Articles: cations.
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Communicating branches between the tibial and common fibular divisions of the sciatic nerve have not been previously described. The aim of our study was to examine such neural connections. ⋯ To our knowledge, neural interconnections between the divisions of the sciatic nerve in the posterior thigh have not been described in the extant literature. Such data might help explain unusual neurologic examinations and alert the surgeon as to the potential for encountering such connections at operation.
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There is increasing attention on enhancing surgical trainee performance and competency. The purpose of this review is to identify characteristics and themes related to intraoperative teaching that will better inform interventions and assessment endeavors. ⋯ Interventions have a positive impact on trainee ratings of their faculty intraoperative teaching performance. There is discordance between trainee perceptions of quantity and quality of teaching, compared with faculty perceptions of their own teaching behaviors. Frameworks and paradigms designed to provide best practices for intraoperative teaching agree that effective teaching spans 3 phases that take place before, during, and after cases.
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Burn injury increases the risk of morbidity and mortality by promoting severe hemodynamic shock and risk for local or systemic infection. Graft failure due to poor wound healing or infection remains a significant problem for burn subjects. The mechanisms by which local burn injury compromises the epithelial antimicrobial barrier function in the burn margin, containing the elements necessary for healing of the burn site, and in distal unburned skin, which serves as potential donor tissue, are largely unknown. ⋯ We further identified diverse changes in the gene expression and protein production of several candidate skin antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in both donor skin and burn margin. These results also parallel changes in cutaneous AMP activity against common burn wound pathogens, aberrant production of epidermal proteases known to regulate barrier permeability and AMP activity, and greater production of proinflammatory cytokines known to be induced by AMPs. These findings suggest that impaired epidermal lipid and AMP regulation could contribute to graft failure and infectious complications in subjects with burn or other traumatic injury.