[Baldness surgery]. / Chirurgie de la calvitie.

Redistribution from hair-rich to hair-poor areas is the fundamental principle of baldness surgery. Success of hair transplantation is based on the fact that transplanted hair follicles will behave as they did in their original area and continue to grow. Three basic techniques are employed: scalp flaps, scalp reductions and hair grafts. Each technique has undergone considerable refinements answering to initial wrong results and criticisms. The typical doll-hair tufted effect of old macro-grafts has disappeared with micro-graft shift. The unaesthetic cheese-like Hippocratic crown donor defect aspect ended when harvesting a long strip of occipital hair bearing scalp. The posteriorly directed hair growth has disappeared by using superiorly based flaps. Respective indications and tension-free closure ensure that the incidence of necrosis is low. Limited results of old scalp reductions have decreased by testing preoperative laxity of the scalp and using extensive undermining of the scalp. The future may release on medical treatment avoiding dihydrotestosterone to act on genetically predisposed follicles avoiding miniaturization of the hair and baldness development. However, when baldness has appeared, as the hair follicle's culture is not actually effective, the state of art is still to plan a surgical strategy using successive stages of this large panel of techniques to reach a natural effect with the best hair orientation and density.

A study of the orientation of the fibers of the flexor carpi radialis tendon: anatomy and clinical applications.

The authors report a series of 41 dissections of the forearm intended to study the orientation of the fibers of the flexor carpi radialis (FCR). This shows that there is a constant torsion of the fibers of the FCR by an average of 180 degrees. Half of this torsion occurs in the forearm and half in the sheath of the FCR at wrist level. Awareness of this torsion is particularly useful surgically when the tendon is employed in ligamentoplasty, particularly after trapeziectomy. Our study of the orientation of the fibers was aimed at the ability to perform subcutaneous splitting of the fibers for use of part of the tendon.

[Free radial antebrachial flap. A retrospective study of 48 cases. Practical applications]. / Le lambeau antébrachial radial libre. Etude rétrospective de quarante-huit cas. Applications pratiques.

The authors have studied 48 chinese forearm free flaps operated since 1982 at St-Louis, Hospital Paris. Analysis of early complications and failures shows that the few problems that occurred seem to involve hemodynamics more than technical problems. The results support the hemodynamic theory about radial forearm free flaps: low-flow flap which contrasts with the wide diameter of the radial artery. This kind of free flap may not support interpositional vein graft for arterial bridging (stasis, distension of the graft then thrombosis), which must be taken into account in the operating procedure. When the radial artery needs to be lengthened, we therefore systematically reduce the risk of thrombosis by re-establishing radial artery outflow for safety: either by distal radial artery anastomosis, or with an arteriovenous shunt.