Simpsonkearns5923

tion therapy, as the autologous tissue mitigates many sequelae of radiation therapy. Not only does this type of reconstruction provide an aesthetically pleasing result in 2 stages, but also has a favorable complication profile and success rate.BACKGROUND The opioid epidemic is a healthcare crisis perpetuated by analgesic overprescribing. Despite public health attention on this issue, expectations for pain management and opioid use by plastic surgery patients are poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate patient expectations of postoperative pain, concern for opioid dependence, and anticipated analgesic plan after plastic surgery. METHODS New patients presenting to an academic plastic surgery clinic were prospectively enrolled from November 2017 to September 2018. These patients completed a preconsultation survey regarding their pain history and anticipated postoperative pain and analgesics regimens. Responses between cohorts expecting and not expecting postoperative opioids were compared using descriptive and univariate analyses. RESULTS A total of 168 patients (63.9% female, 36.1% male; mean ± SD age 46 ± 17 years) completed the survey before breast (21.9%), cosmetic (5.3%), craniofacial (3.0%), general reconstruction (13.0%), hand (3.0%), and skin and soft tissue (49.1%) surgeries. Twenty-eight percent of patients expected opioid prescriptions. On a standard visual analog scale, patients who expected opioids anticipated greater postoperative pain (6.9 vs 4.6, P less then 0.05). They were more concerned about experiencing pain (5.8 vs 4.9, P less then 0.05), expected a longer duration of opioid use (63.0% vs 37.0%, P less then 0.05), and were less interested in nonnarcotic analgesic alternatives (57.9% vs 19.8%, P less then 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Less than one-third of plastic surgery patients in this study expect opioid pain medications after surgery. This supports broader use of nonopioid, multimodal pain regimens. Identification and management of patient pain expectations, especially among those anticipating a need for opioids, provide a critical opportunity for preoperative education on the benefits of nonopioid analgesics, thus minimizing opiate prescribing.BACKGROUND Because of direct sun exposure, lower forehead and temporal area are anatomical regions with frequently observed skin tumors. The resulting defects after oncological ablations are usually treated, especially in older patients, by split thickness skin grafting or A-to-T and O-to-T flaps if facing small defects. On specific sites that expose bone or periosteum as well as when a skin graft is best avoided for cosmetic reasons, alternative reconstructive procedures should be considered. An excellent option is the use of myocutaneous frontal flap with rotation and V-Y design, which provide a reliable coverage of defects especially of the temporal area, dispensing appropriate like-tissue by its wide arc of rotation. METHODS Between 2010 and 2019, 27 patients underwent myocutaneous frontal flap with rotation and V-Y design reconstruction of medium-to-large-sized soft-tissue defects of the lower forehead and temporal area after tumor excision. The malignant skin lesions involved were basal cell carcinoma (n = 17), squamous cell carcinoma (n = 9), and melanoma (n = 1). Twenty one patients were male, and 6 were female with an average age of 64 (54-86) years. RESULTS All defects were successfully resurfaced with no local recurrences. CONCLUSIONS The authors present a modification to myocutaneous frontal flap harvesting, with emphasis on its extensive arc of rotation with a V-Y design to minimize donor-site morbidity. The advantages of myocutaneous frontal flap with rotation and V-Y design include a good contour with excellent color, texture, and thickness match and good to excellent aesthetic results.INTRODUCTION There is an ongoing shortage of burn specialists, and workforce reports suggest possible hurdles attracting plastic surgeons into burn care. The purpose of this study was to (1) determine the state of burn care in plastic surgery residency and (2) identify what barriers might exist for plastic surgeons pursuing a practice that involves burn care. METHODS Surveys were distributed to North American plastic surgery program directors and residents, respectively, during the 2018-2019 academic year. RESULTS Fifty-eight program directors (response, 54%) and 320 plastic surgery residents (response, 30%) participated. Burn care was felt to be an important component in training by most program directors (USA, 88%; Canada, 100%) and residents (USA, 87%; Canada, 99%). The majority of program directors included a burn unit rotation (USA, 88%; Canada, 90%). Rotations for integrated residents averaged 2.5 months and most commonly occurred during second year; independent residents spent 1.2 months on rotation, usually in first year. Three-quarters of American residents were interested in a career that involves burn care in some capacity, primarily burn reconstruction (40%). Factors that would discourage a trainee from practicing burn care in the future included the nature of burn care (60%) and burn operations (45%), the on-call commitment (39%), and a narrow scope of practice (38%). DISCUSSION This study challenges the belief that plastic surgery trainees are disinterested in burn care. Burn surgery remains an important component of training programs, and we propose several steps to encourage greater interest and participation in the burn surgery workforce.BACKGROUND Currently, we lack objective measures to quantify outcomes in carpal tunnel syndrome. Instead, surgeons rely on patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) to assess the effect of carpal tunnel release (CTR). We assessed the validity and reliability of wearable activity monitors to objectively characterize the functional and sleep impact of CTR. We hypothesized that actigraphy could detect changes in sleep and activity and would demonstrate short-term impairment due the operative procedure. METHODS This pilot, prospective, cohort study compared validated PROMS with actigraphy data obtained via wearable activity monitors (ActiGraph Link; ActiGraph Corp, Pensacola, Fla). check details Subjects completed baseline questionnaires and wore their device for 1 week preoperatively as a baseline. Subjects then underwent open CTR, wearing actigraphy devices for 4 weeks and completing questionnaires at 2 and 4 weeks postoperatively. Preintervention and postintervention data were compared using paired-sample t test. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) questionnaire data were analyzed in accordance with published PROMIS scoring manuals and raw scores were converted to standardized T scores.