Long-term effect of primary combined tissue transplantation on hand reconstruction

Objective: To analyze the long term effect of primary combined tissue transplantation on hand reconstruction. Methods: The data of 8 kinds of combined tissue transplantations employed to reconstruct the severely injured hands of 26 patients over the past 2 to 11 years were studied retrospectively. Among them, combined tissue transplantation taking the anterior lateral femoral flap as the main tissue unit was applied in 21 cases and taking the second toe as the main tissue unit was applied in 5 cases. Blood vessel anastomosis was performed in parallel in 16 cases, series in 6 cases and both in 4 cases. Results: Among the 60 free tissue units employed on 26 patients, 58 survived completely and the other 2 survived after dressing change because of postoperative partial necrosis. The patients were followed up for 2 11 years postoperatively, with an average of 3.5 years. According to the standard for function of reconstructed hands by Chinese Medical Association, excellent results were obtained in 10 cases, good in 12 cases, fair in 3 cases and bad in 1 case. Conclusions: Primary combined tissue transplantation, which may preserve the tissue vitality of injured hands to the maximum and thus facilitate function restoration of the hands, is a promising method in reconstructing severely injured hands.

Optimizing antithymocyte globulin dosing in haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation:long-term follow-up of a multicenter,randomized controlled trial

Given that randomized studies testing the long-term impact of antithymocyte globulin(ATG)dosing are scarce,we report the results of an extended follow-up from the original trial.In our prospective,multicenter,randomized trial,408 leukemia patients 14–65 years of age who underwent haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation(haplo-HCT)under our original“Beijing Protocol”were randomly assigned one-to-one to ATG doses of 7.5 mg/kg(n=203,ATG-7.5)or 10 mg/kg(n=205,ATG-10.0)at four sites.Extended follow-up(median 1968 d(range:1300–2710 d)indicated comparable 5-year probabilities of moderate-to-severe chronic graft-versus-host disease(GVHD)(hazard ratio(HR):1.384,95%confidence interval(CI):0.876–2.189,P=0.164),nonrelapse mortality(HR:0.814,95%CI:0.526–1.261,P=0.357),relapse(HR:1.521,95%CI:0.919–2.518,P=0.103),disease-free survival(HR:1.074,95%CI:0.783–1.473,P=0.658),and GVHD-free/relapse-free survival(HR:1.186,95%CI:0.904–1.555,P=0.219)between groups(ATG-7.5 vs.ATG-10.0).The 5-year rate of late effects did not differ significantly.However,the cytomegalovirus/Epstein-Barr virus-related death rate was much higher in the ATG-10.0 cohort than in the ATG-7.5 cohort(9.8%vs.1.5%;P=0.003).In summary,patients undergoing haplo-HCT benefit from 7.5 mg/kg ATG compared to 10.0 mg/kg ATG based on a balance between GVHD and infection control.ATG(7.5 mg/kg)is potentially regarded as the standard regimen in the platform.These results support the optimization of ATG use in the“Beijing Protocol”,especially considering the potential economic advantage in developing countries.