Objective To demonstrate the clinical outcome of bilateral gluteus maximus musculocutaneous flap in conjunction with continuous postoperative negative pressure wound therapy in reconstruction of sacral soft tissue defects.Methods From January, 2008 to April, 2013, 18 patients (8 males and 10 females, aged from 34 to 78 years old) with full-thickness sacral soft tissue defects were treated.The size of the defects after initial debridement ranged from 3.0 cm × 2.0 cm to 18.0 cm × 14.0 cm, with the exposure of sacrum or ligament.Bilateral gluteus maximus musculocutaneous flap were applied in all the patients.Two drainage tubes were placed on each side of the flaps during the surgery and suck for 10 to 12 consecutive days after the operation.Results The size of the harvested flaps ranged from 12.0 cm × 8.0 cm to 18.0 cm × 12.0 cm, and all the donor sites of the flaps were closed with primary suture.Thirty-five flaps in 17 patients survived without any complication.Partial necrosis of one flap was found in 1 patient and managed successfully with conservative dressing change.Fourteen patients were followed-up ranged from 8 months to 2.5 years (mean follow-up was 18 months).Color and texture of the flaps were satisfactory and no recurrence of sacral defect was noted.Conclusion Bilateral gluteus maximus musculocutaneous flap in conjunction with continuous postoperative negative pressure wound therapy may serve as a useful option for fullthickness sacral soft tissue defects.

Content-based image retrieval aims at searching the similar images using low level features,and medical image retrieval needs it for the retrieval of similar images. Medical images contain not only a lot of content data, but also a lot of semantic information. This paper presents an approach by combining digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) features and low level features to perform retrieval on medical image databases. At the first step, the semantic information is extracted from DICOM header for the pre-filtering of the images, and then dual-tree complex wavelet transfrom(DT-CWT) features of pre-filtered images and example images are extracted to retrieve similar images. Experimental results show that by combining the high level semantics (DICOM features) and low level content features (texture) the retrieval time is reduced and the performance of medical image retrieval is increased.
Algorithms ; Artificial Intelligence ; Diagnostic Imaging ; Humans ; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted ; methods ; Information Storage and Retrieval ; Radiology Information Systems ; Systems Integration ; User-Computer Interface

Experimenting in medicine can be accomplished by virtual reality system. VRML is a tool to build virtual object and scenes which can realize static and animated applications in medicine. However, to creat a real environment, the demanded level of interactivity and dynamics is difficult to achieve. In this paper we describe some approaches and techniques which can realize dynamic 3D. Our demonstration is based on the implementation of a virtual baby model, whose character can be accomplished by external JAVA applications.
Computer Simulation ; Computer-Assisted Instruction ; economics ; instrumentation ; methods ; Education, Medical ; methods ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Programming Languages ; User-Computer Interface

The vast majority of the published papers dealing with the treatment of wounds in the past few decades reported that extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) used in wound repair is easy in manipulation, noninvasive, safe, effective, and well tolerated by patients. However, little is known about the mechanism of ESWT in wound healing to date. In this article, we reviewed the literature to identify the potential cellular and molecular mechanisms of ESWT in the process of wound healing, and the results of the literature showed that the mechanism of ESWT in promoting wound healing is the result of heterogeneous biological effects.
High-Energy Shock Waves ; therapeutic use ; Humans ; Skin ; Soft Tissue Injuries ; therapy ; Ultrasonic Therapy ; methods ; trends ; Wound Healing ; physiology