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PURPOSE: Conventionally, articles dealing with nasal defects plan reconstructions regarding the aesthetic subunits, imposing their systematic respect. We propose to study the reconstruction of a crossroad region of three subunits, tip, alar lobule and lateral sidewall, where that full compliance is not possible, in our experience of 36 patients. METHODS: Our retrospective study from January 2011 to December 2012 focused on patients with a defect in this crossroad region that was repaired by skin graft or flap. We described the population of the study, histological type of the lesions, surgical procedures and complications. We evaluated the reconstructions performed with a photographic review 1 year post-surgery according to the criteria of symmetry, discoloration, thickness, shrinkage, and rating on the Vancouver Scar Scale, which helped create an overall aesthetic score for the reconstruction. RESULTS: Of 144 patients with a nasal defect, 36 of them (25%) were included, presenting a defect in our study area. The reconstruction was made by eight hatchet flaps, eight frontal flaps, seven bilobed flaps, five advanced-rotated lateronasal flaps, four nasolabial flaps, two Rybka flaps and two total skin grafts. The advanced-rotated flap, hatchet flap and bilobed flap had the highest results and scores, according to the criteria assessed. Rybka flap and total skin grafts had the lowest results. CONCLUSION: The occurrence of a defect in the crossroads seems common. In this indication, specific local flaps had a favourable outcome, including review of the overall esthetic score which was created to standardize the assessment of reconstructions.

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PURPOSE: Evaluation of the results of perioperative interstitial brachytherapy with low dose-rate (LDR) Ir-192 in the treatment of keloid scars. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of 73 histologically confirmed keloids (from 58 patients) resistant to medicosurgical treated by surgical excision plus early perioperative brachytherapy. All lesions were initially symptomatic. Local control was evaluated by clinical evaluation. Functional and cosmetic results were assessed in terms of patient responses to a self-administered questionnaire. RESULTS: Median age was 28 years (range 13-71 years). Scars were located as follows: 37% on the face, 32% on the trunk or abdomen, 16% on the neck, and 15% on the arms or legs. The mean delay before loading was four hours (range, 1-6h). The median dose was 20Gy (range, 15-40Gy). Sixty-four scars (from 53 patients) were evaluated. Local control was 86% (follow-up, 44.5 months; range, 14-150 months). All relapses occurred early - within 2 years posttreatment. At 20 months, survival without recurrence was significantly lower when treated lengths were more than 6cm long. The rate was 100% for treated scars below 4.5cm in length, 95% (95% CI: 55-96) for those 4.5-6cm long, and 75% (95% CI: 56-88) beyond 6cm (p=0.038). Of the 35 scars (28 patients) whose results were reassessed, six remained symptomatic and the esthetic results were considered to be good in 51% (18/35) and average in 37% (13/35) (median follow-up, 70 months; range, 16-181 months). CONCLUSION: Early perioperative LDR brachytherapy delivering 20Gy at 5mm reduced the rate of recurrent keloids resistant to other treatments and gave good functional results.

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The authors report a series of twelve patients with loss of substance of the dorsum of the foot or around the ankle who underwent coverage with a free temporal fascia flap. There were no failure of flaps and no vascular complication at the microanastomosis. There were three complications: partial burn of the flap with a lamp, failure of the split thickness skin graft and an area of scar alopecia at the donor site. With one year of follow up, there were no problems of cicatrisation and no patients had difficulty to the use of normal footwear. The different advantages of this flap led us to recommend it for the covering of wound in this area.

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With a case of thoraco-lumbar defect, the authors discuss about different procedures to cover it. In this place, the better procedure is certainly the latissimus dorsi flap, in all combinations. The indication for omentoplasty at this spinal site should not be performed by first intention but by exclusion of other procedures, as in the case considered by the authors. It was a 37-year-old man, paraplegic from the age of 16, with a deep chronic spinal wound, secondary to sepsis of a posterior segmental fixations. A staphylococcus aureus infection which developed as a surgical complication was initially treated with antibiotics and surgical cleaning procedures without removing instrumentation. However, the infection remained active and the material was finally removed. Spinal immobilisation was strengthened by external fixation. The area was cleared of all suspect material, including bone graft, leaving a wide back-wound open to the spine. Spontaneous healing was first attempted, but the size and the chronicity of the wound led us to use pedicled greater omentum to close the defect. The omentum was pedicled on the right gastroepiploic vessels and transferred to the back wound through the posterior abdominal wall muscles, next to the right kidney. This procedure allows rapid healing. In association with suitable antibiotics, it has prevented any recurrent infection after 18 months of follow-up. It was no feasible to cover the wound with a latissimus dorsi flap, considering the importance of this muscle in the movements of a paraplegic and considering the initial impossibility of removing the external fixation.

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Based on a case of recurrence of a dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans of the abdominal wall, the authors discuss the need for initial wide resection of this type of skin tumour and the possibilities of repair of extensive full thickness defects of the abdominal wall by means of a latissimus dorsi myocutaneous free flap.

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Thoracic empyema (development of suppuration in the thoracic cavity, usually after pneumonectomy) remains a serious complication which is difficult to treat. Failure of classical procedures (lavage-drainage) in the treatment of certain forms of pleural empyema (post-pulmonary resections), with or without associated fistula, led the authors to use the pedicled omental flaps filling material for the chronic empyema cavity. They report their experience (6 cases over a period of 4 years) and define the indications. Omentoplasty has a real place, next to myoplasty, in the therapeutic arsenal for chronic empyema due to its detersion capacity, particularly useful in a "septic" context and because of its volume which is usually sufficient in retracted cavities. The existence of an associated bronchial fistula, history of radiotherapy, posterolateral thoracostomy (sectioned latissimus dorsi) are additional reasons to prefer omentoplasty over myoplasty.

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Lumbar hernias are rare (2% of abdominal wall hernias). Symptomatology consists frequently only of an arch formation seen best with the patient sitting and when coughing. In adults it is twice as frequent in women and on the left side. Acute events, dominated by incarceration of a digestive segment, particularly colic, often suggest the diagnosis (10% of cases). Diagnosis is simple when confronted with a large hernia, but difficulties arise with those less than 5 cm in diameter, often diagnosed as a lipoma or parietal tumor. Conventional radiographs and ultrasound images are usually sufficient to establish the correct diagnosis and to determine the content of the hernial sac, but computed tomography scans can provide data on the exact limits of the defect and allow evaluation of possible problems during surgical repair. Rarely congenital (10%), these hernias occur either secondary to a violent lumbo-abdomino-pelvic injury (25%) or following surgical intervention to the lumbar region (50% of cases). Small hernias can be repaired using the direct approach but larger deficits require the insertion of a reinforcing non absorbable prosthesis. Long term results, both for the 4 cases reported and those published in the literature, were assessed as satisfactory.

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Management of abdominal wounds is presently the subject of discussion between the partisans of routine laparotomy and those preferring "armed" surveillance. Results of study of a series of 176 abdominal wounds subjected to surgical dogma showed: that the diagnosis of non penetrating wounds (17.6%) was not always evident, due either to their anatomical localization (frontier region wounds) or to insufficient local exploration in urgent cases (6.6% of false-negatives), that the existence of serious clinical signs (50 cases) was always associated with one or more visceral lesions, requiring urgent laparotomy with a morbidity of 20% and a mortality of 8% (4 cases), that in the case of asymptomatic penetrating wounds (96 cases), routine laparotomy did nevertheless allow the diagnosis of visceral lesions in 50 cases (including 23 major lesions) but was of no utility in 46 cases (31.5% of blind laparotomies for the total series). The elevated proportion of useless laparotomies (30% in the literature), the result of a dogmatic attitude, or the risk of a delayed intervention (5 to 8%) in the series practising the selective method, led to a modification in the authors' attitude. The existence of serious signs should obviously result in a laparotomy. In their absence, and when confronted with a penetrating or doubtful (frontier region) wound, an exploratory celioscopy is proposed to ensure complete abdominal exploration, to confirm the presence or absence of penetration, to treat minimal lesions and to perform a classical laparotomy in case of evident necessity.

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From 1981 to 1991 inclusive, 188 operations were carried out for diverticular sigmoiditis. One hundred and thirty-nine patients were operated in emergency for acute complications (123) or fistulae (16), and another 49 had surgery scheduled outside acute crisis periods. Mortality and morbidity respectively are 16.5 and 31% in the first group, against 0 and 12% in the second one. Similarly, the stay in hospital varies from 13 days for scheduled surgery to 23 days for emergent surgery, the latter also requiring to account for risks and for the duration of a second operation that is far from exceptional (40%). Considering the severity of some evolutive complications, the authors advocate early radical surgery for symptomatic diverticular sigmoiditis, after the second crisis or as soon as the first one if it has been severe, and in young subjects and patients at risks.

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Collection of 10 or more stones in the extrahepatic common bile duct causes lithiasic obstruction of the CBD, a fairly rare entity observed in less than 10% of cases of bile duct lithiasis. This study is based on 35 cases recorded over 10 years, including 60% in patients aged more than 75 years. Endoscopic treatment was attempted in 28% of patients and was totally successful in one case our of four only because of insufficient removal of obstruction after sphincterotomy. Surgery, either necessary (8 cases) or systematic (25 cases) combines cholecystectomy, choledocotomy and biliary fiberendoscopy for a complete treatment minimizing the risks of residual lithiasis. While biliodigestive anastomoses prevailed (58%) during the first years of this study, external biliary drainage was most often chosen during the last 5 years. This surgery in aged patients still entails high morbidity (25%) and considerable mortality (9%). Better efficacy may be provided in the future by the combination of fiberendoscopic means and of lithotrity for aged subjects at high surgical risks.

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