Optimizing Fingertip Reconstruction: A Comparative Analysis of Reverse Homodigital Island and Digital Artery Perforator Flaps.

Background: Fingertip amputations are a common form of hand trauma and often require soft tissue reconstruction when replantation is not feasible. The reverse homodigital island flap (RHI) and the digital artery perforator flap (DAP) are two widely used techniques for fingertip reconstruction; however, direct comparisons of their clinical outcomes remain limited.

Methods: This retrospective study analyzed 39 patients who underwent either RHI (n = 20) or DAP (n = 19) procedures for fingertip injuries.

Superior axonal regeneration of non-commercially available PLA/PCL conduits vs commercially available PGA and collagen nerve conduits for the treatment of a rat sciatic nerve defects: A preliminary report.

Background: Bioabsorbable nerve conduits have recently emerged as alternatives to autologous nerve grafts in peripheral nerve defects. Two types of nerve conduits have thus far been approved for clinical use in Japan: a polyglycolic acid (PGA) conduit and a collagen conduit. However, no studies have yet compared their efficacy in peripheral nerve reconstruction.

Phylogenetic characterization of the pork tapeworm Taenia solium in Japan: implications for the enigmatic evolutionary history.

Taenia solium is a tapeworm of the family Taeniidae that causes neurocysticercosis, a serious zoonotic disease in humans. Its life cycle involves pigs and wild boars as intermediate hosts and humans as the sole definitive host. Since poor sanitation and free-roaming pigs contribute to maintaining its life cycle, cysticercosis is endemic in developing countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while local transmission is generally absent in developed countries.

Comparison of dynamic compression plate systems with oblique osteotomy and locking plate fixation versus transverse osteotomy and non-locking plate fixation for ulnar shortening osteotomy.

Background: Ulnar shortening osteotomy (USO) is a well-established surgical technique for ulnar impaction syndrome and triangular fibrocartilage complex injuries, but complications like delayed union and nonunion are often encountered. Transverse and oblique osteotomy techniques are commonly used, yet direct comparisons using advanced implants are limited. This study aims to compare the clinical and radiological outcomes of USO using the Jplate with a transverse osteotomy device and the APTUS Wrist Ulna Shortening System 2.

Anatomic Variation of the Hamate Hook as a Potential Risk in Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of anomalies in patients who underwent endoscopic carpal tunnel release and their relationship with clinical outcomes.

Methods: This retrospective study included 65 hands of 57 patients (8 men and 49 women; mean age, 64.9 years) who underwent endoscopic carpal tunnel release for carpal tunnel syndrome at our hospital between March 2016 and April 2022.

Fracture healing on non-union fracture model promoted by non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma.

Non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma (NTAPP) is attracting widespread interest for use in medical applications. The tissue repair capacity of NTAPP has been reported in various fields; however, little is known about its effect on fracture healing. Non-union or delayed union after a fracture is a clinical challenge.

Peripheral nerve regeneration by bioabsorbable nerve conduits filled with platelet-rich fibrin.

Purpose: To repair peripheral nerve defects and seek alternatives for autografts, nerve conduits with various growth factors and cells have been invented. Few pieces of literature report the effect of nerve conduits plus platelet-rich fibrin (PRF). This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of nerve conduits filled with PRF.

First report of Mycobacterium virginiense-induced synovitis and tenosynovitis of flexor digitorum superficialis and profundus muscles in Japan.

Mycobacterium virginiense, a species of the Mycobacterium terrae complex, was first identified in 2016. Although M. virginiense has only been reported to cause tenosynovitis, there have been only a few reports.

Nerve-End Capping Treatment with a Polyglycolic Acid Conduit for Rat Sciatic Neuroma: A Preliminary Report.

Background:  The treatment of painful neuroma remains challenging. Recently, a nerve-end capping technique using a bioabsorbable nerve conduit was newly introduced to treat amputation neuroma. A collagen-coated polyglycolic acid (PGA) conduit has been commercially available for the reconstruction of peripheral nerve defects, yielding successful clinical outcomes.

Nerve Grafting for Isolated Injury to the Intrinsic Motor Branch of the Ulnar Nerve due to a Stab Injury: A Case Report.

Isolated injury to the deep motor branch of the ulnar nerve caused by stabbing is sporadic, with only one reported case in the English-language literature. We report one such case treated successfully using nerve grafting. A 33-year-old patient had sustained a stab wound to the right hypothenar eminence and showed a claw hand deformity.

Microvascular neural blood flow assessment for a chronic nerve compression neuropathy mouse model by fluorescein angiography.

Background And Aims: Intraoperative fluorescence angiography with indocyanine green or fluorescein is used in ophthalmology and neurosurgery. However, there are few reports on the use of fluorescence angiography for peripheral neuropathy. This study aimed to assess the validity of fluorescein angiography (FAG) for peripheral nerve entrapment neuropathy.

Silicone Implant Arthroplasty for Severe Bony Ankylosis of the Proximal Interphalangeal Joints in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Arthrodesis and prosthetic arthroplasty have been used to treat severe proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joint arthritis. Silicone implant arthroplasty is an established treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of the fingers. However, few studies have reported the application of silicone implant arthroplasty for the treatment of severe ankylosis of the PIP joint in RA patients.

Nerve capping treatment using a bioabsorbable nerve conduit with open or closed end for rat sciatic neuroma.

Background And Aims: Nerve capping treatment using bioabsorbable nerve conduits has recently been introduced for painful amputation neuroma. However, no clinical or experimental data are available for comparing nerve conduits with open distal ends and closed distal ends. Here, we investigated the nerve conduit with open or closed distal ends as the superior capping device, using a commercially available polyglycolic acid (PGA) nerve conduit in a rat sciatic nerve amputation model.

Pain and numbness one month after carpal tunnel release predict patient-reported outcome measures at sixth months.

A number of outcome predictors for carpal tunnel release (CTR) for carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) have been reported. However, some predictors are controversial, and few studies have referred to the early postoperative outcome prognostic factors after CTR. The aim of this study was to investigate whether pain and numbness at 1 month post-CTR were early postoperative predictors of clinical outcomes 6 months after surgery.

Long-term survival of transplanted induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurospheres with nerve conduit into sciatic nerve defects in immunosuppressed mice.

Since the advent of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), clinical trials using iPSC-based cell transplantation therapy have been performed in various fields of regenerative medicine. We previously demonstrated that the transplantation of mouse iPSC-derived neurospheres containing neural stem/progenitor cells with bioabsorbable nerve conduits promoted nerve regeneration in the long term in murine sciatic nerve defect models. However, it remains unclear how long the grafted iPSC-derived neurospheres survived and worked after implantation.

Fate and contribution of induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurospheres transplanted with nerve conduits to promote peripheral nerve regeneration in mice.

Background: We previously demonstrated that a bioabsorbable nerve conduit coated with mouse induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurospheres accelerated peripheral nerve regeneration in mice.

Objective: We examined the fate and utility of iPSC-derived neurospheres transplanted with nerve conduits for the treatment of sciatic nerve gaps in mice.

Methods: Complete 5-mm defects were created in sciatic nerves and reconstructed using nerve conduits that were either uncoated or coated with mouse iPSC-derived neurospheres.

Bioabsorbable nerve conduits three-dimensionally coated with human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural stem/progenitor cells promote peripheral nerve regeneration in rats.

Peripheral nerve regeneration using nerve conduits has been less effective than autogenous nerve grafts. To overcome this hurdle, we developed a tissue-engineered nerve conduit coated with mouse induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived neurospheres, for the first time, which accelerated nerve regeneration in mice. We previously demonstrated the long-term efficacy and safety outcomes of this hybrid nerve conduit for mouse peripheral nerve regeneration.

Enhanced Exciton-Exciton Collisions in an Ultraflat Monolayer MoSe Prepared through Deterministic Flattening.

Squeezing bubbles and impurities out of interlayer spaces by applying force through a few-layer graphene capping layer leads to van der Waals heterostructures with the ultraflat structure free from random electrostatic potential arising from charged impurities. Without the graphene capping layer, a squeezing process with an AFM tip induces applied-force-dependent charges of Δ ∼ 2 × 10 cm μN, resulting in the significant intensity of trions in photoluminescence spectra of MoSe at low temperature. We found that a hBN/MoSe/hBN prepared with the "graphene-capping-assisted AFM nano-squeezing method" shows a strong excitonic emission with negligible trion peak, and the residual line width of the exciton peak is only 2.

Microscopic Mechanism of Van der Waals Heteroepitaxy in the Formation of MoS/hBN Vertical Heterostructures.

Recent studies have revealed that van der Waals (vdW) heteroepitaxial growth of 2D materials on crystalline substrates, such as hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), leads to the formation of self-aligned grains, which results in defect-free stitching between the grains. However, how the weak vdW interaction causes a strong limitation on the crystal orientation of grains is still not understood yet. In this work, we have focused on investigating the microscopic mechanism of the self-alignment of MoS grains in vdW epitaxial growth on hBN.

Simultaneous Opposition Tendon Transfer with Median Nerve Decompression for Severe Bilateral Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in Adolescents with Hunter Syndrome: A Case Report.

Although carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is exceedingly rare in children, its prevalence in those with Hunter syndrome, mucopolysaccharidosis type II, is high. With the advent of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and enzyme replacement therapy, the survival of patients with Hunter syndrome has dramatically improved. With improved longevity in these patients, CTS continues to progress with age.

Flexor tenosynovitis of the hand due to rare nontuberculous mycobacterium () in an immunocompromised patient.

We report a case of purulent flexor tenosynovitis caused by in an immunosuppressed patient who received renal transplantation. Three synovial debridements and multiple antimicrobial administrations with clarithromycin, rifampicin, and moxifloxacin have been performed. No apparent recurrence has been observed two years after the final operation.

Traumatic index extensor tendon attenuation mimicking closed tendon rupture: two case reports.

Background: While some traumatic closed index extensor tendon ruptures at the musclotendinous junction have been previously reported, closed index extensor tendon pseudorupture due to intertendinous attenuation is exceedingly rare with only one case report of a gymnastics-related sports injury in the English literature. Herein, we report two non-sports injury related cases of traumatic index extensor tendon attenuation mimicking closed tendon rupture, including the pathological findings and intraoperative video of the attenuated extensor indicis proprius tendon.

Case Presentation: A 28-year-old man and a 30-year-old man caught their hands in a high-speed drill and lathe, respectively, which caused a sudden forced flexion of their wrists.