INTRODUCTION: Tissue expander(TE) and implant infection is the most common cause of surgical readmission following breast reconstruction. The goals of this study are (1) to characterize a cohort of patients who were treated with IV antibiotics for suspected infection after prosthetic breast reconstruction, (2) to identify local microbiome and (3) elucidate an optimal antibiotic treatment protoc...

Breast reconstruction after mastectomy plays an active role in improving the quality-of-life (QoL) and alleviating the psychological trauma of breast cancer patients, and has become an indispensable part of the comprehensive treatment in breast cancer. However, compared with mastectomy alone, breast reconstruction also increase operative complications. The surgical, oncological outcomes, and co...

BACKGROUND The use of acellular dermal matrices has become increasingly popular in immediate and delayed tissue expander/implant-based breast reconstruction. However, it is unclear whether their use is associated with increased postoperative complication rates. Using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database, the authors assessed baseline difference...

PURPOSE To report our intermediate experience in treating patients with severe incontinence using an adjustable perineal male sling with a tissue expander. MATERIALS AND METHODS An adjustable male sling procedure was performed on 21 patients with severe incontinence. The underlying etiology of urinary incontinence was radical prostatectomy in 13 patients, open prostatectomy in 5 patients and ...

A new type of expander-compressor system called Cross Vane expander-compressor (CVEC) was introduced. This device replaces the expansion valve and compressor in conventional refrigeration systems to reduce the energy consumption and improve the coefficient of performance (COP) of the system. As opposed to many expander-compressor systems in the literature, whereby a separated expander is couple...

BACKGROUND Infections of breast tissue expander (TE) are complex, often requiring TE removal and hospitalization, which can delay further adjuvant therapy and add to the overall costs of breast reconstruction. Therefore, to reduce the rate of TE removal, hospitalization, and costs, we created a standardized same-day multidisciplinary outpatient quality improvement protocol for diagnosing and tr...

OBJECTIVE Many patients who undergo inflatable penile prosthesis (IPP) replacement are often upsized to larger cylinders, suggesting the IPP may serve as a tissue expander and increase internal penile length. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether cylinder length increases with subsequent IPP insertion. MATERIALS AND METHODS We queried American Medical Systems and Coloplast Patien...

We read with some concern the letter from Rees et al. The authors report the disastrous complication of complete nasal soft tissue envelope necrosis. This followed an attempt to expand an area of ‘extreme shortage of skin following multiple previous operations for a cleft lip and nose’ using an Osmed osmotic expander. We find it rather surprising that Rees et al. can point their finger at the d...

SUMMARY Adjuvant treatment planning can change after breast cancer resection and definitive pathological examination. Radiation therapy is often chosen as a supplementary treatment. Rectus abdominis-based muscle flaps are one of the main choices when breast reconstruction plans must be changed from implant-based to autologous methods. We herein report a case in which the patient's own tissue ex...