No abstract

Objective To measure spermatogenesis abnormalities in transwomen at the time of sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and to analyze the association between hormonal therapy duration and infertility severity. Design Retrospective study. Setting University hospital. Patients One-hundred seventy-three transwomen who underwent SRS from January 2000 to December 2015. Interventions All orchidectomy specimens were retrospectively reviewed and classified. History of hormonal therapy duration was retrieved from medical records. Main Outcome Measures Histological examinations of orchidectomy specimens were performed to assess spermatogenesis. Results One-hundred seventy-three orchidectomy specimens were evaluated. Histological examinations showed maturation arrest in 36.4%, hypospermatogenesis in 26%, Sertoli cell-only syndrome in 20.2%, normal spermatogenesis in 11%, and seminiferous tubule hyalinization in 6.4% of the specimens. Spermatogenesis abnormality severity was not associated with the total therapy duration (P = 0.81) or patient age at the time of surgery (P = 0.88). Testicular volumes and sizes were associated with spermatogenesis abnormality severity (P = 0.001 and P = 0.026, right testicle and left testicle, resp.). Conclusion(s) Feminizing hormonal treatment leads to reductions in testicular germ cell levels. All transwomen should be warned about this consequence, and gamete preservation should be offered before starting hormonal treatment.

We introduce this novel silk sericin-releasing wound dressing as an alternative treatment for split-thickness skin graft donor sites.

No abstract

We developed the novel silk fibroin-based bilayered wound dressing for the treatment of partial thickness wounds. And it showed relevant characteristics and accelerated the healing of full-thickness wounds in a rat model. This study is the clinical evaluation of the bilayered wound dressing to confirm its safety and efficacy for the treatment of split-thickness skin donor sites. The safety test was performed using a patch model and no evidence of marked and severe cutaneous reactions was found. The efficacy test of the bilayered wound dressing was conducted on 23 patients with 30 split-thickness skin graft donor sites to evaluate healing time, pain score, skin barrier function, and systemic reaction in comparison to Bactigras. We found that the healing time of donor site wounds treated with the bilayered wound dressing (11 ± 6 days) was significantly faster than those treated with Bactigras (14 ± 6 days) (p = 10−6). The wound sites treated with the bilayered wound dressing showed significantly less pain and more rapid skin functional barrier recovery than those treated with Bactigras (p = 10−5). Therefore, these results confirmed the clinical safety and efficacy of the bilayered wound dressing for the treatment of split-thickness skin graft donor sites.