Rhino-cerebral zygomycosis (RCZ) is an acute rapidly progressive fungal infection usually occurring in patients with diabetes mellitus and ketoacidosis. Patients typically complain of pain located in ...the facial, nasal or orbital regions, followed by sudden blindness and cranial nerve palsy. Early diagnosis, correction of risk factors, prompt surgical removal and aggressive antifungal therapy are warranted as life-saving treatments. The following report describes a case of a lethal RCZ which occurred in an apparently healthy woman with latent non-decompensated diabetes mellitus and a fetal-type posterior (FTP) circle of Willis.
Traumatic cloaca is a disabling condition characterized by disruption of the perineal body, anterior sphincter tears and loss of the distal rectovaginal septum. Anterior overlapping sphincteroplasty ...is the method of choice to treat faecal incontinence caused by obstetric injury. However, reconstruction of large perineal body defects may be a challenging task for surgeons. Herein we describe the successful use of a modified lotus petal flap following overlapping sphincteroplasty to repair a traumatic cloaca that had occurred during vaginal delivery 20 years earlier. After 3 months of follow-up and ileostomy closure, the patient had a good aesthetic result and only minor faecal incontinence episodes not requiring pads, fully recovered urinary continence and a significant improvement in her quality of life.
A study has been made on the speed of growth and respiratory activity of fibroblast cultures from control derma, cheloid (hypertrophic) scar and stabilized scar taken from human skin. The speed of ...growth and the efficiency of plaque formation of fibroblasts from cheloid scar were greater in comparison with those of fibroblasts from stabilized scar and were stimulated by the addition to the culture medium of the exudate from post-traumatic ulcer. Measurement of the contents of cytochromes showed a decrease in the content of cytochromes b562 and c + c1 in the fibroblast culture from both cheloid and stabilized scar as compared to the fibroblast culture from control derma. Cytochrome aa3 content did not show significant difference among the three types of fibroblast cultures. The respiratory activities supported by pyruvate plus malate, succinate or ascorbate plus N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine did not show, however, significant difference among the three fibroblast cultures. These observations show that the speed of growth of skin fibroblasts does not depend on the overall respiratory capacity. The exudate stimulated the activity of cytochrome c oxidase in fibroblasts from control derma, and cheloid scar. This effect and the accompanying stimulation of fibroblast growth might be correlated with the balance of oxygen free radicals.
We report of a case of a fortythree years old women affected by squamous cell cancer of the vulva (T3N0M0). Despite curative treatment (radical vulvectomy with bilateral inguinal and femoral ...lymphadenectomy), after 41 months she had a local recurrence, retreated with surgery and radiotherapy; another recurrence, after 29 months was treated with chemotherapy, without results. Because of local diffusion with infiltration of the urethra and anus, the patient was submitted to demolitive operation (total pelvic evisceratio, excision of pelvic and perineal soft tissues and reconstruction with rotating skin flaps of the posterior face of the thighs). After two years of follow up, the patient is alive without evidence of disease.