PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R Lent

Publications and source records attributed to R Lent.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Chemical debridement of burns.

The development of effective, non-toxic (local and systemic) methods for the rapid chemical (enzymatic and non-enzymatic) debridement of third degree burns would dramatically reduce the morbidity and mortality of severely burned patients. Sepsis is still the major cause of death of patients with extensive deep burns. The removal of the devitalized tissue, without damage to unburned skin or skin only partially injured by burning, and in ways which would permit immediate (or very prompt) skin grafting, would lessen substantially the problems of sepsis, speed convalescence and the return of these individuals to society as effective human beings, and would decrease deaths. The usefulness and limitations of surgical excision for patients with extensive third degree burns are discussed. Chemical debridement lends itself to complementary use with surgical excision and has the potential advantage over surgical excision in not requiring anesthesia or a formal surgical operation. The authors' work with the chemical debridement of burns, in particular the use of Bromelain, indicates that this approach will likely achieve clinical usefulness. The experimental studies indicate that rapid controlled debridement, with minimal local and systemic toxicity, is possible, and that effective chemotherapeutic agents may be combined with the Bromelain without either interfering with the actions of the other. The authors believe that rapid (hours) debridement accomplished by the combined use of chemical debriding and chemotherapeutic agents will obviate the possibility of any increase in infection, caused by the use of chemical agents for debridement, as reported for Paraenzyme(21) and Travase.(39,48) It is possible that the short term use of systemic antibiotics begun just before and continued during, and for a short time after, the rapid chemical debridement may prove useful for the prevention of infection, as appears to be the case for abdominal operations of the clean-contaminated and contaminated types.

Animals↗

Morphogenesis of callosal arbors in the parietal cortex of hamsters.

The morphogenesis of callosal axons originating in the parietal cortex was studied by anterograde labeling with Phaseolus lectin or biocytin injected in postnatal (P) hamsters aged 7-25 days. Some labeled fibers were serially reconstructed. At P7, some callosal fibers extended as far as the contralateral rhinal fissure, with simple arbors located in the homotopic region of the opposite cortical gray matter, and two or three unbranched sprouts along their trajectory. From P7 to P13, the homotopic arbors became more complex, with branches focused predominantly, but not exclusively, in the supra- and infragranular layers of the homotopic region. Simultaneously, the lateral extension of the trunk axon in the white matter became shorter, finally disappearing by P25. Arbors in the gray matter were either bilaminar (layers 2/3 and 5) or supragranular. A heterotopic projection to the lateral cortex was consistently seen at all ages; the heterotopic arbors follow a similar sequence of events to that seen in homotopic regions. These observations document that callosal axons undergo regressive tangential remodeling during the first postnatal month, as the lateral extension of the trunk fiber gets eliminated. Radially, however, significant arborization occurs in layer-specific locations. The protracted period of morphogenesis suggests a correspondingly long plastic period for this system of cortical fibers.

Animals↗