Alveolar hydatid disease: imaging findings and surgical approach.

PURPOSE: We report six cases of Alveolar Hydatid Disease (five in the liver and one in the gastrosplenic ligament invading the spleen) in which curative resection of the liver (five cases) and splenectomy (one case) were performed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The records of the six patients with AHD were retrospectively evaluated. Demographics of the patients, symptoms, laboratory findings, including serology were recorded. Imaging studies determined the extent of the disease preoperatively. Classification of the lesions was done according to the PNM (P = parasitic mass in the liver, N = involvement of neighbouring organs, and M = metastasis) staging system designed by the World Health Organization. All the surgical procedures were performed as complete resections, where negative margins were approved by frozen sections. Chemotherapy with albendazole (10 mg/kg/day) was continued postoperatively for two years in five of the six patients who were alive. RESULTS: All of the cases were from East Anatolia of Turkey, which is an endemic region. The mean age was 39.6 years (15-54 years). Major complications occurred post-operatively in all patients, possibly due to the extensive resection. No recurrence was seen during the 5 year follow-up of two cases and 2 year follow-up of three cases. CONCLUSION: The treatment of Alveolar Hydatid Disease is curative radical resection. Thus, pre-operative imaging studies to determine the extent and stage of the disease are of crucial importance.

Posttraumatic epidermal inclusion cyst of the deep infratemporal fossa.

The authors report a case of an epidermal inclusion cyst found in the deep infratemporal fossa 12 years after the patient sustained blunt trauma to that region. Posttraumatic epidermal inclusion cysts are rare and occur mainly in the fingers, palms, and soles. Introduction of the epidermal elements into the dermis during the trauma is thought to be the cause. This case is rare in presentation, with few reports in the English literature that describe an epidermal inclusion cyst in the deep infratemporal fossa. Review of the English literature disclosed no other cases of epidermal inclusion cyst after blunt trauma involving the deep infratemporal region.

Muscle tissue engineering.

Only recently have scientists come to appreciate that many tissues and cell populations that were formerly considered to be in a terminally differentiated state are capable of division and or dedifferentiation. It is the goal of the tissue engineer to understand and redirect this potential. Muscle tissue-engineering efforts will be directed toward building in vitro replacements for in vivo problems. Tissue-engineering advances will be interdependent with advances in gene therapy techniques to restore function at a cellular level.

Control of attachment, morphology, and proliferation of skeletal myoblasts on silanized glass.

Generating skeletal muscle in vitro is an attractive approach to overcome problems associated with autologous transfer of muscle and donor site morbidity during plastic surgery. Such tissue engineering requires application of biomaterials that selectively control the attachment, morphology, and proliferation of muscle progenitor ("satellite") cells. This study examined the initial attachment, morphological characteristics, and proliferative behavior of murine C2C12 myoblasts on glass substrata derivatized with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of the organosiloxanes N-(2-aminoethyl)(3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane (EDA) and tridecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrooctyl-1-dimethylchlorosil ane (13F). The fraction of myoblasts resisting detachment upon rinsing was greater on EDA than on 13F. Application of a quantitative moments-based analysis of cell morphology demonstrated that projected area and two size-invariant metrics of shape (extension and dispersion) for these cells were greater for EDA than for 13F. Myoblasts also proliferated faster on EDA than on 13F. These data indicate that EDA-derivatized glass provides a superior substratum for myoblast culture compared to 13F-derivatized glass. Understanding myoblast behavior on these biomaterials that promotes contrasting cellular responses is the first step toward using patterned SAMs to control myotube alignment for tissue engineering skeletal muscle.