A novel freeze-cast porous chitosan conduit for peripheral nerve repair with highly-aligned, double layered porosity, which provides the ideal mechanical and chemical properties was designed, manufactured, and assessed in vivo. Efficacies of the conduit and the control inverted nerve autograft were evaluated in bridging 10-mm Lewis rat sciatic nerve gap at 12 weeks post-implantation. Biocompatibility and regenerative efficacy of the porous chitosan conduit were evaluated through the histomorphometric analysis of longitudinal and transverse sections. The porous chitosan conduit was found to have promising regenerative characteristics, promoting the desired neovascularization, and axonal ingrowth and alignment through a combination of structural, mechanical and chemical cues.

Although surgery is generally indicated in the case of mallet fractures involving more than one-third of the articular surface as well as in all patients who develop volar subluxation of the distal phalanx, a significant advantage of surgical management even in those complicated cases has yet to be clearly proven.

Our findings suggest that neither the sequencing nor timing of expander-implant exchange in the setting of PMRT affects overall complication or reconstruction failure rate. However, the timing of exchange may impact the type of complication encountered. Further investigation is necessary to determine an optimal time for expander-implant exchange.

The anatomy of the pudendal nerve is complex and difficult to visualize. Entrapment of the pudendal nerve is believed to occur in a canal, the pudendal canal or Alcock's canal, yet in the literature this term is used to refer to several different anatomic locations. We present a brief history of Benjamin Alcock, and we compare Alcock's original description of the pudendal canal with our findings from a cadaveric study. It is concluded that Alcock's canal for the pudendal nerve, as Alcock described it related to the pudendal artery, should be that portion of the pudendal nerve within the obturator internus fascia. This definition now permits future medical and surgical approaches to use the appropriate terminology for this anatomic location.