Application of tunica vaginalis flap for multi-fistulas after urethroplasty in hypospadias / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To discussed a new technique for multi-fistulas after urethroplasty in hypospadias.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>8 cases with postoperative multi-fistulas, which were not successfully repaired by previous treatment, were reoperated with tunica vaginalis flap combined with urethral stent and elastic dressing. The multi-fistulas were located between glan and scrotum. The number of fistulas was 3-7 (median, 5).</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Primary healing was achieved in all the 8 cases. The micturition and esthetic result were satisfied. 5 cases were followed up for 8-10 months with no recurrence of fistula. There was also no dysuria and penile curvature.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Tunica vaginalis flap combined with urethral stent and elastic dressing is an effective technique for multi-fistulas after urethroplasty. It is easily performed with reliable result.</p>

Protein sumoylation sites prediction based on two-stage feature selection.

Protein sumoylation is one of the most important post-translational modifications. Accurate prediction of sumoylation sites is very useful for the analysis of proteome. Though the putative motif Psi K XE can be used, optimization of prediction models still remains a challenge. In this study, we developed a prediction system based on feature selection strategy. A total of 1,272 peptides with 14 residues from SUMOsp (Xue et al. [8] Nucleic Acids Res 34:W254-W257, 2006) were investigated in this study, including 212 substrates and 1,060 non-substrates. Among the substrates, only 162 substrates comply to the motif Psi K XE. First, 1,272 substrates were divided into training set and test set. All the substrates were encoded into feature vectors by hundreds of amino acid properties collected by Amino Acid Index Database (AAIndex, http://www.genome.jp/aaindex ). Then, mRMR (minimum redundancy-maximum relevance) method was applied to extract the most informative features. Finally, Nearest Neighbor Algorithm (NNA) was used to produce the prediction models. Tested by Leave-one-out (LOO) cross-validation, the optimal prediction model reaches the accuracy of 84.4% for the training set and 76.4% for the test set. Especially, 180 substrates were correctly predicted, which was 18 more than using the motif Psi K XE. The final selected features indicate that amino acid residues with two-residue downstream and one-residue upstream of the sumoylation sites play the most important role in determining the occurrence of sumoylation. Based on the feature selection strategy, our prediction system can not only be used for high throughput prediction of sumoylation sites but also as a tool to investigate the mechanism of sumoylation.

Application of tissue granule of oral mucous in plastic surgery / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the application of tissue granule of oral mucous in plastic surgery.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Tissue granule of oral mucous was placed on glutin sponge and they were used for urethral (12 cases) and vaginal (14 cases) reconstruction in 26 cases.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Satisfactory results were achieved in 24 cases. One case of urethral fistula and one case of urethral meatus stricture were happened. The two cases underwent secondary operation.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>Tissue granule of oral mucous membrane is good supply for repairing mucous defect. It has the advantages of high growth and survival rate, and less shrinkage. It is useful for urethral or vaginal reconstruction which are covered with mucous membrane.</p>

Staged treatment of the severe hypospadias in adult / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To report the treatment of serious hypospadias in adults with free graft of tubed mouth mucosa and scrotal fascia flaps.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The tubed mouth mucosa was free grafted to fabricate the distal segment of urethra. It was anastomosed to the urethra at the second stage. The scrotal fascia flap was used to cover the penile wound. The biggest flap was 3 cm in width and 6.5 cm in length.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>From Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2007, 76 adults with severe hypospadias were treated. Infection happened in 4 cases. 2 cases had urethral fistula due to the partial flap necrosis which was healed automatically within 2-4 weeks. All the other patients healed primarily.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>It is a good method for the treatment of serious hypospadias in adults with scrotal fascia flaps and free graft of tubed mouth mucosa which is anastomosed to the urethra at the second stage.</p>

Clinical application of expanded submental island flap in facial soft tissue defect / 中华整形外科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To investigate the application of the expanded submental island flap in facial soft tissue defect.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>12 patients with facial soft tissue defects were treated with the expanded submental island flaps during September 2004 to September 2008. At the first stage, soft tissue expander was implanted in the neck. At the second stage, the submental island flap was designed to repair the facial soft tissue defect. The largest size of the flap was about 16 cm x 9 cm.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>All flaps survived well except for one case of partial epidermal necrosis at the distal part of the flap. The wound healed with dressing. 4 patients were followed up for 6-24 months with satisfactory results.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The submental artery was a constant branch of facial artery. Large cervical flap with high quality tissue can be provided after expansion. The expanded submental island flap is a good choice for repairing the facial soft tissue defect.</p>