICU, while baby B remained stable and confirmed negative for SARS-CoV-2. The separation surgery was conducted after baby A had become clinically stable. Defect closure and reconstruction were accomplished. At one week follow-up, Baby A died of lung infection, while baby B remained well after one year. CONCLUSION: The complexity of surgical separation requires careful planning by a multidisciplinary team. Surgical separation of conjoined twins during the pandemic era has not been reported much in the literature, more reports are required to provide further insight.
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INTRODUCTION: Conjoined twins are a rare medical phenomenon that poses unique challenges for surgeons. Separation of conjoined twins involves multidisciplinary teamwork, complex medical management and surgical planning, and multi-stage operations and often still has a high mortality and morbidity rate. In the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, separation of conjoined twins pose even greater challenges. Aiming for the best outcome possible, while minimizing the risk of COVID transmission and ensuring the safety of the personnel, is paramount. This case report presents thoraco-omphalopagus twins who were successfully separated at 4 months of age. The preoperative planning, operative details, postoperative follow-ups, and outcomes are discussed. METHODS: The absence of a tissue expander and the inability to acquire it due to travel restrictions from COVID-19 further complicated the management on this patient. A Routine Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) swab test was performed on the patients and personnel. Standardized personnel protective equipment (PPE) was worn during ward and surgical care. After separation of the twins by cardiothoracic and pediatric surgeons, one twin underwent immediate skin closure using a double keystone perforator island flap and a lower abdominal perforator flap. Due to extensive defects, closure was delayed for the second twin. After a series of dressing changes, eventually local perforator flaps could be raised to close the defect using staged tension sutures and skin grafts for secondary defects. RESULTS: Both twins were discharged with no significant morbidity, and no personnel were exposed to COVID-19 infection during the management. CONCLUSION: Preoperative coordination and planning, multidisciplinary effort, adherence to screening protocols for COVID, and strict use of standardized PPE all contributed to the successful separation of thoraco-omphalopagus conjoined twins during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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BACKGROUND: Various methods have been described to close large meningomyelocele defects, but no technique has been proven superior to others. This study presents cases of meningomyelocele defect closure with a keystone-design perforator island flap. METHODS: A retrospective study was performed on 14 patients with meningomyelocele defects closed using various types of keystone flaps. RESULTS: The median age of the patients at surgery was 10.5 days (range, 1-369 days) and the average defect size was 22.5 cm2 (range, 7.1-55.0 cm2). The average operative time for defect closure was 89.6 minutes (range, 45-120 minutes). Type IV bilateral keystone flaps were used for four defects, type IV unilateral flaps for six defects, type IIA flaps for two defects, and type III flaps for two defects. CONCLUSIONS: All the defects healed completely with no major complications. The keystone-design perforator island flap is a reliable, easy, and fast technique to close large meningomyelocele defects.
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INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE: Retroperitoneal abscess is a rare disease that is often difficult to diagnose and require multidisciplinary management. We report a case of large retroperitoneal abscess and the usage lumbar artery perforator (LAP) for the defect closure. CASE PRESENTATION: A 52-year-old-women was admitted to our emergency with a chief complaint of left flank pain. Patient had history of multiple genitourinary tract procedure and diabetes mellitus type 2. We found a bulging mass on the left flank accompanied by pressure pain. A contrast CT scan revealed a large abscess on the retroperitoneal region that involved the left retroperitoneal hemiabdomen muscles. We performed multistage-treatment comprising of radical abscess debridement, followed by honey-impregnated gauze and negative pressure wound therapy for wound bed preparation. Post-debridement, the defect was closed with LAP and keystone flap. LAP flap was raised and transposed to close the defect on the caudal area. One-month follow up showed the outcome was satisfactory. CLINICAL DISCUSSION: In our case, the source of infection was thought to origin from genitourinary infection. The history of multiple urology procedures and diabetes mellitus became the main risk factors. Multistage managements were needed to eradicate the abscess. The usage of NPWT and honey-impregnated gauze was proven successful in preparing the wound bed prior to definitive closure. Lastly, the utilization LAP flap combined with keystone flap showed satisfactory outcome for defect closure. CONCLUSION: The management of patient with large retroperitoneal abscess require multidisciplinary approach including extensive debridement and well-prepared wound bed. In this report, LAP flap was proven reliable option to resurface large defect around flank area.
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Currently, there are no harmonized guidelines which govern skin banking in the Asia Pacific region. Therefore, skin banks are either unregulated or rely on their nation's legislation or international accreditation to uphold their quality standards. A new set of skin banking guidelines was developed through a comprehensive review and collation of best international practices for the Asia Pacific Burn Association (APBA) members, from donor screening and testing, to skin recovery, processing, storage and distribution, and quality assurance. National regulatory requirements reviewed include the European directives, Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration and Singapore's tissue banking standards. Further technical and quality management recommendations are referenced from the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB), the United States Food and Drug Administration standards and guidance documents, various relevant European guides, Japanese Society of Tissue Transplantation guidelines and the Asia Pacific Association of Surgical Tissue Banking. Adapted mainly from the AATB standards, the new Asia Pacific Burn Association Guidelines for Skin Banking in Therapeutic Applications offer a comprehensive manual, addressing: governance and contracts; staff responsibilities; quality management; facilities, equipment and supplies management; donor consent and testing; and recommendations of good practices pertaining to skin recovery, processing, storage and distribution. Besides complementing current generic regulations, they provide technical specifications of major aspects unaddressed in most legislations. This inaugural set of new regional skin banking guidelines would be a start for regional members of the APBA to adopt, and will hopefully culminate in a set of standards so that, in the long run, skin allografts from this region can be of similar quality, which can simplify import process and facilitate the exchange of allografts between members.
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BACKGROUND: Tangential excision in burn patients results in blood loss, with an average of 100 ml per 1% total body surface area (TBSA) excised. This substantial blood loss will be accompanied by decreasing serum albumin concentration, increasing inflammation, capillary leakage, and surgical stress. The importance of maintaining albumin level in burn injury is essential for wound healing, decreasing the susceptibility of sepsis, and preventing acute respiratory distress syndrome, the leading causes of death in burn injuries. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study at our plastic surgery center in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia from January 2018. Serum albumin were sampled taken preoperatively and postoperatively after 24 h. Correlation to the percentage of burn tissue excised was analyzed. RESULT: Twenty-eight patients with burn injury were enrolled as study subjects. There was a significant drop in serum albumin after tangential excision surgery compared to prior surgery in burn patients with mean reduction of 8.6 ± 7.3% (P-value < 0.05) to the mean postoperative albumin value is 0.15 ± 0.1 g/dL. The albumin drop was correlated with blood loss (r = 0.326, P-value < 0.05) but not with the excision area (r = 0.196), length of surgery (r = -0.077) and TBSA (r = -0.213). Strong correlation was shown between excision area with the amount of blood loss (r = 0.567, P-value = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Tangential excision leads to a reduction in postoperative serum albumin concentration. The magnitude of albumin reduction strongly correlated with the amount of blood loss amount during the procedure.