A tribute to Dr. Robert C. Allen, an inspirational teacher, humanitarian, and friend (Nov. 18, 1950-Mar. 24, 2005).

Dr. Robert C. Allen was a gifted educator, as well as experienced ophthalmologist, who was a close personal friend of Dr. Edlich at the University of Virginia Health System. While serving on the faculty at the University of Virginia Health System, Dr. Allen proved to be a compassionate physician, who developed close personal relationships with the residents, faculty, and his patients. Dr. Allen was invited by Dr Edlich to be a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Long-Term Effects of Medical Implants. When Dr. Allen told Dr. Edlich that he had ocular melanoma in 2000, this news was a wake-up call to Dr. Edlich on the need to prevent skin cancer, as well as ocular melanoma. Empowered by this news, Dr. Edlich was honored to co-author four articles on skin cancer prevention, as well as the latest article focusing on prevention of ocular melanoma. The Ocular Melanoma Foundation (Richmond, VA (USA)) was founded in 2003 by Dr. Robert C. Allen to increase awareness, enhance education, and provide advocacy among both patients and health care professionals regarding this rare, but potentially lethal cancer. It has a website that provides patient information, up-to-date information and enables communication/ discourse between and among patients and practitioners (admin@ocularmelanoma.org). Dr. Allen died on March 24, 2005, at his home surrounded by family and loved ones. When surgeons are faced with challenging healthcare diseases, Dr. Edlich's mentor, Dr. Owen Wangensteen, advised Dr. Edlich that he should seek the advice and guidance of skilled basic scientists, who are familiar with the problem. Dr. Wangensteen is recognized as the greatest surgical teacher during the 20th century. Consequently, Dr. Edlich enlisted the advice and guidance from the two co-authors of the next article regarding the scientific basis for the selection of sunglasses to prevent the development of cataracts, pterygia, skin cancer, as well as ocular melanoma. Dr. Reichow is a Professor of Optometry at Pacific University College of Optometry (Forest Grove, OR (USA)). Dr. Citek is Associate Professor of Optometry at Pacific University College of Optometry (Forest Grove (USA)). In their comprehensive evaluation of sunglasses, they found some disturbing results. Despite being endorsed by The Skin Cancer Foundation, the Walgreens eyewear samples offer only partial protection to the potential hazards of sunlight exposure. Those individuals who spend considerable time outdoors should seek sun filter eyewear with impact resistant polycarbonate lenses that provide 100% ultraviolet filtration, high levels of blue light filtration, and full visual field lens/frame coverage as provided by high wrap eyewear. There are several brands that offer products with such protective characteristics. Performance sun eyewear by Nike Vision (Nike Inc., Portland OR [USA]), available in both corrective and plano (nonprescription) forms, is one such brand incorporating these protective features, as well as patented optical and tint designs. Numerous Nike styles offer interchangeable lens options to meet the changing environmental conditions encountered outdoors. These technologies are incorporated into performance-driven frame designs inspired by feedback from some of the world's best athletes. Nonprescription Nike eyewear are available on-line at http://www.nike.com/nikevision, as well as at various well-known retail outlets. Nonprescription and prescription Nike eyewear are also available at the offices of many eye care professionals. Even though our latest report did not include soft contact lens, it is important to emphasize that Dr. Reichow and Dr. Citek have played a leadership role in coordinating the development of the Nike MAXSIGHT, an innovative fully tinted soft contact lens. This contact lens provides distortion-free optics, whether or not you wear prescription contacts. They filter out more than 90% of harmful blue light and 95% of UVA and UVB. For the contact lens, you should go to the website for more information http://www.nike.com/nikevision/content.html. The website has a list of practitioners who can service the patients with the respective sunglasses. With their exciting technologic advances in sunglass products, as well as tinted soft contact lens, the authors would encourage Nike Vision to develop an expanded international marketing program that allows all individuals in the world to easily purchase its products.

Syneture stainless STEEL suture. A collective review of its performance in surgical wound closure.

Syneture (division of U.S. Surgical, division of Tyco Healthcare, Norwalk, Connecticut, USA) STEEL sutures are monofilament stainless steel sutures composed of 316L stainless steel conforming to ASTM Standard F138 grade 2 (" Stainless steel bar and wire for surgical implant"). STEEL sutures meet all requirements established by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) for nonabsorbable surgical sutures. Steel sutures are for use in abdominal wound closure, intestinal anastomosis, hernia repair, sternal closure, and skin closure. They are attached to the following types of surgical needles: Roto-Grip Needles and SCC Needle. The sutures and needles are packaged in a Mylar/Tyvek outer envelope. The purposes of this clinical review are two fold. First, we will report the performance of the Syneture STEEL suture product in the largest studies of suture performance ever reported in the literature. In addition, we will provide comprehensive information from the surgical literature that highlights the unique benefits of stainless steel sutures for the following wound closure techniques: sternal fixation, abdominal wound repair, inguinal hernia repair, and skin wound closure. Consorta Inc. (Rolling Meadows, Illinois), a leading healthcare resource management group purchasing organization, and Syneture, jointly with a clinician task force, designed a reproducible surgical evaluation program for needles and sutures in a large cooperative of healthcare systems. Because of the subjective nature of the more commonly used suture selection techniques, a nonexperimental observational study approach was designed to replace perception of performance characteristics with actual clinical experience. In a report involving 19 Consorta shareholder hospitals, they discussed the preliminary part (Phase I) of a large nonexperimental observational study of the clinical performance of surgical needles and sutures. Performance characteristics of the sutures and needles produced by Syneture that were evaluated in 3407 surgical procedures included packaging/ease of opening, needle strength and sharpness, tissue drag, knot security, tensile strength, clinically acceptable determinations, and clinically unacceptable determinations. In this preliminary study, the surgeons concluded that the needles and sutures were clinically acceptable in 98.1% of the evaluations. Armed with this favorable experience, we wanted to expand this observational study to an entirely new group of shareholder hospitals that had a larger number of participating hospitals (Phase I, 19 hospitals; Phase II, 42 hospitals). This more than doubling of hospital observational base dramatically increased the number of patients and performance evaluations. In the Phase II expanded program involving 42 hospitals, the number of patients (8939) and the number of evaluations (25,545) were more than twofold the preliminary study. In the phase I multicentric evaluation of Syneture surgical sutures, the performance of 9266 sutures was evaluated. Of these performance evaluations, 130 evaluations focused on Syneture STEEL sutures. The surgeons were especially pleased by the performance of this suture product, with 129 Syneture STEEL products being judged as clinically acceptable in their performance. Only one Syneture STEEL suture was judged to be unacceptable in its performance, resulting in a 99.2% acceptability rating. In the expanded phase II evaluation of Syneture suture products, the performance evaluation involved 25,545 surgical suture evaluations. The performance of Syneture STEEL sutures was judged in 215 cases. Of these product performance evaluations, 207 were judged to be clinically acceptable in their performance (96.3%). It is important to emphasize that the phase I and phase II observational studies evaluated the performance of other sutures besides monofilament steel sutures. These comprehensive suture and needle performance evaluations included the following additional sutures: Plain Gut, Mild Chromic Gut, Chromic Gut, DEXON II, DEXON S, MAXON, BIOSYN, SOFSILK, SURGILON, BRALON, MONOSOF, DERMALON, SURGIDAC, POLY-SORB, TI.CRON, SURGIPRO, SURGIPRO II, NOVAFIL, VASCUFIL, and FLEXON. Finally, we provide a collective review of the literature that shows the reliable performance of monofilament stainless steel sutures in the following wound closure techniques: sternal fixation, abdominal wound closure, inguinal hernia repair, and skin wound closure.