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The Plastic Surgery Research Council
Basic Science Lectures
Back in the early 60s, a few of our group, stimulated primarily by Erle Peacock, felt that we could really benefitfrom exposure to some of the outstanding scientists in the United States and Canada. Further, it was felt that thisexposure would also be appreciated and benefit our colleagues at our large National Meeting, and that the ResearchCouncil could make a sizable contribution to the meeting of ASPRS by arranging and funding a series of BasicScience Lectures.
Starting in 1964, and continuing for fourteen years, the Research Council arranged for a presentation by some of thevery best basic scientists that could be found. It was interesting to us that these figures were often equallyenthusiastic about the opportunity to speak to our group. Our first speaker, for example, Dr. Paul Weiss who washead of the Rockefeller Institute in New York, and at the time was on the Board of Directors of the National ScienceFoundation, gave up part of his presence at a meeting of this outstanding body, to travel from New York to SanFrancisco to speak at the ASPRS meeting, and then travel back to Washington, D.C. to continue the meeting thathe was missing. the speakers included one Nobel laureate, one Anthropologist "out of Africa," and one lawyer whohad virtually no scientific background.
It was extremely disconcerting to our membership, however, that in spite of ideal placement on the program,advance notification, etc., the attendance at these lectures was frequently disappointingly small, and many of ourcolleagues would get up and walk out of the meeting in the middle of the lecture. This sequence of events becameso discouraging that we have since replaced the Basic Science Lectures with a "Research Update", sometimes withpresentations of key papers, and this has been very well received.
The Basic Science Lecturers and the cities in which they presented their material was as follows: Dr. Jerome GrossPhiladelphia Dr. Arthur Kornberg Dr. Donald E. Rounds Dr. Robert A. Good Mr. Robert Ardrey Basic Science Lectures
Mr. Edward Swartz Dr. William L. Nyhan Dr. Frank Putnamm Dr. Rupert T. Billingharn Houston Dr. Harold Slavkin Our first speaker was Dr. Paul Weiss, who had both an M.D. degree, and a Ph.D. degree in Biology from Vienna.
At the time of the lecture, he was Professor of Developmental Biology and head of the laboratories at RockefellerUniversity. He subsequently moved to the University of Texas where his experiments in theoretic analysis ofgrowth and differentiation in animals and tissue culture were truly outstanding. He spoke on this subject with aparticular interest on nerve development and regeneration after healing with an emphasis on neuroplasmic flow. Likeeach of our speakers, Dr. Weiss was a superb lecturer and presented his material in a fascinating way.
In 1965, while meeting in Philadelphia, our speaker was Dr. Jerome Gross, a physician and biologist. He wasProfessor of Medicine at the Massachusetts General, worked at the Lovett lab, and was Chairman of the Board ofthe National Institute of Dental Research. He was science counselor for the task force on molecular biology andbreast cancer, and an advisory editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. His interest was in developmentaland molecular biology, connective tissue, and their diseases, and the aging process. He spoke of the discovery oftissue collagenase, which he discovered in the giant bullfrog, and discussed collagen primarily in its relationship toscar tissue and hypertrophic scar. Latherism was a recent condition that particularly interested him.
In 1966, our speaker was Dr. Arthur Kornberg. His M.D. was from the University of Rochester, but he was knownprimarily as a biochemist, and was Medical Director of the U.S. Public Health System on the staff of NIH,interested in nutrition, enzymes, and metabolism. He was currently Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry atStanford, and was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Dr. Kornberg spoke primarily on his enzymaticstudies of DNA, and replication as it applied to membrane biochemistry.
In 1967, Dr. James Neel was the invited lecturer. He is a geneticist with an M.D. and Ph. D. from the University ofRochester, and was Professor of Human Genetics and Internal Medicine, and Chairman of the Department at theUniversity of Michigan. He had been interested in the genetic effects of atomic radiation, and had studied a number Basic Science Lectures
of the atomic bomb casualties. Dr. Neel spoke primarily on genetics as it applied to cleft palate in mice, anddescribed an ingenious chamber which he had built which allowed the weanling mice to suckle, but providedprotection so the mother could not destroy the neonate which they often did if they had a deformity.
Donald E. Rounds was the lecturer in 1968. He was a cell biologist with a Ph.D. from UCLA and was Director ofthe Department of Cell Biology of the Pasadena Foundation. At the time, he was the senior research investigatorand director of the carcinogenic laboratory. He spoke primarily on the effects of laser energy at the cellular andmolecular level. His work with tissue cultures, cellular physiology, and changes due to various types of exposure tolaser beams, was truly outstanding.
Robert A. Good spoke to us in 1969. His M.D. and Ph.D. were from the University of Minnesota, and he wascurrently Professor of Microbiology at that institution, holding the American Legion Memorial ResearchProfessorship of Pediatrics. He went on to be President and Director of the Sloan Ketering Institute for CancerResearch, and had been a Markle Foundation Scholar.
He had been particularly interested in natural and acquired resistance to Gram Negative endotoxins, as they related toagammaglobulinernia, hypergammaglobulernia, and immunology as well as hypersensitivity pathology. He spokeprimarily on transplantation immunology, describing in detail some of the unusual exceptions to immunologicalreactions as seen with blood transfusions, and transplants to cornea as well as to brain. He spoke further on theunusual tolerance of fraternal twin pregnancies, even with twins that had differing blood groups.
In 1970, we shifted gears a little bit, thinking that perhaps a lecturer who spoke on subjects with less reference tobasic science and more to unusual or everyday occurrences, might be received with more enthusiasm. Our speakerwas Robert Ardrey, who had worked with the Leakeys in the Rift Valley in Tanzania. The Leakeys had foundfootprints of perhaps the earliest Hominid Erectis. Ardrey's book on "African Genesis" ran counter to manytraditional anthropological tenets, and although he lacked some of the sophisticated training of the archeologist, hecertainly opened our thoughts to new possibilities of human development. He described evidence of some of theearliest findings of apes using sticks as tools to dig up roots to eat, and traced this process on down the line.
In 1971, while meeting in Montreal, our speaker was Mr. Edward Swartz, Esquire, a lawyer who had becomeparticularly interested in toys that were hazardous to children. He went on to describe a numberof situations wheremanufacturers were aware of defects that produced specific injuries to children, and yet did nothing to correct these.
His Basic Science Lectures
particular interest was in state requirements which permitted this situation to occur.
Along these same lines, George Crikelair had spent years trying to have legislation passed requiring flame retardantin children's clothing, particularly night clothes. It has taken literally years for these two gentlemen to achievesignificant progress in these areas, and yet today we are seeing the results of their efforts.
In 1972, Dr. William Nyhan a pediatrician with his M.D. degree from Columbia, his Ph.D. from the University ofIllinois, and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California in San Diego, spoke on thebiochemistry of genetics and developmental pharmacology. He had also been interested in pediatric oncology andthe metabolism of tumors. He discussed malformation syndromes and his current efforts in understanding how thesedeveloped.
Our 1973 lecture was Dr. Frank Putnamm, whose Ph.D. came from the University of Minnesota. He was Professorof Molecular Biology and Zoology at Indiana University, interested primarily in the biochemistry of immunology.
He also was a Markle Scholar, and had worked at the Argone National Laboratories at the University of Chicago.
His interest was primarily in isotope studies of protein synthesis and virus reproduction. He discussed the physicalchemistry and structure of plasma protein, enzymes, toxins, and viruses.
In 1974, we welcomed back Dr. Rupert Billingharn whose Doctor of Philosophy degree came from Oxford,England. Dr. Billingham had been the Wistar Professor of Zoology in Philadelphia, and he was currently Professorand Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology and Chemistry at Southwestern Medical School, University ofTexas in Dallas. Dr. Billingham had spoken to us twice before, once as a "home team" speaker, and again as aninvited lecturer at the Cleveland meeting. He had started his studies in tissue transplantation with Dr. PeterMedawar, who received the Nobel Prize for this work, though unfortunately, Dr. Billingham was not included.
Dr. Billingham had described the graft versus host reaction and studied the immunological response as initiated inthe regional lymph node. He spoke primarily about pregnancy, and the effects of fetal tissue to maternal response. Aforeign fetus in the mouse will produce abnormally enlarged para aortic lymph nodes, but in spite of this, will notbe rejected.
In 1975, we had another return visit, this time by Dr. Harold C. Slavkin. Dr. Slavkin's degree was a D.D.S. from theUniversity of Southern California, where he currently was Chairman of the Department of Cellular and MolecularBiology, interested primarily in developmental biology. He again had been a previous "home team" speaker.
Basic Science Lectures
He spoke on genetic, chromosomal, environmental, and intrauterine factors concerned with craniofacial anomalies,and did so in his usual fast-moving, but logical, very clear manner.
In 1976 in Boston, Dr. James Bonner, whose Ph.D. was from the California Institute of Technology, and who wascurrently Professor of Biology at this institute, spoke on the molecular biology of chromosomes, and the control ofgenetic activity. Our ability to study chromosomes in much greater detail, and the rapidly increasing numbers ofsyndromes involving facial deformities, and deformities of the extremities, made this a very rapidly moving field ofresearch.
Our last Basic Science Lecturer was Dr. Lewis Thomas, who had an interesting past with an M.D. from Harvard,and a career in internal medicine and pathology. He had been Professor of Pathology at NYU for four years and wasDean at that institution from 1966 to 1969. He was the Anthony N. Brady, Professor of Pathology and Chemistryat Yale, and in 1972, he became Dean of that institution. Dr. Thomas was interested in infectious diseases,hypersensitivity, and the pathogenicity of mycoplasmins. However, he spoke on social issues relating to the basicsciences, describing the difficulties with lack of funding, the need for basic science research in the medical schoolenvironment, and the various spin-offs of these endeavors.
In looking back over these fourteen speakers, it certainly was a privilege to get to know them a little more first handthan we otherwise might have enjoyed, and it was particularly stimulating to see how the research mind works,develops, and presents material which can be extremely complicated and confusing. They were a real stimulation tomost of us, and we were sorry to see this program brought to a close.

The Twenty-Third Meeting
Virginia Commonwealth University-Medical College of Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
May 24-26,1978
We traveled to Richmond with Kel Cohen as our leader and General Robert E. Lee on the cover of our program.
General Lee and numerous other Lees of national fame were born and raised in "Tidewater Virginia," and the Generalspent a number of years after "the war between the states" only a few blocks from where we had our meeting.
The Medical College of Virginia was undergoing a rather massive building program (trying to keep up with KelCohen's expanding labs and the plastic surgery program). Our first meetings were in a strange Egyptian styleauditorium, a landmark of the city, and the luncheons were a very special Kosher scientific picnic with all theappropriate pickles and cabbage, eaten on the hoof while we poked through Kel's labs.
We were appropriately welcomed by Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, Dean of the Medical College of Virginia. LeRoy Smith,one of the first plastic surgeons in Richmond, ran the first session with appropriate welcoming remarks. HarryWarthen provided a history of surgery in Richmond during the Civil war. Richmond had been under siege aboutevery other month and took quite a beating.
Donald Becker, Chairman of the Division of Neurosurgery, reported on some work in the "Head Trauma Center"where they were putting "Cranial Bolts" in most of their head trauma patients and measuring increases inintracranial pressure as an indication for craniotomy and decompression. This was a new and rather radical step inthis area, and they had some amazingly good figures on salvage and survival. Some of the other papers by the"home team" were: "Biological Activities of Macrophages" by Alan M. Kaplan; "Affects of BAPN on DMBABreast Carcinoma" by Robert Dieglemann; and "The Role of the Hepatocyte in Hepatic Fibrosis" by PhilipGuzelian. Robert Barnes spoke on a "Non-invasive Vascular Assessment in Plastic Surgery" describing varioustechniques for locating and measuring blood flow. Elof Eriksson was then working at MCV on "MicrocirculatoryStudies," an area were he continued to show considerable interest and a great deal of insight. The morning sessionconcluded with two papers by medical students, one by Barbara McCoy: "Is Abnormal Wound Healing anImmunologic Disease?" She noted a number of areas were immunologic processes appeared to be interfering withwound healing. The other one was by John Clore on "Collagen Typing: Where Are We Going And Why?" whichdescribed the biochemical classifications of collagen and outlined what would be the prospects for futureinvestigation.
The Twenty-Third Meeting
Rod Hester, working with John Bostwick and Luis Vasconez, spoke on "Flexor Tendon Repair Within the DigitalShealth Utilizing Internal Splint and Early Mobilization." The so-called "Hunter Rod" was gaining acceptance. GaryPrice, a medical student, with Steve Miller and Bill Graham, was measuring subfascial pressures with a needle anda manometer to determine gas tensions within muscles during acute and delayed tourniquet ischernia. Theydeveloped this to the extent that they felt they could tell when ischernia was about to become irreversible.
There were a number of papers on microvascular technique such as "Are Venous Repairs Necessary in DigitalReplantation" by Philip Higgs and Steven Mathes. "Evaluation of Small Vessel Patency Following a MicrovascularAnastomoses" was presented by Dick Heimburger, "Pharmacological Control of Microvascular Thrombosis" byL.N. Hersh of London, Ontario, and "The Effect of Suture Technique and Vessel Size on Patency After MicroarterialRepair" by Chris Wray. Barry Noone and Don LaRossa were doing "Ovarian Autotransplantation by MicrovascularTechnique to Reverse Tubal Infertility in the Rabbit" hoping that this would be a good technique in the humanwhere the vessels would be considerably larger. (They didn't find many rabbits with tubal infertility.) Julia Terzis had a sophisticated paper on "Physiological Assessment of Sensibility Following Replantation"showing how limited it could be. Wyndell Merritt spoke on the "Influence of Scar Maturation in Nerve Grafts."Michael Orgel reported on "Nerve Regeneration Across Nerve Grafts vs. End-to-End Suture and Ultra Microscopicand Electrophysiological Study -i.e. Tension Free Repairs." The following day we had an unusual panel entitled "The Scientific Press and Plastic Surgery" headed by T. ByronScott, Ph.D., the new managing editor of Plastic Surgery News, with a panel made up of the science writers of theNew York Times, Medical World News, New York Daily News, and Richmond Times Dispatch. The EducationalFoundation had recently spent several days with science writers in a symposium at Temple University and hadgained a great deal of respect for some of the professionals in this field. This carefully selected panel did much toconvince us of the thoroughness with which real professionals in this field pursue their jobs. Rex Ryan of theMedical World News noted that one of the reasons that physicians have had "bad press" was simply that editors feltthat "nice stories don't get printed" and that "nasty stories sell papers." Judith Randal from the Washington Officeof the New York Daily News described the National Press Council which takes complaints and reviews them usingrather prestigious volunteers. The reports are covered by the Columbia Journalism Review but little more then aslap on the wrist is ever dispensed.
Richmond, Virginia -1978
1 had thirty minutes to discuss the tumultuous confrontation between ASPRS, The American Board of PlasticSurgery, and the Federal Trade Commission which had reached a boiling point at that time. Michael Pertschuk ofthe Federal Trade Commission felt that by insisting on Board Certification for membership in ASPRS "thestandards in plastic surgery were unnecessarily high" and this limited competition and forced prices up. Mr.
Pertschuk wanted "tangible evidence of actual harm" by those without Board Certification before condoning theneed for higher standards as maintained by the board. This was felt to be a direct assault on Board Certification, notjust in plastic surgery, but in all fields, and as you all know, after a lengthy battle, the FTC backed down. MarkGourney had provided us with considerable "tangible evidence" etc.
An interesting paper was given by Steve Mathes working with Foad Nahi studying "The Influence of Denervationon Survival of Myocutaneous. Flaps" indicating that an alteration in blood flow was beneficial to the transfer.
Gordon Sasaki, working with Tom Krizek at Yale, gave his first paper before The Council on "An ExperimentalNeurovascular Island Skin Flap Model for Study of Microcirculation and Skin Survival." He was able to isolatethese flaps almost completely for careful study. A similar paper by Benatar, Terzis, and Bruce Williams working inMontreal was entitled "The Relevance of Preliminary Denervation to the 'Free Transplantation' of Skeletal Muscles."These all stressed the affect of vascular intervention. There were a number of other papers on flap circulation andmicrocirculation which seemed to be running at full swing.
A paper by John Mulliken with Julie Glowacki on "The Repair of Experimental Cranial Defects by InducedOsteogenesis" was one of the first to suggest the use of processed bone dust. Jim Zinns working with LintonWhitaker showed good experimental evidence that in the study of "Membranous vs. Endochondral Bone Autografts"that the membranous bone had a number of significant advantages.
Another landmark paper was given by Ralph Holmes working with Ken Salyer on "Bone Regeneration in aCoralline Hydroxyapatite Implant." Ralph was to go on to do a great deal of careful work with this substance whichhas now become widely used in a variety of surgical procedures. Joe McCarthy, continuing his interest incraniofacial surgery showed that "Craniofacial Suture Manipulation in the Rhesus Monkey" could produce quite avariety of facial bone disturbances.
Two additional highlights for this years program were the members evening under the stars in the lovely colonialhome and garden of Julie and Kel Cohen. I had not known that Julie was such an excellent cook, or that Kel wassuch a superb gardener. Imagine The Twenty-Third Meeting
the grace of clipped English boxwood edging with brick pathways, all showing the results of tender loving care.
The second evening was a mixture of sublime, superb, and ridiculous. The Virginia Museum of Art is a real gemand was all ours to enjoy. The special collections were Fabergè and another featuring Dali's unbelievable jewelry andalso an unusually fine collection of Degas. Many of Dali's pieces were rather elaborate with little moving parts suchas a ruby heart that would beat, etc. It was a real thrill to enjoy.
Our dinner was also in the museum and our speaker, who never really did finish his speech, was Senator EdwardKennedy's medical advisor, Dr. Stewart Shapiro. Kel had hoped that Mr. Kennedy would be able to come, and wasarranging it with Dr. Shapiro, but when Dr. Shapiro heard Kel's suggestion that this would be a brief talk on theSenator's national health plans followed by an informal question and answer period, Dr. Shapiro said that hethought Mr. Kennedy had better not take that one on, and that he would come himself.
Explaining the Senator's national health plans to that group was a difficult task at best and his many "facts andfigures" were questioned with interruptions every few minutes. Finally, Milt Edgerton asked our honored speaker(in a very quiet gentlemanly way) "Dr. Shapiro, just how does Senator Kennedy's health legislation plans fit in withthis country's traditional goals of free enterprise?" After a few minutes of great silence our speaker said "Well Isuppose they don't." Nothing could have been clearer and that pretty well terminated the discussion.
The next morning there were a number of papers on burn care, particularly various bacteriological aspects such asJohn Ninnemann's paper "Quantitative Wound Culture: Convincing the Disbelievers" and "MIC of SilverSulfadiazine and Cerium Nitrate for Clinical Isolates of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa" and a paper by Roger Salisburyon "A Comparison of Topical Antibiotics in Preventing Wound Sepsis." Mark Mandel was studying "Free Siliconein Breast Capsules: Electron Probe Analysis" showing that apparently a number of the breast prothesis envelopeswere indeed broken and that free silicone in minute amounts could be detected in the breast capsule. Sue Seifworking with Lee Dellon presented a very nice paper on the "Anatomic Relationships of the Levator and TensorVeli Palatini and the Eustachian Tube.", this was of obvious importance to those of us intent on reconstructing thecleft soft palate. It was hoped that she would be able to study some unrepaired clefts.
At the Business Meeting it was decided that a candidate for membership must have attended at least one meeting ofthe Research Council before being considered for Active Membership.
Richmond, Virginia -1978
The new members included: A. Griswold Bevin, M.D. Burton D. Brent, M.D.
Thomas S. Davis, M.D. Lce E. Edstrom, M.D.
James W. Ferraro, M.D. J. William Futrell, M.D. Stephen J. Mathes, M.D. Wyndell H. Merritt, M.D. Charles L.
Puckett, M.D. Roger E. Salisbury, M.D. Leonard A. Sharzer, M.D. Gordon R. Tobin, M.D.
Allen L. Van Beek, M.D.
For Associate Membership: Robert A. Diegelmann, Phl). John B. Heggers, PhD. LeRoy Mein, M.D.
Ken Salyer was greeted as our new Chairman and gave a brief account of his plans for the Dallas meeting. BillGraham was elected Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman.

The Twenty-Fourth Meeting
University of Texas
Dallas, Texas
April 9-11, 1979
We rode into Dallas in fine style for the 24th Annual Meeting held in the brand new, beautiful all glass HyattRegency Hotel. The festivities started right away in high gear with Tom Krizek and friends resuscitating agentleman with a cardiac arrest in the Regency bar (before the cocktail reception). The designer jeans on the cover ofthe program (modeled to appropriate capacity by the host's sister) set the stage for the Texas meeting whichcontinued with Sonny Bryant's barbecued spare ribs being served "on the hoof"for lunch the next day in the plasticsurgery labs at the University of Texas Health Science Center. The dinners were also scheduled by our gracious hostat two of Dallas' finest and flashiest restaurants (Jean Claude's and Javier's). Host Ken Salyer and wife to-be Marciekept us going at a fast pace all two and a half days, and then we had a lovely dinner in their new home, much of itmoved in from Mexico. Program Chairman Bill Graham set a new precedent by publishing the abstracts of allpapers. This was done in a separate program and was such a great addition that it has been continued and evenpicked up by other Plastic Surgery Organizations.
After a welcome by Dean Charles Mullins, the home team started with Charles Baxter speaking on "CellularResponse to Burn Shock." The Parkland burn fluid formula had just recently gained wide acceptance. A formerPhiladelphia home team speaker who had immigrated to Dallas, Bill Billingham, spoke on some unusual transplant"experiments" in nature, i.e. the unusual aspects of a normal pregnancy particularly with fraternal twins. RalphHolmes, who had spent years studying hydroxy apatite, gave us an update on his microscopic studies of boneformation and Carlheinz Tizian demonstrated a new microvascular prosthesis with a 1 mm. internal diameter.
During lunch (on the hoof) we visited the facilities of the Department of Medical Illustration. We then visited thesuperb busy Emergency Room at Parkland Memorial Hospital where President Kennedy had died and also theextremely efficient Burn Unit.
The papers continued with a throw back to some experiments of former days in a presentation from Bill Lindsay'slab in Toronto where Wayne Carman, working with chickens (the edible laboratory animal), showed better resultssuturing both severed flexor tendons, rather than just the profundus. Neal Koss discussed the "Beta Error" as itrelated to the "Alpha Error" or P-value.
Arnold Arem of Tuscon had a fascinating study of scar tissue which formed within The Twenty-Fourth Meeting
an implanted sponge and which was stretched with magnets. He showed the effects of dynamics on the fibroustissue. Papers on problems in healing continued with a paper by Tom Davis et. al. studying intravascularcoagulation and fibrinolysis during tourniquet ischernia in primates. They showed that two and a half hours oftourniquet time significantly altered clotting factors which could increase bleeding on tourniquet release. Heparin aspretreatment partly blocked the effect. Gertrud Ginsbach of Achen, West Germany, used argon laser to stimulatewound healing in an attempt to improve healing in wounds that can be expected to heal poorly. Ross Rudolph wasusing "Colchicine to Inhibit Wound Contraction" but with some local toxic effects when studied with the electronmicroscope. Wound contraction resumed when the colchicine was stopped at 21 days. Bob Diegelmann in KelCohen's lab, was using "Macrophages (to) Stimulate Fibroblast Proliferation Collagen and Protein Synthesis inCell Cultures," supporting the hypothesis that macrophages modulate fibroplasia and collagen synthesis duringwound healing. Bill Bellany, working with Rodeheaver and Edlich, showed that silk and dacron suturesimpregnated with Neomycin Palmate significantly reduced bacterial counts around the sutures for days afterinoculation with four different pathogens.
There were a number of studies on the failing skin flap. Gordon Sasaki, who was at Yale at the time, was usingprostaglandin for rescue work, and Dick Gordon at the University of Pennsylvania presented a non-invasive methodof obtaining digitalized readings on "Pyridine Nucleotide Fluorometry as a Method for Measuring Tissue Oxygen." John Zimmermann at Stanford with Fred Finseth was using isoxsuprine in an ingenious neurovascular islandmyocutaneous flap to prevent necrosis while Jim May showed that "surgical delay" occurred in the totallydenervated abdominal skin.
Numerous other papers were presented on the subjects of nerve regeneration and function, microvascular techniques,and lymphatic anastomosis (Bob Acland). Julie Glowacki's original work with dernineralized isologous bonepowder was described for the repair of cranial defects, and Linton Whitaker reported favorably on facial growth inrhesus monkeys who had complete facial dysfunction. His very young monkeys had been followed for two and ahalf years.
The enthusiasm with which the old west and the new west were intermingled in both the scientific and socialprograms was very contagious. Anew Constitution and ByLaws, which were expanded from two pages to fourpages, were accepted and the annual dues for active members was set at $75.00. Bill Graham was welcomed asChairman for the 1980 25th Annual Meeting, and the historian was instructed to complete a 25-year Dallas, Texas -1979
history. El Zook was elected Program Chairman and Chairman-Elect with the 26th meeting to be held inSpringfield, Illinois. It was decided that the Members' Dinner would be for members only. This was the first yearthat all the abstracts were printed in the program and this new step was enthusiastically received. It was voted tocontinue the printing of the abstracts, but not to publish the abstracts in the Journal of Plastic and ReconstructiveSurgery. The new Active Members were: Melvin J. Dinner, M.D. Earl J. Fleegler, M.D. John D. Franklin, M.D. Frederick R. Heckler, M.D. Ralph E.
Holmes, M.D. Ivo P. Janecka, M.D. Norman S. Levine, M.D. Narenda J. Pandya, M.D. John F. Reinisch, M.D.
S. Dawson Theogaraj, M.D.
The new Associate Member was George W. Cherry, M.D.

The Twenty-Fifth Meeting
The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Hershey, Pennsylvania
April 21-23, 1980
The meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania, under the Chairmanship of Bill Graham marked our Twenty-FifthAnniversary. Bill, with Steve Miller as secretary, and Tom Davis as his right-hand administrator and arranger, did avaliant job of shaking out the old guard and reviewing our development.
Hershey, as one of our country's youngest medical schools, is uniquely located in the heartland of ruralPennsylvania, with an unusual building built in the form of a crescent with three parallel structures. Theadministrative offices and outpatient facilities are on the inner side of the curve, the center contains the inpatientquarters, and the periphery the basic science departments, labs, and animal quarters. A great scheme.
The Hershey Department of Surgery, under John Waldhausen, was one of the first to develop prosthetic heart valvesand an early artificial heart. The designs of the former "trileaflet prosthetic heart valve" was described by CraigWisman. The implantable artificial heart was not yet ready and was not described. Tim Harrison discussed some ofthe "satisfactions and frustrations" with the study of catecholamines. Huffnagle had implanted the first artificialvalve in a human in 1952. Since then, many materials that had been used, but they tended to get almost rock hard.
Stephen Nellis reviewed his work measuring "Microvascular Blood Flow" with very sophisticated techniques. Themeasurement was done with a light detector that was so sensitive that it was altered by the passing of a singleerythrocyte. He showed that the flow differed within single capillaries from time to time, and also from onecapillary to another.
In reviewing our history, Bill had convinced a number of the old timers to provide updates on the research that theyhad presented long, long ago. He had asked me to write a blurb for the twenty-five year history which appeared inthe program, but I totally forgot that he had asked me to speak for thirty minutes on this topic. In perusing theprogram the day before the meeting in the leisure of my room, I made this discovery with horror and spent most ofthat night putting the pieces together. Though the delivery seemed to go fairly well, I was in no shape to take in thefollowing papers which were really landmarks, but I'll do my best.
Bob McCormack had talked on "The Growth of Skin Grafts in Pigs" and this led to "Tissue Culture Studies ofHuman Skin Cell Suspensions." This had been presented The Twenty-Fifth Meeting
as our third paper, and with much effort, sheets of epithelium had been grown, but they were still far too fragile tobe of clinical use. The early paper referred to the use of the Waring blender to make the suspension, which workedvery well. This not only produced pretty good suspensions, but when reported in the newspaper, it boosted the saleof Waring blenders well beyond the number that had been bought by aspiring researchers. An essential part of thetechnique depended on the culture medium as the skin was never really sterile, and fibroblasts tended to take overthe culture.
Charlie Horton showed his early interest in G.U. surgery, and brought us up to date on "The Use of Full ThicknessSkin Grafts for Posterior Urethral Strictures." This technique had replaced the use of skin flaps as described byJohanson and has continued to work very well, probably being the technique of choice for this vexing problem.
Cliff Snyder had astonished us at the Fifth Meeting in Cleveland speaking on "The Use of a Pump Oxygenator inPlastic Surgery." He had taken an old worn out greyhound dog, amputated the hind leg at mid thigh, and put it onthe pump, and then replanted it. This must have been one of the very first total limb replants, and we all thoughtthat he was totally out of his mind. Cliff now had a movie of the greyhound using his replanted limb whichdelighted us all (and I suppose the greyhound too, though he wasn't winning any more races). The update on thisclassic development had still not reached its full stride. His work had been stimulated when he was called to see alittle girl twenty-five years ago whose arm had been cut off in an automobile accident. Cliff had wanted to put itback on at the time, but he was dissuaded by his senior colleagues. Two years later, he succeeded with thegreyhound. This was first successful in 1957. He was hampered by the Humane Society, and by the Chief ofOrthopedics, who thought it was "a silly procedure." He used a five power loop in 19-58.
Tom Krizek, who was then at Columbia University, had been interested for years in "Bacterial Growth and SkinGraft Survival." With this update, he confirmed his original premise of 101 as being the critical factor, and while hecontinued to migrate around the country, the usefulness of this work was becoming wide spread as well.
Finally, John Reinisch and Bert Myers, had long been involved with skin flap vascularization and how it could bealtered and controlled. Their update at the Hershey meeting was on "The Role of Arteriovenous Anastomoses inCausing Necrosis in Skin Flaps, Augmentation of Survival with Chemical and Electrical Delay." The significanceof these various interrelated processes was gradually being unraveled.
The scientific papers from the members and guests made up a heavy schedule with five on nerve repairandregeneration, twenty on various flaps with circulation, seventeen Hershey, Pennsylvania -1980
on wound healing and collagen, five on thermal injury, two on academic subjects, three on bone grafts and implantsand six miscellaneous.
Allen Van Beek had a sophisticated variable nerve stimulator for use intraoperatively. He had a micromanipulatorfor the handling of the electrodes and used this to map out exactly which fascicles went to what part of the gracilismuscle. In seventeen patients, this helped to tell the difference between motor and sensory nerves, and to detect howmuch of the nerve was successfully passing through a neuroma. Brushart, working with Julia Terzis, at the RoyalVictoria Hospital in Montreal, noted the topographical disc organization of somatic sensory cortex after peripheralnerve suture and regeneration. They also had clectro-physiological systems for mapping out individual fasciculi,using horseradish peroxidase and for the first time, were able to stimulate and study both the central and peripheralpatterns of normal and regenerated nerves at the fascicular level. This degree of microprecision was really mindboggling.
David Chin, working with Evo Janecka and Tom Krizek at P&S, were using a vein graft to bridge gaps in nerves.
A one cm. gap in the rat sciatic nerve had no generation without a vein graft. With the graft, there was fairly orderlyregeneration, and they were able to demonstrate muscular activity following stimulation proximal to the graft.
Another paper from Julia Terzis's lab, reported by Turnbull and Orgel, addressed the degree of functional recoveryfollowing repair of small and large gaps in nerves by end-to-end suture versus grafting. Again, individual fasciculiwere recorded. There is quite a difference between mild tension which was best, the nerve graft which was next best,and greater tension which was the worst of the three. Chris Wray remarked that we really have to reassess Millesi'swork. It was suggested that if the nerves could be approximated with 8-0 suture, they probably were not under toomuch tension.
Glenn Carwell, working with Charlie Horton, evaluated bypass grafts using T.10 and T.11 to L 4-5 in paraplegicdogs. They were able to produce a mass reflex and contractability, particularly in the gracilis, but there is noevidence of bladder function. In commenting, Rollin Daniel said that there really had not been any good results inpatients. Joe McCarthy reported on four patients from T.10-11 to the corda equina. There was one failure, the otherswere too soon to evaluate, but two patients did have positive EMGs. They had tried reinnervating bladder andrectum, but did not achieve anything that could be measured. Garry Brody reported on two patients who had similarprocedures and both had proprioception and "vague sensation." Wyndell Merritt was developing a model to study sympathetic dystrophy. Seventeen patients had met specificcriteria, such as dysesthesia and greater than four degrees Fahrenheit alteration in the affected hand, plus a number ofother findings. This was The Twenty-Fifth Meeting
compared with a control group using nine psychological tests, and in five of these tests, the reflex sympatheticdystrophy patients had a significantly different psychological profile. They were trying some biofeedback therapy inan attempt to develop temperature control, but these results were still unclear.
Mike Yaremchuk and Scott Bartlett, working with Jim May, were concerned with the toxic effects of preoperativeangiography and found that in their studies, the contrast media had no effect on survival of their experimental flap.
Berish Strauch used fixed human umbilical artery as interpositional aortic grafts in rats. They were studied up tofour months and their overall patency was ninety one percent, with a good endothelial ingrowth. Larry Colen andSteve Mathes were studying "Microcrystalline Collagen" which they showed was aneffective hemostatic agentanddid not effect the patency when applied directly to microanastomotic sites. They also felt that it decreased aneurysmformation at these sites.
Gerald Harris, workingwith Fred Finseth and Harry Buncke, used vascular sleeves over microvascular anastomosesto minimize the number of sutures and the bleeding. This had worked well in rats, and in over a hundred patients.
Another paper from Harry Bunke's laboratory, this one by Phil Hendel, used Xenon 133 washout to study thephysiological events controlling blood flow in acute and delayed flaps. They felt that perhaps they were looking atvessels that were more superficial than those exhibiting shunts.
Lee Dellon in Baltimore used thrombolysin in rats by way of the artery to clear venous clots that were causingobstruction, and was concerned with the possibility of systemic problems. Fortunately, he produced none with thisarrangement, but Chris Wray said that he had tried this in a toe to thumb transfer, and had a great deal of localbleeding. J.D. Franklin, working with Bernie O'Brien, was measuring how long a flap could survive if cooled at 6-7 degrees Centigrade before replanting. He used free epigastric flaps from rabbits, and found that waiting for twelvehours was just fine and some did very well even after twenty-four hours. After three days, however, the survival ratedropped way off. Ross Rudolph was studying the "Ultrastructure of Passive Versus Active Wound Contracture." Hecompared the number of myofibroblasts in granulating wounds which were allowed to heal and contract, as opposedto those seen in contracture produced by pinning the knee joint in rabbits with a Steinmann pin. In the latter group,there were no myofibroblasts whatsoever.
Mary McGrath reported on "The Effect of Prostaglandin Inhibitors in Wound Contraction and the Myofibroblast."She used aspirin, prednisolone, and Eicosatetraynoic acid as prostaglandin inhibitors. The contraction was inhibitedonly in those treated with Hershey, Pennsylvania -1980
prednisolone, even though the aspirin was effective in lowering the prostaglandin level. This suggested that the roleof prostaglandin as effecting myofibroblasts is not significant. P.J. McCohen and Kel Cohen, compared cultures ofkeloid fibroblasts with normal dermal fibroblasts and found that sera, whether from patients with keloids or frompatients without keloids had no detectable difference.
Bruce Topol from Northwestern used "Antihistamines in Retarding the Growth of Fibroblasts Derived from HumanSkin, Scar, and Keloids." It seemed that their fibroblasts were stimulated by histamine only when they wereobtained from certain individuals (38% of 13 patients). R. Faller, working with George Cherry, showed thatischernia produced by the injection of intradermal epinephrine resulted in an increased fibrin deposition which theythought might be the reason for increased healing rates of wounds that were pretreated with epinephrine.
Talmage Raine, working with Marty Robson, was studying "Therapeutic Cooling of the Burn Wound." They notedthat the mechanism of cooling is as yet unknown and that there was no difference of dermal profusion between theirtreated and controlled animals. At eight hours, the controls had 63% dermal profusion, while those immersed forthirty minutes in an ice waterbath starting ten minutes post bum, twenty minutes and thirty minutes post burn had81%, 77%, and 74% profusion respectively. They concluded that cold water treatment in the first thirty minutesafter the burn should be beneficial. Donna deCamara, in the same lab, studied the "Ultrastructure of Guinea PigSkin" burned at 750 forten seconds and then cooled for thirty minutes starting ten minutes after the burn. Thistechnique of cooling diminished both cellular destruction and edema formation in the skin. Boykin, working atM.C.V., was doing much the same thing, but his burn model was the ear of the hairless mouse and he could findno effect of cooling on diminishing edema.
This was followed by a panel moderated by Kel Cohen from the Plastic Surgery Academic Advisory Councildiscussing the subject: "A Future in Academic Plastic Surgery -What Will be Expected of You?" Harvey Zaremspoke on "Research Abilities," Marty Robson on "Proven Accomplishments versus Untapped Potential," and JackFisher on "Administrative Capabilities." Tom Krizek, in looking back, "What I'd do if I Were Thirty Years Younger," said that he would be sure that youhave "time to yourself." He noted the importance of having access to students and faculty, and the ability todetermine with whom you would work. He also stressed that one should "not turn the student into you, but intohimself." Milt Edgerton added "the importance of picking an area of research where surgical technique is importantin its solution -that's where we, as plastic surgeons, are ahead." Bernie The Twenth-Fifth Meeting
Sarnat summed it up with "Inspiration, Perspiration, Exasperation, Compensation, and Exhilaration." Later in the afternoon, we heard Norma Cruz from Puerto Rico speaking on "The Management of ContaminatedBone Grafts." One cm. rib bone grafts were either contaminated with Staph Aureus, or Pseudomonas Aruginosa, orsimply dropped on the operating room floor for five minutes. These were washed off and placed either in ProvidoneIodine or Cefazolin, and then replanted. They all did pretty well, with the Betadine doing a little bit better than theantibiotic and no difference between the three types of contamination.
Zaheer Shah, working with Jim Lehman in Akron, gave one of the first papers on "The Effect of Staph Epidermidison Implant Capsules." With a moderate amount of Staph contamination, the capsules were two to three times asthick as the controls. Bert Myers showed that the area of necrosis in pig skin subjected to topical freeze by a cryoprobe, was significantly more if the area was preinjected with lidocaine 2% containing epinephrine 1/100,000intradermally, than if either of the controls which were injected either with saline or lidocaine without epinephrine.
Rollin Daniel had carried out a very complete study of "Pressure Injuries in Pigs" under a variety of well-controlledparameters. It appeared that a pressure of 500 mm Hg for eighteen hours is necessary to produce a "classic" clinicaltype of pressure sore extending down to bone. He noted, of course, that in humans the injury occurs repeatedly.
Riley Rees gave an update on "The Necrotic Effects of the Brown Recluse Spider Bite and its Management." This isthe only spider in the United States that produces dermal necrosis and he was able to neutralize the venom with anantibody that he had developed. Early treatment with steroids or heparin, even when used as pretreatment, failed toprevent the skin slough. Early surgical excision with Fluorescein guidance. was recommended.
Donald Leake, working with Mutaz Habal, reported on the "Evaluation of Carbon Materials for ReconstructiveSurgery" having compared tracheal replacements made of Dacron-Urethane mesh. Two dogs were operated on withthe regular material and two with carbon coating. Ten tracheal rings were replaced. In spite of good connective tissuecapsules and mucosal ingrowth, the non carbonized implants were significantly stenosed, whereas those that werecarbon treated (at seven months) had much less constriction and wider lumens. In both, there was remarkableingrowth of ciliated columnar epithelium over large areas. They had also used it on vitalliurn replacements of themandibular condyle in four other dogs with good results.
Ivo Janecka and coworkers, using a "Scanning Electron Microscope for Evaluation of Intravascular Adhesive,"described a low viscosity silicone polymer which is injected Hershey, Pennsylvania -1980
intravascularly into the main feeding artery and has a particular time period to polymerization thereby holding thematerial in the vascular bed. Electron microscopy showed "permanent fixation to the vessel endotheliurn withoutobservable morphological changes of the endothelium, or evidence of late recanalization." Clinical use was beingcarried out.
Jack Fisher presented some studies that he, Kel Cohen, and Bill Grabb had carried out on "The Effectiveness of'Seed Funding'as a Stimulus for Research Endeavor." The Educational Foundation was following up on their seedmoney grants and in looking at the first five years (1972-1976) during which time, eight grants were given costing$49,736. The resulting research lead to thirty-five publications, six of which were Educational Foundation essayawards, and submitted research proposals from this work amounted to $1.8 million dollars. Of this, $800,000+ wasactually funded which Jack said was "an extraordinary measure of productivity." Bob Acland described unusual 41electromagnetic flow meter" with which he could monitor the rate of blood flow continuously. Carroll Lesesne,with Don Serafin and Nick Georgiade, described "Transcutaneous PO 2 Monitoring as a Reliable Non-Invasive Indexof Flap Viability." Their figures showed very good correlation.
Brien Murphy, with John McCraw, was studying "Arterial Spasms and Myocutaneous Flap Ischemia" and wasproducing necrosis in the gracilis more reliably than in the rectus flap (of dogs). The muscles seen with necrosiswere similar to those seen in myocardial infarction following coronaries, so treatment for one might prove to be abenefit for the other. John Bostwick spoke on the "Anatomical and Clinical Studies of the Blood Supply to theLatissimus Dorsi and Pectoralis Major Flaps," and Gordon Tobin on "The Anatomical Basis for Splitting theLatissimus Dorsi Myocutaneous Flap." Bruce Cunningham described the "Distal Latissimus Dorsi Free Flap," andRuth Hillelson, working with Julie Glowacki and John Mulliken, had developed a flap on the back of a rat whichsurvived for 98% of its length. Instilling 3 cc. of whole blood beneath the flaps reduced the survival to 50%, buttreatment with Isoxsuprine resulted in viability to 92% if treated within twelve hours.
At the Business Meeting, our Treasurer Steve Miller reported that after twenty-five years, we had a balance of$12,957.38 in the bank. It was voted to increase the dues by $25 (to $125). The following were elected to ActiveMembership: Glenn Ray Carwell, Jr., M.D. A. Lee Dellon, M.D. Thomas Roderick, M.D. Foad Nahai, M.D.
The Twenty-Fifth Meeting
William B. Riley, Jr., M.D. Robert C. Russell, M.D. Gordon Sasaki, M.D. Stephen A. Sohn, M.D. JosephUpton, M.D.
Associate Members elected this year were: R. Bruce Donoff, D.M.D., M.D. Julie Glowacki, Ph.D. George Rodeheaver, Ph.D.
Four institutions had submitted applications to host the 1982 meeting and all withdrew in favor of voting for SanDiego, California, with Jack C. Fischer as ChairmanElect and Program Chairman. The new Chairman, El Zook,reported that he was planning to present a "Research Update" at the Annual Meeting of ASPRS, in place of thePlastic Surgery Research Council Lecture. This custom has continued since then. Peter Randall, having completelyflubbed on publishing the Twenty-Five Year History, started laying plans for a Thirty-Five Year History. TheResearch Council had representation on the Plastic Surgery Academic Advisory Council, The American Associationof Medical Colleges, and the Joint Forward Planning Commission.
Bob Ruberg had arranged for Lois M. Breidenbach, M.D., to recreate Baronio's lamb statue for previous R.C.
Chairmen. The possibility of having "think tank" seminars at the Annual Meetings of the Research Council wasdiscussed and recommended for the 1981 meeting.
Under New Business, Tom Krizek, representing the American Board of Plastic Surgery, reported that the ResearchCouncil had been nominated as a potential sponsoring agency of the American Board and a motion was passed thatwe accept this responsibility. Bill Graham reported that George Crikelair, Senior Member, had offered to sponsor aCrikelair Research Award to be given annually at the Research Council Meeting to a high school or college studentwho submits research done under the direction of one of the council members. The award was named in honor of hisson John who was killed in Vietnam. It was suggested that this might also include medical students and El Zookwas to contact Dr. Crikelair to complete these arrangements.
The main banquet was held at the Hershey Hotel where Tom had collected place cards representing the programcovers of all of the previous meetings. These were used as table designators and added greatly to the charm of thisgala occasion. Thanks were Hershey, Pennsylvania -1980
given to Drs. Graham, Miller, and Davis for having been so successful in rounding up so many of the old guard.
The members' evening was held at Bill and Susan Graham's beautiful place in Mechanicsburg, not far from Hershey,and I think that his beautiful twin daughters were being recruited for every university that had a medical school fromBoston to San Diego.

The Twenty-Sixth Meeting
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine
Springfield, Illinois
May 21-23,1981
Under the Chairmanship of El Zook, we were welcomed to Springfield, Illinois, the home of Abraham Lincoln, thesixteenth President of the United States. For many of us, this was our first trip to Springfield, and it was bristlingwith memorabilia. Lincoln had his law practice in an upstairs room that had been reconstructed, and had marriedand raised his family in a lovely house that had been totally rebuilt and refurnished with authentic pieces. Hisfledgling forays into the state legislature occurred in the Old Statehouse and this also had been totally rebuilt andrefurnished. All of this was within walking distance of our hotel and was thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated. Infact, our first evening was spent with wine, cheese, and dinner in the Old Capital building, where the variouschambers had been restored just as they had been with the old ledgers, quill pens, clay pipes, and spittoons. Afterdinner, an exceptionally fine actress gave a remarkable soliloquy in the senate chambers impersonating Mrs. Lincolnfrom courtship and marriage, plus the difficulties of raising children, through her husband's law career, the statelegislature, his debates and election, and the move to Washington, the war between the states, her dementia, and hisassassination. It was beautifully done, and gave an insight that few of us had ever known in a setting that wasauthentic and unique.
The Division of Plastic Surgery at Southern Illinois was only eight years old and had been approved for residency
training for four years. The Medical School was only authorized in 1965, its first class graduating in 1975. We were
welcomed by Roland Folse, Chairman of the Department of Surgery, and then Richard H. Moy, the Dean, described
how the school had been built and spoke further on their research plans and achievements and outlined the direction
it was currently taking. David Sumner, Chief of the Section of Peripheral Vascular Surgery, had helped develop
"Three Dimensional Ultrasonic Arteriography," and dramatically showed how he could visualize lesions in the
carotid system. Ahmad Hamadina, from the Division of Urology, described "Ductal Obstruction and Male
Infertility." With El's enthusiasm and expertise in microsurgery, urology was making strides in this problem, and
this exemplified the fine spin-off of work in the extensive microsurgical labs under plastic surgery, as related to
other specialties. Donald Caspery from Pharmacology was using "microiontophoresis" to investigate "putative
neurotransmitters."
The Southern Illinois Department of Biomedical Communications had been well subsidized in the original charter,and this was organized under the Division of Plastic The Twenty-Sixth Meeting
Surgery. We had a tour through their studios with demonstrations of medical illustrations, graphic arts, and clinicalphotography which were truly exciting. I had never heard of a medical photographer who would chew you outbecause you hadn't called him late the night before when an interesting case was being operated on. Having the headhoncho engaged to one of the plastic surgery residents, helped to augment these ties even further.
Tony Lee from the Department of Pharmacology spoke on "The Pharmacology of Denervated Blood Vessels," andBob Russell described work that he was doing on "Nerve Growth Factor." Bob showed us around the extensivemicrolab describing a number of the experiments that were going on which was very exciting.
Brent Stromberg, from Western Reserve, was studying "Collagen Dynamics in Intestinal Healing." Unlike skin,tendon, and bone, intestinal collagen after wounding developed a collagen pattern without a demonstrableremodeling phase and collagen destruction. B.J. McCoy, in Kel Cohen's lab, used keloid tissue extract to "increasecollagen synthesis in fibroblasts" which were cultured from both normal and keloid tissue. Non-collagen protein andcell numbers were not significantly affected by these extracts. This suggests that keloids contained factor(s), notpresent in normal dermis, which significantly and selectively increased collagen synthesis in the quiescentfibroblast. Franklin Rose, working with Frank Gerow and Mel Spira, studied "The Effect of Papaverine on.
Myofibroblast and its Relation to Fibrous Capsular Contraction." Immunofluorescent studies showed much lessmyofibroblastic activity in the papaverine treated animals.
Yucel Erk at last had developed "An Animal Model for the Study of Hypertrophic Scar Formation." Working inMel Spira's lab, and after many attempts, he used the red duroc pig and not only created a sizable wound whichhealed secondarily with hypertrophic scar, but he also showed the influence of the underlying panniculus camosusmuscle. David Frank, working with Ross Rudolph, noted that in rats the rate of contraction of bum wounds wasroughly the same as when the necrosis was caused by cold injury (contrary to Li). The open excised woundcontracted more rapidly than either, but this was significantly slowed by Biobrane, where contractile organelles wereabsent. Gordon Sasaki, described "The Roles of Allogenic Macrophages and Steroid in Wound Contraction." BobFalcone, working with Bob Ruberg, showed that meshed full-thickness skin grafts were more likely to take on acontaminated bed than an unmeshcd sheet graft.
Arthur Perry in Tom Krizck's lab showed that "Topical Antifibrinolytic Agents Affected Skin Graft Survival."Aprotin (Trasylo achieved a greater percentage take of skin grafts on a contaminated recipient site than grafts withoutit. Bob Ruberg showed Springfield, Illinois -1981
that in addition to inhibiting adherence, cortisone would decrease the "take" of a skin graft, a finding which wasreversed with large doses of vitamin A.
Ross Rudolph described the "Ultrastructure of Chronic Radio Therapy Damage in Human Skin" suggesting thatpermanent damage to fibroblasts or fibroblast stem cells may play an important role in chronic radiation skin ulcer.
Mary McGrath, still at Columbia Presbyterian, described the "Kinetics of Wound Contraction" using a small(6.2cM2 )and a larger (12.6cml) defect on the back of rats. Tim Miller, who studied "Free Autogenous MuscleGrafting in Rabbits," felt that the muscle which was seen was regenerated tissue rather than surviving tissue. D.A.
Gilbert, working with Charlie Horton, studied the "Cell Biology of Dupuytren's Contracture" from tissue culturesobtained from seven Dupuytren's Contracture patients. These cells showed a more intense staining for smoothmuscle antigens and greater numbers of stress fibers than the controls. Arnold Arem studied the "Effects of 3,4Dehydropoline Upon Wound Healing in Rats" showing that with borderline toxicity doses this substance inhibitedprolyl hydroxylase in reduced collagen synthesis.
The next morning, Ralph Holmes described a number of experiments to determine "What Does PeriosteumContribute to Bone Regeneration?" pointing out a number of differences between the rat and the dog. Joe Kusiak inLinton Whitaker's lab studied "Craniofacial Growth Following Calvariectomy" in the rabbit. They did stripcraniotomies, frontal craniotomics, and virtually total craniectomies. Even the latter had nearly fully recalcified bythree months and there was very little in the way of changes in cephalometric studies. J.B. Moore, working in theSIU labs, showed that vascularized autogenous bone grafts in the dog were considerably stronger than non-vascularized grafts. Fred Lukash with Jim May, studied "Vessel Patency Assessment with Heat Sensing Monitors"using a thermistor which was implanted next to the vessel. Vessel occlusion produced a 10 centigrade temperaturedrop in the rat, and a .50 drop in rabbits and dogs. Jane Petro, working at Montefiore, studied the "Effect ofMicrosurgical Repair on Growing Arteries" which were less than 0.4 mm. in external diameter, showing that thesevessels did indeed maintain their growth potential. Craig Merrell, also from SIU, described "FreeMicroneurovascular Gracilis Muscle Transfer for Enterostornal Sphincter Construction and Control" with variouspossible patterns of construction.
Gregory Ganske, working with Bob Demuth in Oregon, described "The Effects of Local Anesthetics andVasoconstrictive Agents on Tissue Gas Levels" showing that injected epinephrine and levonordefrin, significantlyreduced tissue pO, levels for prolonged periods of time. Joe Rabson, from Pittsburgh, described the "ImmunologicFunction of Transplanted Lymph Nodes in Rats" and discussed its possible implication for tumor immunity. JohnNinnemann from Salt Lake City studied "Interferon The Twenty-Sixth Meeting
Production in Burn Patients" and felt that Candida Albicans Sepsis in burned patients induced interferon productionwhich contributed to cellular immune dysfunction. Lillian Nanney, working with J.B. Lynch, studied"Hypothermic Vascular Changes in Flap Vessels" and noted the differences between vessels in flaps that were cooledone to three days and survived and the vessels in flaps that were cooled four to six days and usually failed. LeeEdstrom was studying the "Distribution and Shunting of Blood Flow in Dorsal Rat Flaps as Demonstrated byRadioactive Microspheres," and discussed primarily the usefulness of microspheres and specific problems with themodel.
Steve Mathes reported on "Patterns of Musculocutaneous Perforating Vessels to Human Skin" outlining theseimportant areas between superficial muscles and the overlying skin. Tom Arganase, working with Jack Fisher,wondered if "Flap Delay is Valid in an Irradiated Field?" In the rat model, even with enough radiation to producechronic injury, the flap-sparing effect of the surgical delay was effective. R.N.Razaboni, from NYU, was using"Stercomicroscopy as a Diagnostic Aid in Determining the Behavior in Free Growing Flaps in Rats." She showedhow this instrument was useful in estimating early vascular thrombosis. Fred Heckler at the University ofMississippi described "The Effects of Denervation on Skin Blood Flow and Skin Survival in MusculocutaneousFlaps" showing that acute denervation caused an immediate increase in skin blood flow compared to the controls.
Court Cutting described the "Effect of Blood Pressure and Viscosity on Skin Blood Flow." Using fluorescein, heshowed increases in total blood flow with increasing pressures up to 80 mm. of mercury. Above 100 mm. ofmercury, there were no further increases. Decreasing the profusate viscosity also increased blood flow.
C.Y. Pang, working with Gordon Sasaki, described "The Potential Use of Prostaglandin Synthetase Inhibitors inAugmentation of Skin Flap Viability." They felt that the side effects of Imidazole might explain why Imidazolethrough TxA. synthesis inhibitor failed to augment skin flap blood flow or viability. Lewis Kinkead from SIUdescribed "Vasoactive Drugs and Skin Flap Survival in the Pig," a loose skinned animal, and in spite of expectedresults on theoretical grounds, no augmentation of flap survival was found. Carlos Plannel, working with DonSerafin and Nick Georgiade, described "Transcutaneous PO 2 and Laser Doppler Monitoring as an AssessmentFollowing both Surgical and Chemical Sympathectomy." TcPO, showed reduced values in areas that becamenecrotic though laser doppler measurements reflected an increase in blood flow. Carolyn Kerrigen from Montrealasked "Are Arteriovenous. Shunts Significant in Skin Flap Failure?" noting that they found "no evidence ofsignificant blood flow, either nutrient or shunt, in the distal end of the flap destined to necrose." The distal parts"destined to necrose" had extremely slow flows. They postulated that attempts should Springfield, Illinois -1981 be directed at increasing arterial inflow rather than closing shunts and that treatment should be instituted within
thirteen hours and continued for a minimum of four days. Frannie Cedrone, from the University of Pennsylvania,
studied "Fluorescein 'Wash In' and Tissue Viability." Working in Harvey Rosen's lab, it appeared that fluorescein
"wash in" as measured by the fiberoptic dermofluorometer could accurately predict tissue viability. John Mulliken,
working with Judith Glowacki and Judah Folkman, and continuing his interest in hemangiomas, described
"Hemangiomas in Vitro. " He showed a difference between endothelial cells from vascular malformations and those
from hemangiomas or normal tissues. Jeanne Gratiot-Deans from George Cherry's lab, described "The Hamster
Cheek Pouch as an In Vivo Model to Study Transplanted Human Hemangiomas." After overcoming the problems
of infection in this model, she was able to study the angiogenic and fibrinolytic activity of these ex-plants.
At the Business Meeting, we discussed the proposed establishment of the Peter Gingrass Award which Rudywanted to establish in memory of his brother as an award to a medical student or non-plastic surgical resident, forthe best presentation at the meeting of the Research Council. The Constitution and By-Laws were being rewritten toconform with the requirements of the state of Illinois so that the Research Council could be incorporated as a non-profit organization. That wasn't hard to prove.
Under New Business, it was noted (by one member) that the dates listed in the program signifying the year thateach person would become a Senior Member constituted an invasion of privacy and were perhaps inaccurate. Themajority of the members (and the Secretary) felt that this was worthwhile information, but if a person did not wanttheir date listed, that person should so inform the Secretary. Correspondence was reviewed from George Crickelairwho wanted to fund an award for a high school or college student presentation at the Research Council.
The new members were: Bruce M. Achauer, M.D. H. Hollis Caffee, M.D. Herman Cestero, M.D. Jack Fisher, M.D. David H. Frank, M.D.
John 0. Kucan, M.D. Harold P. Ladbanter, M.D. Victor L. Lewis, M.D. Steven D. Macht, M.D. Mary H.
McGrath, M.D.
The Twenty-Sixth Meeting Robert L. Walton, M.D. Edward Withers, M.D.
Raymond L. Warpeha was elected to Associate Membership.
Don Serafin was elected Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman, and Jack Fisher assumed the Chairmanship anddescribed his plans for the La Jolla meeting.
We then retired to El and Sharon Zook's relaxed country setting on the shores of Uke Springfield with beer,bluegrass music, and barbecue. We were amazed to hear the talents of John Mulliken when he was turned loose onthe mandolin and joined the ensemble. His musical talents seemed to be unlimited, and the "scientific discussions"went well into the night.
Springfield, Illinois -1981

The Twenty-Seventh MeetingUniversity of California, San DiegoLa Jolla, CaliforniaMarch 14-17,1982 You wouldn't believe that San Diego in March could be cold, windy, and rainy, but in 1982 it excelled in all ofthese parameters with great gusto. We side-slipped into the airport, took a limousine to lovely La Jolla, staying atthe Sea Lodge on the ocean with its Mexican tile, wrought iron furniture, and the lovely beach and sea air. Thetrouble was that it rained every day, at times in deluges, with a storm complex that was drowning L.A. and hadrivers at Fort Wayne, Indiana, cresting at twenty-seven feet. I guess we were lucky.
Most of the sessions were held at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute (appropriate for the weather) which was only ashort "pleasant walk" up the beach past "million dollar cottages." This was one of our largest gatherings with aselection of 38 papers picked from 114 submitted abstracts. We were greeted by Dean Petersdorf and by acting Chiefof Surgery Dr. Wayne Akeson who also was the head of the Division of Orthopedic Surgery. Dr. Akeson spokeabout current research in orthopedics, and showed the police photographs of a notorious, light-fingered citizen whotried to gain illicit entry into one of the local topless go-go emporia by way of a ventilating duct in the ceiling.
Unfortunately, he became stuck in the duct, and the proprietor found him the next day with his legs danglingthrough the ceiling and a compression closed compartment syndrome developing in his arms. Dr. Akeson describedthe Wick technique for diagnosing the compartment pressures, and the results of the prompt decompression of theculprit.
Our host at the Scripps Institute, Dr. William Nierenburg, Professor of Marine Science and Director of the ScrippsInstitute of Oceanography, described the variety of projects which were currently under study at Scripps.
Dr. Fred Spiess illustrated his work with hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor. He showed photographs taken fromtheir mini submarine at 6,000 feet showing clams, crabs, and tiny fish warming themselves in the thermal hotsprings at the bottom of the ocean. This sub, which we saw later on a visit to the famous Scripps vessel known as"The Flip," is capable of descents up to 1,200 feet. "The Flip" usually travels horizontally, but on location canflood one end and assume a 900 change in orientation, with a research lab well below the surface of the water. Ofcourse, all of the facilities in the living quarters have to change by 900, and the remarkable finding was that thisvessel in the vertical position was unbelievably stable.
The Twenty-Seventh Meeting One of the best talks by the home team was by Dr. Paul Saltman, discussing the importance of trace metaldescribed as "for want of a nail, etc." This was defined as 0.01% of body weight and is represented by fourteen traceelements. Dr. Saltman described the towering basketball star Bill Walton, who was consistently troubled by stressfractures while living on a crazy diet that produced high calcium, and low iron and copper. There was no detectablemanganese in Bill's blood. This was partly corrected by changes in his diet, but Bill didn't like the taste of the dietand went back to his old routines and his stress fractures returned.
Dr. Patricia Masters described the geological changes in the La Jolla landscape which have occurred over the lastthousands of years and showed pictures of an unusual stone "motar" found offshore in about 60-100 feet of water(not very far out). She described the meaning of these findings in some digs and burial mounds which had beenfound along the shore. Kenneth Lyons Jones showed a wide selection of birth defects and showed how they weredisruptive and deformative and were due to a combination of factors such as intrauterine position, disruption ofblood supply, and amniotic bands.
The members' papers were deluged by microvascular techniques and problems, flap physiology, bone physiology,and microneurosurgery. Again, the papers were very nicely abstracted in the program, and for the second year wereallowed five minutes each for presentation and ten minutes for discussion. This system worked pretty well. B.
Yaffee, working with Berish Strauch and Jane Petro, showed that veins harvested at the time of a free flap transfercould be preserved and used for a replacement if occlusion and reoperation was necessary. Mokhtar Asaadi, workingwith Bob Russell and El Zook, showed that free muscle flaps could promote healing in infected wounds in dogs.
David Smith from Indiana was "Seeding Small Arterial Prosthesis" to produce a fairly respectable endothelium priorto use. Judith Perry, working with Wally Chang, showed that autogenous vein grafts produced a significant amountof prostacyclin which reduced platelet aggregation.
Yucil Erk in Mel Spira's lab was using Dexamethasone and prostaglandin to produce clefts in 76% of their treatedmice. Jeffery Solomon from Yale, described propagating melanoma tissue in a closed microporous polyacrylic tubewhich was placed intraperitonealy in rats. Bill Swartz from Pittsburgh showed that allogenic vascularized bonegrafts placed in the mandible of dogs could be prolonged in their survival with immunosuppression and would formcallous.
Fred Heckler, who was then in Jackson, Mississippi, used fructose 1, 6 diphosphate as a protective agent on limbssustaining five hours of tourniquet ischemia. Jim May described "An Implantable Thermocouple to MonitorMicrovascularAnastomosis." He La JoUa, California -1982 had used this in fourteen patients. George Cherry showed that the delay phenomenon worked in expanded skinsimilarly to non-expanded skin. Leonard Sharzer was able to create a vascularized free skin flap by implanting theartery and vein and then three weeks later transferring the skin and veins as a free flap. Ralph Holmes, continuinghis studies with hydroxy apatite, showed good ingrowth of bone in the tibia with maintenance of the architecture.
Joe Kuziac, working with Linton Whitaker, showed that in the rabbit, membranous bone was revascularized morerapidly than endochondral bone, which probably explains its better survival. Phillip Beegle from Emory showedthat "Breast Implants in Monkeys" consistently became encapsulated and spherical in shape when placed in thesubmammary position but remained soft in the submuscular position. This was noted as early as four weeks andpersisted until one year.
On Wednesday morning, we broke into six discussion groups which covered the subjects of Wound Healing,Microvascular Surgery, Flap Physiology, Physiology of Bone, Microneurosurgery, and Pharmacology. These panelswere chaired by Ross Rudolph, Rollin Daniel, George Cherry, Julie Glowacki, Julie Terzis, and Gordon Sasaki.
These sessions lasted two hours (with breakfast) and then, after a coffee break, were followed by an hour and a halfduring which time each Chairman summarized their panel's discussions. This was followed by a superb, butsomewhat discouraging, panel on "Where Will Tomorrow's Research Dollars Come From?" which did an unusuallygood job of rounding out the present status of research in the various areas of interest and the confusing problemswhich need to be faced at the present time.
On the lighter side, on Monday afternoon we had one of our truly great adventures. It was supposed to be a sight-seeing tour to the campus ending up with "Grand Rounds" at the zoo. Indeed it was great, but "getting there washalf the fun." We had three buses -which was fine -except that two of the three would stop on any significant gradeand were completely unable to move forward unless unloaded or turned around and put into reverse. This wasn'tvery much of a problem until the local gentry -acting as guides -headed us down a dead end street whereupon one ofthe buses had to do a " 180" and the other two had to back up two blocks, squashing a small Mustang in theprocess. Eventually, we did all get to the zoo, and met at close quarters some of their unusual gentry, namely, aseal, a great homed owl, a parrot, and a cheetah.
Following dinner, we had "Grand Rounds" with papers by the staff describing the pinning of an elephant's tibialfracture and Ross Rudolph's account of a pedicle flap repair of a facticial ulcer on the sternum of a sulfur crestedcockatoo. Joseph Kennedy presented "Infertility Requiring Surgery" which was also a zoo problem (not a Kennedyproblem). Of course, on the way home, one of the buses went right past the turnoff for La Jolla and continued upthe freeway to L.A. for about thirty miles before the error was The Twenty-Seventh Meeting discovered. Had it not been corrected, I presume that one third of plastic surgery's "golden future" would have beengone forever.
Wednesday morning's session closed with awards being given to the speakers, the first being the Crikelair Award,
which was given to the best paper presented by a high school or a college student, and was won by Thomas Stem
for his paper on "The Effect of Blood Stasis on Experimental Microvascular Anastomosis Patency." Mr. Stem had
started his work in high school and continued as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College. He was currently a
Harvard medical student and compared arterio-venous patency one week after inflicting a one and two hour period of
stasis on the arteries and veins. Half of the animals had the blood left in the static segment and half of them had it
removed. The veins which were static with blood had a significantly higher degree of non-patency than those which
were devoid of blood. The arteries did not show the same difference. However, electronmicroscopic studies showed
damage to the intima of the arteries left static with blood in place.
The Gingrass Award, given in memory of Peter Gingrass to an author in medical school or pre-plastic surgeryresidency or post-plastic surgery fellowship, was awarded to Craig Sigluff, an undergraduate medical student at theUniversity of Virginia with Milt Edgerton, who was working with Julia Terzis at the EasternVirginia School ofMedicine. He showed an exceptionally fine piece of microneuro anatomical dissection of the brachial plexis. He hadbeautifully prepared the dissection of the brachial plexis and sectioned it every two millimeters, with serial mappingof the various components. This was presented as a video in a sequence of maps similar to a Walt Disney animatedfilm to show a very intricate system of interconnecting patterns with many crossovers at various levels. Computercounting of the areas of neural tissue versus connective tissue was also used. The studies should provide valuableinformation for a more rational approach to brachial plexis injuries.
At the Business Meeting, we were informed by El Zook that we had been incorporated in the State of Illinois for allof three weeks and existed as a non-profit, tax free corporation. After much discussion, and in spite of thesubmission of 114 abstracts to the Program Committee, it was decided not to lengthen the two and a half dayperiod of the meeting.
Elected to Active Membership were: Joseph C. Banis, Jr., M.D. Loren Engrav, M.D. Malcolm A. Lesavoy, M.D. Frederick N. Lukash, M.D.
La Jolla, California -1982 Henry W. Neale, M.D. Jane A. Petro, M.D. Alan R. Shons, M.D. William M. Swartz, M.D. Vernon Leroy Young,M.D.
The new Associate Members were Cho Y. Pang, M.D., and Krystyna Pasyk, M.D., Ph.D. Tom Davis was electedSecreatry-Treasurer for three years to succeed Steve Miller, and Marty Robson was elected Chairman-Elect andProgram Chairman to host the 1984 meeting at the University of Chicago. With Marty's subsequent move toDetroit, the location of the Twenty-Ninth Meeting was also changed. Don Serafin gave us a delightful preview ofthe program that was planned for 1983 at Duke University.
The evening with the members at Pat and Jack Fisher's was most pleasant, because not only did the weather finallybehaved and become truly exemplary of Southern California, but also their delightful open house and inspiringchildren were a good match to the Mexican cuisine.

The Twenty-Eighth MeetingDuke University Medical CenterDurham, North CarolinaMay 18-21,1983 We breezed into Durham at azalea time with the dogwoods also in full bloom. The Duke campus was glorious andthe surrounding residences -mostly faculty homes -were enchanting.
Don Serafin arranged for us to stay at the new Europa Hotel complete with a four star continental dining room andhorseback riding.
Nick Georgiade welcomed us to his empire, a fast moving, far-reaching program that had turned out a huge segmentof outstanding plastic surgeons under three successive chiefs: Don, Nick, and Kenneth Pickrell. Dave Sabiston, inextending the hospitality of the Department of Surgery, reviewed the research accomplishments of the department.
Forty-two of his faculty had research grants and over half of his finishing residents went into academic positions.
Don Serafin, who had just recently been installed as Nick's successor, brought us up to date on his favorite subject"Autogenous and Allogenic Transplantation." H.S. Ziegler, speaking on "Immunosuppression in Trans-plantation,"noted that some reactions, such as a narrowing of vessels, were not inhibited by immunosuppression. He felt thatthrough more specific targeting by monoclonal antibodies, we were on the verge of transplanting digits, stomach,and colon, etc.
Dr. Frans Jobs is, in describing "Cellular Metabolism," explained emission tomography and the use of nuclearmagnetic resonance. The study of tissue metabolism by transillumination allowed the measurement of oxygen levelsin soft tissue, bone, and even the cerebral cortex. Kenneth McCarty in discussing "Carcinoma of the Breast: AnEvolution in Understanding" explained how many different factors have been found to effect the overall pattern ofthis disease. Erle Peacock described his current "Combined Surgical and Pharmacological Treatment of Scars."Being in "keloid country," he had endless material available for study.
Mac Johnston, a quiet spoken and brilliant embryologist from Chapel Hill, spoke on "Current Research in theEmbryology of the Head and Neck." In discussing the fetal alcohol syndrome and the effects this had on facialdevelopment, he noted that it might take just one or two day's exposure in the 7th-18th day of pregnancy to producea cleft. There go the first wedding anniversary celebrations.
After a "hurry up" visit to some of Duke's superb laboratories, the intensive care The Twenty-Eighth Meeting unit and children's unit, all of which were beautifully new and well-equipped, we delved into the papers by themembers and guests. Again, they reflected a great deal of work on the physiology of various flaps. Now that peoplewere "flap happy" there was an increase in the number of studies on how to save the failing flap. One wouldnaturally follow the other.
Bob Murphy, working with Marty Robson, continued to show that musculocutaneous flaps could decrease theinfection of "moderately contaminated" wounds which a random pattern flap would not. Lu Jean Feng in SteveMathes' lab, showed that increased blood flow in the myocutaneous flap did not necessarily mean increasedleukocyte mobilization when compared with random pattern flaps. Jack Coleman from Emory, studying thelymphatic drainage from the various components of a musculocutaneous flap, felt that the skin and the muscle hadtwo separate lymphatic systems. Roxanne Guy, with Bob Russell and El Zook, blew cold air and warm air on aneurovascular island flap on the side of pigs. Blood flow stayed about the same until the flaps were cooled to 220Centigrade while the 02 consumption dropped in a more linear manner. Preliminary warming increased metabolicactivity disproportionately to the blood flow. The pigs enjoyed the experience. Judith Petry was working with JimMay in trying to answer the question whether "Ischemia Produces Vascular Neogenesis in the DenervatedExperimental Skin Flap." She felt that indeed it does.
Sudarshan Ramasastri with Bill Futrell used Fluosol DA 20% to see if the increased oxygen carrying capacitywould effect skin flap survival. Indeed it did not seem to do so, and further, all the oxygen treated rats becameclinically blind. P. Parker, working with Bill Shaw, was implanting a pulse doppler to monitor cutaneous islandflaps. The advantage of a continuous reproducible monitor over indirect methods was a good one and the dopplerwas continued in dogs for seven days. They were beginning to use this system clinically. Craig Stenofsky in MelSpira's lab used 6 A carbaprostaglandin 12 and did get enhanced survival in skin island flaps when vessels wereclamped for twelve hours. When they were clamped for six or eight hours, it did not show a significant difference.
Bill Reus in Marty Robson's lab showed increased flap survival with low doses of prostocyclin and with athromboxane blocker. Survival was even better when these two substances were used together. Similar studies werereported by Michael Balkovich and Lee Edstrom. H. Hussl, with Bob Russell and El Zook, was transferring vesselsand nerves to an area of skin and then transferring these "tailor-made flaps." That night, we were all bussed over to the University of North Carolina's campus for a delightful dinner and specialshow at the Morehead Planetarium. The next morning there were four "workshops." One was on Microsurgery,another on Wound Healing, another on Aesthetic Surgery (Why the paucity of research?) and the fourth on Future Durham, North CaroHna -1983 Directions of the Plastic Surgery Research Council. These workshops were repeated at lunch time and twice thefollowing day so that everyone would have an opportunity to attend each of them.
Arnold Arem from Tuscon was studying "Perucataneous Absorption of Beta Aminoproprionitrile" and its effect onscar between two sponges that were separated by magnetic force. BAPN allowed enormous lengthening of the scar,but eventually produced systemic lathyrism. Randolf May and John Heggers from the St. Agnes Burn Unit inPhiladelphia, were culturing explants of autogenous epidermis on a collagcn matrix to try to improve skin coverage.
The process needed at least twenty days to be thick enough to use.
Bradford L. Felker, working with Julia Terzis, made a "Computerized Appraisal of the Median Nerve." This waspresented as a movie and demonstrated clearly the branching patterns. The number of branches was fairly constant,though the points of exit varied considerably. It was a beautiful piece of work. Jim Apesos, working with Ed Luce,was using pulsed electromagnetic induced current in an attempt to improve the conduction rate of sectioned andrepaired sciatic nerves. It seemed to help some.
Court Cutting, now at New York University, described "Computer Generated Contour Maps of the CraniofacialSkeleton" using cat-scan cuts. The line contours could be generated much more quickly than the grey shaded imagesthat were being developed by more complicated systems. Jeff Marsh, working with McDonnell-Douglas' designteam who were using computers for military aircraft, showed unusually fine 3-D models of craniofacial problems.
This system was used to calculate where bones needed to be cut for craniofacial patients, and where and how muchthey had to be moved. The system could even fabricate in dental stone the size and shape of bone grafts that had tobe inserted. In both of these reports, the ability to rotate the images added greatly to the 3-D appearance and ourunderstanding of these deformities.
Luftu Bas, working with Jim May, compared end-to-end with end-to-side microvascular venous anastomoses andfound better patency with the latter, particularly when there was a size discrepancy. This was convincing enough thatthey carried the work over to their clinical cases and felt that the end-to-side venous, anastomoses had fewerthromboses. Alan Serure, working with Ed Withers and Jim Morris, reported a new use for the CO 2 laser tosupplement microvascular anastomosis, after placing three key sutures. They had a 100% patency record. HermanCestero, with Ken Salyer, studied preoperative antibiotics and bacterial growth inhibition in bone grafts. Good levelsof antibiotics were measured in the bone, but the time to peak values varied with the antibiotic, not with thedosage. Ed Zingaro and Fred Lukash, were concerned with the The Twenty-Eighth Meeting transfer of bone (rib) to irradiated beds and found that by wrapping the bone in a flap of latissimus dorsi muscle, thegrafts survived and healed much better than they did without the muscle flap. Mutaz Habal used a bone paste withina dacron polyetherurethene mesh to heal gaps of 2.0 to 2.5 cm. in dog tibias. David Wolf, working with DavidSmith at Indiana, was using "Wide Bandwidth Digitally Processed Ultrasonic Pulse Echo Signals" to determine thedepth of damage in bum wounds and also the extent of soft tissue tumors. The predictions seemed quite accurate.
Steve Miller, who had previously correlated significant reductions in tissue oxygen and PCO 2 with locally injectedepinephrine 1/100,000 and 1/400,000, now showed that at these concentrations the epinephrine also lowered bloodflow. J. Howard Stevenson and Bill Lindsay, continuing their work with chickens, showed that "UltrasoundTreatment Functionally (improves) Repaired Flexor Tendons." The member's evening was spent at the home of Pat and Don Serafin. The weather was a little threatening, but itwas planned as a "pickin' and clickin"' evening with a superb "pit" barbecue, mountain folk music and "clogging."To us uninitiated this amounted to coordinated foot stomping (with heavy shoes) not exactly like the Radio CityRockettes -but with much more enthusiasm, and much more fun.
During the Business Meeting, Don Serafin reminded us that the last Research Council Update for presenting ourmaterial to ASPRS had been scheduled to follow the Business Meeting. Because that program had gone an hourand a half overtime, and because we were meeting in Hawaii, the "update" was cancelled. Hopefully, betterscheduling could be done. The possibility of having a Membership Committee was discussed and it was decided toput this to a mail ballot.
The new members were: William J. Barwick, M.D. J. Barry Boyd, M.D. David T. W. Chiu, M.D. Bruce L. Cunningham, M.D. ElofEriksson, M.D. Dennis J. Hurwitz, M.D. Ernest K. Manders, M.D. Nancy H. McKee, M.D. Riley S. Rees, M.D.
David J. Smith, M.D.
Durham, North Carolina -1983
S. Randolph May, Ph.D., was elected to Associate Membership. Marty Robson became Chairman and described hisplans for the Chicago meeting and Steve Miller was elected to Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman.

The Twenty-Ninth Meeting Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan The Twenty-Ninth meeting had to be moved from Chicago to Detroit simply because Chairman Robson had takenon his new duties as Chief of the newly reinstated Wayne State University Division of Plastic Surgery just sixmonths before. Be that as it may, Marty and Leslie, with the solid support of their strong right arm John Heggers,had things well in hand.
Not only did the forgotten city of Detroit turn out to be a revelation with its new Renaissance Center and therenewed Ponchartrain Hotel, but the "best kept secret" was the medical school -Wayne State. It turned out to be ahuge and exciting institution. The secret couldn't have been too well kept because the registration for the meetingturned out to be almost twice what was expected and our host had to move the scientific sessions out of the hoteland into the adjacent Civic Auditorium.
After the appropriate welcoming from Sandford Cohen, Associate Dean, and Bob Wilson speaking for AlexanderWalt and the Department of Surgery, the "home team" program began and included three outstanding basic sciencelecturers. The first, Professor Eberhard Mammen, who was in the Department of Surgery but held the additionalappointments as Professor of Physiology and Pathology, spoke on "Antithrombin and Sepsis." Dr. Daniel Walz,Associate Professor of Physiology spoke on the "Platelet-Derived Growth Factor: Biological -BiochemicalProperties," and Professor Myron Leon, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, spoke on the "Use ofMonoclonal Antibodies." Interestingly, additional work in all three of these areas appeared later on the program ofthe Research Council. The last speaker was Bill Lange who had set up the original training program at Wayne Stateand had practiced in Detroit during the time which literally had spanned the entire era of development ofinvestigation into automobile safety, safety testing, and appropriate changes in windshield, dashboard and steeringwheels. Their original crash simulator was built in an elevator shaft in the medical school and Bill's use of this"lab" was confined to weekends because of the subsonic boom caused by the release of the vehicle in the elevatorshaft. Bill spoke on "Anatomical Studies of Maxillofacial Injuries" (not much different from the work of LeFort)and reflected on much of this early work. This part of the program was followed by a tour of the new researchlaboratories that Marty and John had moved into, with work already well underway.
The Twenty-Ninth Meeting
The trend of the papers this year included extensive studies on collagen, its pattern in Dupuytren's contraction, theeffects of laser, its microheterogeniety, the effect on skin grafts and the effects of collagen-based wound dressings.
Ross Rudolph described myofibroblasts in the contracted nodules in Dupuytren's disease. Malcolm Lesavoy showedthat the YAG laser can selectively suppress collagen production without effecting cell proliferation. J. Kucan fromthe Los Alamos National Laboratories was regulating "Human Fibroblast Proliferation in a Chemically DefinedMedium," and Charlie Cuono at Yale was describing "Collagen Microheterogeneity" in normal and abnormal scar.
Bruce Donoff from Massachusetts General, was putting full thickness skin grafts on granulating wounds. Heshowed a loss of both cells and collagen, suggesting the inhibition of prolyl hydroxylase from the grafting. Woundgranulation peaked at one week and then dropped off but if grafted at that time, the amount of collagen persisted sothe graft seemed to increase collagen synthesis and diminish its breakdown. Tom Lawrence, from the NationalCancer Institute, measuring wound breaking strengths in tumor-bearing rats, showed that the tumor after reaching acritical mass would inhibit healing.
Elof Eriksson presented preliminary work on "Glutaraldehyde Treated Skin: A Substitute for Cartilage?" and wasable to produce lasting cartilage-like shapes. Chris Jones and Dave Smith from Indiana were using the same materialon tendons as a replacement for the Hunter rods.
There were many detailed reports on the physiology of skin and muscle flaps with emphasis on understanding themicrocirculation, ways of improving the patency of vasculature, and details on the usefulness of transplanted bone.
D. Tran, working with Steve Miller and continuing the studies on epinephrine, showed that the risk of infectionwas significantly reduced when concentrations of 1:200,000 or 1:400,000 were used instead of 1: 100,000. M. Baerfrom Hershey spoke on the "Advantages of Phenylephrine Over Epinephrin" from a number of different aspects.
Phenylephrine 1:20,000 was as effective as epinephrine 1: 100,000, but the phenylephrine lasted only fifty-fiveminutes. M. Liu, working with Gordon Sasaki, was using the "Argon-Pumped Dye Laser" as an effective modalityfor the treatment of hemangio sarcomas.
Frank Gerow had been working for years with Organosilicones and whereas it had been felt that these were inert,safe, and stable, he showed that in the presence of certain infections, they were indeed biodegradable. F. Gahhos, inSteve Ariyan and Marv Arons' lab, reported data to show that heat in infected hands actually reduced the relativeblood flow. Gordon Sasaki was studying the "Pharmacologic Regulation of Contractual Properties in HumanSaphenous Vein Grafts" showing successful control of spasm.
Detroit, Michigan -1984 This year again we had three workshops each presented three times, so they all could be enjoyed. The first was on
"Computers and their Use in Plastic Surgery Research," the second on "Animal Models for Flap Research," and the
third on "The Bum Patient: Models for Research." Each produced considerable in-depth discussion with many
experts in these fields.
R. Geter, working with Lin Puckett, showed that "Ultrasound Did Produce Some Improvement in Ischernic FlapSurvival." There were some deleterious effects, but these seemed to be reversible. Peter Neligan, working with BillLindsay, noted conflicting reports of "Isoxsuprine on Capillary Blood Flow and Skin Viability in Flaps."Isoxsuprine produced relaxation of smooth muscle in the large dominant arteries, but not the random part of theflap, and was not effective in increasing flap survival.
Dennis Hurwitz studied the blood supply in fasciocutaneous flaps in humans using serial CAT scans whichproduced very nice visualization of both the large and small vessels. Roxanne Guy, working at Southern Illinois,had a patient with a bronchopleural fistula and was interested in "The Antibiotic Carrying Capabilities ofTransferred Muscular Vascular Pedicles." This patient developed pleural space antibiotic levels which were 60% ofserum levels (whereas pleural fluid usually only had about 20% of serum levels). By implanting perforatedchambers, she could show good antibiotic levels within the muscle flap. Lu Feng, working with Steve Mathes,showed that in random pattern flaps inoculated with bacteria, Clindamycin, which has been shown to accumulatewithin neutrophils in vitro, had significantly less necrosis than the controls, whereas in Cefazolin treated flaps, therewas no difference from the controls.
There were several other papers concerning flaps and infection. One by Jack Coleman, from Josh Jurkiewicz's lab atEmory, studied "Muscle Flap Coverage of Infected Vascular Prosthesis" showed that transposed muscle may abortinfection under these conditions. K. Johnson with Steve Mathes showed that supplemental environmental oxygenseemed to improve flap resistance to bacterial induced necrosis. Bob Russell, studying the difference in bonehealing with and without well vascularized soft tissue coverage, described a model for the study of this problem. J.
Mahoney, working with Bill Lindsay, showed that "Muscle Coverage of Healing Bone Grafts" demonstratedincreased vascularity with a more mature bony architecture. J. Fisher from the Mayo Clinic put autogenous bone inmethyl mcthacrylate, leaving one side exposed and showing greater vascularity into this bone "cookie" when placedbeneath muscle as compared with placing it beneath skin. M. Balkovich and Lee Edstrom, studying Prostacyclineand Thromboxane in the venous circulation of flaps, showed significant increases in the Thromboxane levels inacutely raised flaps with less elevation after a delay operation. P. Haeck, with Mel Spira, investigating the"Sampling Errors in the Use The Twenty-Ninth Meeting of Skin Flaps in Rats," noted that 40% of unaccepted grant requests from NIH had inadequate controls and
discussed the need for determining these numbers before starting a study.
Harvey Rosen, from the University of Pennsylvania, used a carefully controlled perfusate to wash out epigastricflaps prior to ischemia and demonstrated an improved tolerance to the ischemia with delays of the no-reflowphenomenon. He concluded that stagnating blood in the microcirculation could be a causative agent in the no-reflowphenomenon. M. Kessler, working with Dick Goulian described a "Model for Hypothermic Preservation ofAmputated Extremities Using Continuous Perfusion," for the study of continuous profusion, intermittent perfusion,or simple flush with ice storage. B. Cushin, working with Roger Salisbury and Jane Petro, showed a "Reduction ofSmooth Muscle Proliferation at the Anastomotic Site in Rats Treated with Trapidil (Rocomal). Michael Yaremchuk,working with Jack Hoopes, showed a significant difference in the microcirculation of bone allografts depending onwhether there was a major or a minor genetic difference between host and recipient. Kay Black, working with DaveFumas, carried out "Functional Assessment of Long Term Surviving Neuromuscular Allografts in Rats"immunosuppressed with Cyclosporin, and felt that changes in the muscles were probably attributable to simpleatrophy rather than rejection.
C. Hewitt, working with B. Achauer on "Severe Thermal Trauma," showed a decrease in leuko-agglutination,feeling that the major histocompatibility complex might be altered following severe thermal trauma.
J. Imatani, working with Steve Miller and Bob Demuth, showed "Hemodynamic Alterations Secondary to ElectricalBurns" but felt that some of their results might have been due to general hypovolemia. Rollin Daniel had developeda good model for "Experimental Electrical Bums." He found that the temperature within the muscles was not ashigh as might have been expected, though the current was "almost explosive." He wondered whether the injury wasreally progressive.
P. Zidel from the Hospital for Joint Disease in New York, detailed the usual sequence after cartilage injury and wasinvestigating "Cartilage Repair After Cultured Chondrocyte Transplants." Perhaps the usual deleterious effects couldbe reversed. M. Angel from Pittsburgh was investigating "Vascularization of Tricalcium Phosphate Implants" andfound that they could indeed be vascularized and that latissimus dorsi flaps were more effective in this process thanomentum. Ralph Holmes, carrying on further studies with coralline hydroxyapatite in comparison with cortical bonegrafts, showed better regeneration of bone in the CHAP than in the autogenous bone. However, there was virtuallyno remodeling of this material. Court Cutting spoke on "Computer Detroit, Michigan -1984 Aided Planning of Orthognathic Surgery." He used a personal computer interphased with a digitizer pad and agraphics output device to visualize facial deformities in three dimensions. In this way he could map out optimalocclusion and measure the changes that needed to be made. Ken Salyer had developed a "Three Dimensional ImageReconstruction of Computed Tomograms from Axial CT Scans." This should be a real benefit for planningcraniofacial surgery. Ralph Ize, with Jim May, studied the "Histology and Histochernical Changes in FreeTransferred Skeletal Muscles" in the lower leg up to a year post-transfer and showed good maintenance of normalskeletal muscle morphology. Julia Terzis described a "Carbonic Anhydrase Staining of Human Nerves" which couldbe done intraoperatively and would be a help in distinguishing sensory from motor fibers at the time of repair.
Christopher Jones from Indiana was awarded the Peter J. Gingrass Award for his paper on "Glutaraldehyde-TreatedMammalian Tendons Used in Place of Hunter Rods." Martin E. Kessler was given the Clifford C. Snyder Awardfor his paper on "A Model for Hypothermic Preservation of Amputated Extremities Using Continuous Perfusion."He was a plastic surgery resident at Cornell Medical Center. DaThaoTran, a Vietnamese high school student fromOregon, was awarded the John F. Crikelair Research Award for his paper on "Potentiation of Infection byEpinephrine." At the Executive Committee it was suggested that the Clifford Snyder Award be renamed "The Past Chairman'sAward" and be given to the plastic surgery resident or fellow presenting the best paper at the annual meeting. Atthis time in our history, we had representatives on the American Association of Medical Colleges, the PlasticSurgery Academic Advisory Council, and the American College of Surgeons Plastic and Maxillofacial Council. Wewere also asked to nominate candidates for the American Board of Plastic Surgery and were planning to present anupdate at both the Association meeting as well as at the Society meeting. A formal motion was passed requiringthat either the sponsor or the endorser be at the Business Meeting to present a potential candidate or, if neither couldattend, to designate "another member of the Research Council to speak on behalf of the candidate. This personshould be identified to the Secretary-Treasurer prior to the Business Meeting by the sponsor." The new members were: Arthur S. Brown, M.D. John J. Coleman, 111, M.D. G. Gregory Gallico, 111, M.D. Nelson H. Goldberg, M.D.
Susan E. MacKinnon, M.D.
The Twenty-Ninth Meeting James L. Mahoney, M.D. William D. Morain, M.D. James F. Nappi, M.D. Samuel W. Paffy, M.D. Judith J.
Petry, M.D.
Julia Terzis was elected our first Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman from the distaff side (though her ageremained a mystery). Steve Miller was welcomed in as the new Chairman and discussed plans for the 1985 meeting.
The first night of the meeting we were bussed to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn for a cocktail party. Theyhave the greatest collection of everything on four wheels including those run by steam. There were three Presidentiallimousines serving Presidents from Roosevelt through Carter (including the one in which President Kennedy wasriding in Dallas) early racing cars and no end of various machines and engines. Browsing was a pleasure.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the dinner at Leslie and Marty's new home in Grosse Pointe, but from allreports, the Robson's had not only done a miraculous job of moving in, but a spectacular job of entertaining whatwas the largest group of members yet gathered.
Detroit, Michigan -1984 The Thirtieth MeetingOregon Health Sciences UniversityPortland, OregonMay 22-25,1985 Oregon claimed to have everything anyone in the world could possibly want, and they tried hard to prove it andalmost succeeded. The "City of Roses" had been rebuilt in the downtown river-front area where we were staying inthe new Marion Hotel. As a result, strolls across the open lawn to the Willamett River were very conducive to deepthought and speculation, as Chairman Steve Miller had promised.
The Governor had named the University of Oregon Health Science Center the "Oregon Health Science University,"so that's the way it was. The Division of Plastic Surgery had been started in 1979 and included services at theUniversity Hospital, the Shriner's Hospital, the Veteran's Administration Hospital and the Oregon CrippledChildren's Division, all of which were on the main campus looking out to Mount Hood in the distance.
The very first day, they packed us off to the Oregon Regional Primates Center -with the rest of the apes and themonkeys. This is probably the country's largest primate center, with huge enclosures providing endless fascinationfor those on the outside looking in. We were royally welcomed by Leonard Laster, the President of OHSU, JohnKendell, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Vaughn Critchlow, Director of the Primate Center, as well as JohnCampbell, the acting Chairman of the Department of Surgery. We heard about primate research, primate socialhabits, and some of the unusual headaches concerned with our primate cousins.
One of the first papers was by Dr. Sonia Buist on "Medical Implications of the Mount St. Helens Eruption." Itseemed that heavy smokers never turned a hair with all the fall-out, feeling that all that ash in the air was a naturalenvironment. The people in the area of the Mount St. Helens eruption knew nothing about possible injuries of theash particularly to patients with asthma and heart disease. The ash was terrible on automobile engines, but theydidn't know what it would do to the water supply, their household pets, cows, etc. Many people wore surgicalmasks. There were also occasional signs saying "For security reasons, please remove masks when entering banks." They found minimal eye problems with no prolonged effects, the worst difficulty being in those wearing contactlenses. The highest exposure group did indeed have an accelerated rate of loss of lung function and an increasedinstance of lung disease; for the first two or three years. The non-smokers were affected the most, and the heavysmokers.
The Thirtieth Meeting the least. She felt that in areas of high exposure, pulmonary fibrosis would probably increase, but they had noevidence of an increase in lung cancer. Dr. Chris Newhall of the U.S. Department of the Interior described a "Familyof Explosive Volcanoes -Mount St. Helens and its Circum-Pacific Cousins." It was a fascinating account ofvolcanology, how they occur, and how they are predicted. It sounded as though they expected another one at anymoment. He showed seismographic tracings indicating less and less activity, but since it was five years almost tothe minute, he felt that this inactivity was probably a prelude to another great blast. We all held onto our seatsexpecting something at any minute. He noted that the eruption had been a lateral eruption, and as far away asYakima there was darkness at noon. There had been considerable activities through September of 1984, and then itwas extremely quiet until the following May. In studying volcanic activity around the Pacific, there was an absoluteincrease in the numbers of active volcanoes since 1500. This could well be simply an increase in the number ofreports. There were presently between 500 and 600 active volcanos on land with many more under the sea.
Phillip Parshley described the unusual bums that occurred during the Mount St. Helens eruptions. Apparently, thegophers took refuge in the ground, and most of them not only survived, but because of the seeds in their GI tract,they quickly re-seeded the entire area when they dug out. He said that burn injuries were really very few, thoughmany who went back in to retrieve the fallen timber, were injured by the residual ash. It is interesting that thegreatest bums were in the non-exposed surfaces such as inside shoes. In three survivors from near the eruption, theworst burns were the back and popliteal spaces. They averaged 46% deep burns and one had to be intubated forrespiratory distress and a severe staph infection. In two, the lungs were severely affected. The three were all in thesame area, but the bums were quite dissimilar.
Leena Mela-Riker gave a fascinating account of "Whole Body and Muscle Metabolism During HyperdynamicSepsis." Leena had been with us at Penn and was one of our best teachers, but the lure of the Northwest had takenher to Oregon where she seemed to be continuing in full swing. She noted that muscle was quite different fromother tissues. It could survive much longer periods of ischernia and tolerate a lower pH without as much damage tothe membranes, however, it was unable to tolerate hyperdynamic sepsis very well. Patients died with a high cardiacoutput death which produced high cardiac oxygen consumption. There was a high protein catabolic state.
Apparently, fat was the primary fuel during sepsis.
J. Peter Bentley, Professor of Biochemistry, described "The Potentials for Axtificial Skin in the Bum Patient"outlining many of the parameters that were being considered. He reviewed a number of the projects that were goingon, particularly those Portland, Oregon -1985 using layers of collagen on which cultures of epidermis were being placed. Perhaps there was an advantage in havinga variety of artificial "skins." Finally, Dr. Wilbur P. McNulty, Head of the Division of Primate Medicine, described "Simian AIDS" explaininghow a mutation probably had changed an endemic condition in the primate to the devastating condition in humansand the hope that maybe a resistant primate could be developed for useful therapy. Transmission within theprimate's center colony could be by direct contact orby fluid innocuation. At times, there is no clinical disease, butthe individual is still infectious. The incubation period could be as long as four to five years.
We returned to the hotel for the member's papers which numbered forty-eight chosen from 148 submitted abstracts.
In thirty years, this was a long way from having to extract papers from our small membership.
Starting the papers of the members and guests was a study from Bowman Gray by A. Miller showing that inburned, septic, and severely traumatized patients, there is depression of the phagocytic ability of granulocytes. Afterexposure to lymphokines, they were able to restore the depressed function to normal levels or even to exceed controllevels. This was being used clinically. Daniel Linder, working with Steve Miller and Bob Demuth, was attemptingto "Improve Tissue Survival During Ex Vivo Storage" by adding a perfusate to hypothermic storage. Phosphate-Buffered Ringers did appear to increase storage time, but they felt that Hap perfusion with or withoutpharmacological agents had a detrimental effect on flap survival.
Patricia Egerszegi, working with Skanes and Daniel in Montreal, studied "Composite Tissue Transplants inPrimates." The allograft recipients were treated with Cyclosporin A and they had two long-term survivals in handtransplants as well as five of six neurovascular free flap transplants with evidence of reinnervation. However, theexperiments were extremely expensive. Johannes Huber, working with Steve Mathes at Michigan, studied "TheEffect of Pressure on Tissue Expansion" and found that in spite of differing volumes and pressures at the time ofinjection, all the pressures came down within sixty minutes and they felt that the increments of pressure in thismodel probably didn't make very much difference. The increase in the skin expansion rate was very, very little.
H. Nelson, working with Steve Miller, was carrying out "Prophylactic Subcutancous Mastectomies" in C3H micewith spontaneous mammary tumors. They found it as difficult to remove all the breast tissue in the mouse or the ratas it is in the human. They had eight tumors in mastectornized mice, with only six in the sham or control animals.
The Thirtieth Meeting
Ross Rudolph, in an interesting paper comparing "Submuscular versus Submammary Placement of BreastProsthesis," showed that 25% of submammary implants became hard in humans and also that 27.4% of 146submuscular implants became hard in cosmetic augmentation. He was unable to show a difference between the twolocations, much to our surprise, and had no explanation for this finding. Tom Lawrence from Wayne State, showeda "Reversal of Adriamycin Induced Healing Impairment with Supplemental Growth Factors" using "transforminggrowth factor -B" as the most effective, as well as "platelet derived growth factor." The combination of the twototally reversed the healing deficit induced by adriamycin. Mark Granick from Pittsburgh found that methylene blueand gentian violet were the only "surgical skin marking agents" that were really safe when the markings weretattooed. Brilliant green and Bonney's blue were satisfactory for external marking but produced an inflammatoryreaction when tattooed. Some of the proprietary inks produced permanent tattoos.
Doug Robson, a chip off the old block, described widely differing healing while "Evaluating the Effectiveness ofHousehold Burn Remedies. " Thomas Kupper, working with Steve Ariyan, noted that epidermal thymocyteactivating factor at a high circulating level following burn injuries were important biologically for wound healingand may be responsible for the suppression of antigen specific T cell immunity. Gregory Brown, working withGordon Tobin in Louisville, found that "Biosynthetic Human Epidermal Growth Factor AcceleratesEpithelialization of Bums" in partial thickness bums. In vivo, this appeared to be due to mitogenic stimulation.
Jeremy Black, working with David Fumas and Bruce Achauer, hoped to use low doses of Cyclosporin in "AnExperimental Model for Massive (75%) Body Surface Area Bums With Primary Excision and Subsequent SkinAllografts." At the low dosage, neutrophiles and white blood cell counts were not depressed. These were massiveburns and all the controls died. The excisions were done twenty-four hours after bums and it was amazing that anyof them survived. In six animals, the mean survival time was thirty days ranging from 2280; two of the long termsurvivals had "nearly perfect hair growth." Jay Brink, working at Indiana showed very clear-cut cross-sections ofbums with fairly accurate imaging mapped out by a (25 MHc) pulse-echo ultrasound system.
Mike Yaremchuk was interested in the sequence of "The Acute Rejection of Experimental Vascularized BoneAllografts." Using two strains of rats which were similar but not identical, he saw the early loss of osteoblasts andmarrow with a late loss of osteocytes, suggesting that the latter might be due to ischemia. Host revascularizationand repopulation occurred before the graft was entirely lost. Mike Stalnecker, working with Linton Whitaker,showed some decrease in the resorption of onlay grafts on the mandible using pulsed electromagnetic stimulation.
Uldis Bite, working with Ian Portland, Oregon -1985 Jackson, assessed the orbits of patients following trauma and those with orbital deformities using a "Quantitative 3Dimensional CT Technique for Assessment." In a four year old child following a resection of a malignant teratoma,their reconstruction showed that the ilium would be insufficient, so they turned to non-vascularized rib andvascularized omentum. M.L. Gray and co-workers from Harvard, reported on some unusual in vitro studies ofepiphyseal plate cartilage subjected to mechanical forces which showed metabolic changes depending on the forcesused.
Sam Logan, working with Paul Weeks, presented a fascinating analysis of the kinetics "in the human wrist."
This computerized investigation analyzed many of the complex functions of the wrist and should have good clinical
application. Ray Morgan, working with Paul Manson and co-workers, produced a degree of enophthalmos with a
cervical sympathectomy in rats. The facial deformity had been reported by Moss and Crikelair at our 1960 meeting
in Cleveland. Retropositioning was confirmed 'with a decrease in the orbital contents on the operated side. Howard
Klein from U. Cal at Davis, showed that "forskolin increased the maximum tetanic tension developed by free
muscle grafts over the controls." M.G. Cedars, working with Tim Miller, showed that "Longitudinal Slicing of
Free Muscle Flaps" when leaving the original length buta smaller cross section, seemed to aid muscle regeneration.
C. Hong, working with Bill Futrell, studied "Simultaneous Heart and Vascularized Muscle Allografts for
Monitoring Rejection in Rats." They showed that similar changes occurred in both muscles so that the skeletal
muscle could be used to show rejection changes and would be more easily biopsied than the myocardial muscle.
Andrew Roth, working with George Reading, showed a slight but significantly faster sensory return when a growthhormone was used following a crush injury to the sciatic nerve. Brooke Seckel, from the Lahey Clinic, showed thatnerves would regenerate through a silicone nerve guide with a "Y" configuration. Berish Strauch had been studying"Autogenous Vein as a Graft Substitute" for some time and showed that axonal growth occurs over at least three cmand perhaps considerably more. Julia Terzis, studying the "de Medinaceli" technique of nerve repair and comparingit to microsuture in a very thorough and sophisticated way, showed that this "cellular surgery" seemed to achievestatistically significant improved results. For the first time, she introduced at the Research Council a behavioralmeans of studying PNS regeneration in the rat sciatic model bytheuseofratgaits and SFI. Charles Rutledge, workingin the same lab, used "Multivariant Analysis of Rat PNS Regeneration" and proposed an "experimental andstatistical model," which expanded on the rat walking traits and showed these to correlate with toe-spread data.
Joseph Rosen, working at Stanford, suggested that "nerve repair should ideally be The Thirtieth Meeting done at the axon level" and described a silicone chip with axon tubes which could be implanted so the axons
literally regenerated through the tubes. He used a one mm square chip which had a grid of 2,500 such tubes cut by
laser. This was still in the developmental process. Arnold Arem, in an interesting double blind study, showed that
there were significant "Effects of Vitamin B6 in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." The effect was not pronounced and
not curative.
Susie MacKinnon and Lee Dellon had two papers. One was a fascinating study of the "Histopathology of HumanPeripheral Nerve Compression" and the other was on "The Relationship of Diabetic Neuropathy and NerveCompression." Their work seemed to be a big step in the direction of improving peripheral nerve function bydecompressing the nerve at specific sites in patients with diabetes and nerve compression Symptoms.
The following morning, we had three study groups, one on "Controversies in Nerve Research" moderated by LeeDellon, the second on "Muscle Research" moderated by Nancy McKee, and the third on "Flap Survival Research"moderated by Don Serafin. Each of these panels provided an in-depth approach to the subjects with well-organizedpresentations and discussions. The pattern of presenting such in-depth discussions, seemed to be very helpful tothose just starting in these fields, as well as being useful for those more experienced.
The rest of the morning's papers were an unusual collection of studies on flap circulation and its possible control.
Christopher Forrest, working with Bill Lindsay, was interested in nicotine, which had a strong effect impairing thelength of skin flap survival. T. French, working with Judith Petry, studied the effect of "The Patency Test" on thearterial endothelial surface with diminished numbers of endothelial cells in those subjected to the test. Bill Reus,with Marty Robson, showed "Progressive Vasodilation With Increasing Dosages of Prostacyclin" in themicrocirculation of flaps. Terry Zimmerman, working with Gordon Sasaki, showed an additive effect of AT? MgCl, and SOD infusion "in preserving the viability of ischemic tissue." Michael Angel in Bill Futrell's lab, felt that"Free Radicals in Hematoma Induced Flap Necrosis" were a major factor in the necrosis.
Kailish Narayan, from Johns Hopkins, stressed the importance of oxygen free radicals in flap ischernia and showedsome improvement with superoxide dismutase, and also allopurinol. Charlie Hergrueter, working with Jim May,felt that human tissue type plasminogen activator was a potent thrombolytic agent in the rabbit. H.U. Steinau,working with Bob Russell, used an oxygenated hemoglobin solution as a perfusate to 44prevent postischernia -syndrome" after limb replantation. Howard Klein used N.M.R.
Portland, Oregon -1985 to monitor biochemical changes in skin flaps. Harvey Rosen used a complicated perfusate to delay the onset ofhyperpermeability in flaps.
On Thursday evening, we boarded the huge river boat "Columbia Gorge" on the Willamette River right across fromour hotel and had a delightful cruise down river to its confluence with the Columbia. We enjoyed a superbNorthwest dinner and a postprandial lecture by a local historian (name forgotten) on the development of the regionand the importance of the river in this process. It was a perfectly glorious evening.
The member's evening was at Carol and Steve's home up in the hills. Everything in Portland is built of wood, andmost of the homes are as ingeniously designed as the Miller's. Of course, the roses were just coming into fullbloom and the entire setting was really enchanting. All eight varieties of cheese cake were demolished, somemembers having sampled each one.
The winner of the Peter J. Gingrass Award for a medical student or non-plastic surgical resident, went to Kailash H.
Narayan from Johns Hopkins for his aper "Mechanisms and Prevention of Ischernia/Reperfusion Injury in SkinFlaps." The Crikelair Research Award for the high school or college student presenting the best paper, went toWilliam Miller working at the Massachusetts General Hospital for his paper "When Can the Pedicle be Divided in aMuscle Flap or Skin Muscle Flap? Study and Evolution in the Experimental Pig." The Clifford C. Snyder, Past-Chairman Award for the plastic surgery resident or fellow with the best paper, went to Christopher R. Forrestworking at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto on "Dose and Time Effects of Nicotine on Skin FlapViability, Blood Flow, and Prostaglandin (PG) and Catecholamine Release in Random Skin Flaps." Elected to Active Membership were: Juris Bunkis, M.D. Mimis M. Cohen, M.D. Charles B. Cuono, M.D., Ph.D. Court B. Cutting, M.D. Suman K.
Das, M.D. Carolyn L. Kerrigan, M.D. W. Thomas Lawrence, M.D. Larry E. Leonard, M.D. Raymond F. Morgan,M.D., D.M.D. Talmage J. Raine, M.D. Harvey M. Rosen, M.D., D.M.D. Thomas R. Stevenson, M.D.
The Thirtieth Meeting Elected to Associate Membership were; Richard 0. Gregory, M.D., and Chull Hong, M.D.
Julia K. Terzis took over as our first female Chairman and Jim May was elected Chairman-Elect and ProgramChairman. Robert C. Russell was elected SecretaryTreasurer for a three year term.
We had had a delightful meeting in Portland but remembered their invitation "Please come visit us, but don't forgetto go home." Portland, Oregon -1985 The Thirty-First MeetingEastern Virginia Medical SchoolNorfolk, VirginiaMay 18-21,1986 The 1986 meeting was held in Norfolk under the Chairpersonship of Julia Terzis. Mr. Henry Clay Hofheimer, thePresident of The Eastern Virginia Medical Faculty, spoke on "An Impossible Dream Come True" outlining thestruggles that they had in establishing the school, seeking funding, and achieving certification. The medicalcommunity was very instrumental in many parts of this endeavor, including fundraising, and one of their greatestsupporters, Dr. Mason Andrews, had just been elected Vice Mayorof Norfolk, though some of us wondered ifMason, an obstetrician, was ex officio in charge of Norfolk's vice.
Dr. Richard Lester, Dean, outlined some of the unusual characteristics of EVMS, including the close ties with thelarge Naval base. Charlie Horton was "President of the Institute of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery" and at thetime, was in charge of graduate curriculum. He described how they had literally pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and developed one of the best residency training programs with unusual laboratory facilities.
Captain Edward Shrock, Public Affairs Officer for the Commandant of Naval Operations, described the vast navalestablishment with its naval hospital and far reaching operations. Jacques Cousteau kept his boat "The Calypso"based in Norfolk when he was in that part of the world and it was in port at the time. Those of us who visited itwere amazed at how tiny it really was and wondered how they ever got a helicopter to land on it. Mr. CharlesVinick, Vice President of the Cousteau Society, described their objectives in scientific exploration and publiceducation. Some of us also had a tour of one of our Navy's best equipped repair ships. They could probably fixanything.
Dr. Ken Sommers presented the "Immunological Basis for the Pathogenesis of Peyronie's Disease." Charlie Horton
had long been interested in the surgical correction of this deformity and their close association was obvious. Dr.
George Wright spoke on "Monoclonal Antibodies and Urogenital Tumors." Dr. Howard Jones, working in
Reproductive Medicine, spoke on "Recent Advances in In Vitro Fertilization." T'his was reaching a high level of
sophistication and this paper was followed by Dr. Garry Hodgen speaking on "Recent Advances in Fertilization and
Early Embryonic Development." Dr. Kenneth Smith of the Department of Plastic Surgery and Anatomy related the
changes seen in "demyelinating disorders" and multiple sclerosis to conclude the home team's presentations.
The Thirty-First Meeting George Cherry, who was still at Oxford, was interested in "Alterations in Fibroblast Proteolytic MetabolismFollowing Controlled Skin Expansion" and, in examining fibroblasts in skin that had been expanded, he found anumber of changes suggesting that "the distorting forces resulting from skin expansion encouraged the production ofan inhibitor of urokinase and that this preserves the cytoskeleton." Gregory Brown, from Emory studying "TheEffect of Human Epidermal Growth Factor on Wound Strength," found that indeed, it did produce incisions thatwere stronger. Lori Cherup from Pittsburgh was transplanting skeletal muscle at the same time as a cardiactransplant and showed that the rejection changes in the heart were paralleled in the skeletal muscle which wouldallow biopsy of the muscle as an easy access to determine the condition of the heart.
J. O'Brien, from Toronto, was counting axons to determine the most ideal ratio for nerve regeneration after nerverepair. Sharon Ann Clarke, working at Stanford, was studying the cranial cortex in monkeys that had had island flaptransfers from one digit to another and was able to show a "complete reorganization" of the cortex on the sideproviding innervation for the flap.
Dr. Forrest, working with Bill Lindsay, was using 5-CT in pigs to shut down the AV shunt flow to "AugmentFunctional Blood Flow and Viability of Acute Random Skin Flaps." Linda Huang at Duke was also achieving"Enhanced Survival of Acute Island Skin Flaps Using Oxygen-Deprived Free Radical Scavengers." Rodney Rohrickat the Mass General, reduced microvascular thromboses by using a "Human Tissue Type Plasminogen Activator" fortwenty-four hours in a known thrombosis model. Charlie Horton and Charlie Devine had been working with "LowerUrinary Tract Reinnervation." They were using microsurgical spinal route reconstruction and were able todemonstrate a return of the micturition reflex.
Joseph Bauer, working with Foad Nahai, was interested in "Revascularization in the Canine GracilisMusculocutaneous Flap" and showed that the wound bed was able to achieve some revascularization between sixand eight days which was independent of the main arterio-venous system. Jeffrey Nelson at the Medical College ofVirginia was "Accelerating Tissue Expansion with Topical Beta-Amino-Propionitrile in Guinea Pigs." SuzanneKerley was interested in the "Leukocyte Dynamics in Infected Musculocutancous and Random Pattern Flaps." Shecould show a more rapid drop-off in the elevated leukocyte counts in the musculocutancous flaps in forty-eighthours associated with a more rapid clearing of a bacterial inoculum. W.M. Kuzon, working with Nancy McKee inToronto studying "The Morphometric and Biochemical Characteristics of Free Vascularized Muscle Transfers,"showed that the contractile function was usually less than the control and was associated with reduced ATP and PClevels.
Norfolk Virginia -1986 These changes were independent of changes of fiber type or capillary geometry. Steve Miller, continuing his
interest in vasoconstrictors, was studying "The Effects of Phenylephrine on Tissue Gas Tensions, Bleeding Time,
and Infection Rates." This was as effective as epinephrine in most of these parameters but did not last as long. S.S.
Ramasastry, working with Bill Futrell, studied "The Possible Aetiologic Role of Free Radicals in Skin Ulceration
Associated with Venous Insufficiency," showed that there was an increase in lipoperoxidation in the incomplete
ischemic state. Vitamin E, as a superoxide radical scavenger, helped to counteract this effect. Harvey Rosen,
working at the Pennsylvania Hospital, studied "The Effects of Pre-Ischemic Perfusion Washout on Limb
Replantation Survival." Whereas this perfusion was beneficial, it was not any better than cooling, but would be
useful where cooling could not be done. David Knighton, from the University of Minnesota, successfully treated
"Chronic Non-Healing Wounds with Autologous Platelet-Derived Wound Healing Factors." Patients were seen as
outpatients and fifty patients so treated showed remarkable improvement over conventional techniques in what was
felt to be the first clinical demonstration of this approach.
The first evening, we were privileged to go to the "Hermitage Museum" located in a fine old home on thewaterfront. This English Tudor mansion and its surrounding gardens had a lovely view of the harbor, and inaddition to its fascinating museum, was a perfectly charming spot to enliven many discussions of a diverse nature.
Our hostess, Julia Terzis, had arranged a perfect balance between southern hospitality and hard nuts and boltsresearch.
Much of downtown Norfolk had been completely renovated with the new Omni Hotel making an unusually fineheadquarters. Much of this redevelopment had been through the hard work of a few people of the medical facultywho not only helped revitalize their city, but also helped to establish the Eastern Virginia Medical School as a firstrate institution. Many of us were interested in the building and offices of Charlie Horton, Jerry Adamson, JohnMcCraw, Jim Carroway, etc. However, the crowning occasion was our visit to Julie's Microsurgical Research Centerwhich was really a remarkable entity. Not only is she the first woman to have be Chairman of the Plastic SurgeryResearch Council, but she supervised and was personally extremely active in an unusual laboratory with severalMasters and Ph.D. candidates studying no end of ramifications of nerve regeneration, transplantability, and repair.
The world is indeed fortunate to have centers such as these with such dedicated people to carry on this type of work.
The next morning, Steve Hamilton from Baylor, presented a fascinating paper on "Microprocessor AssistedReanimation of Facial Paralysis." Steve had paralysed one The Thirty-First Meeting side of a rabbit's face and two weeks later put in bipolar microelectrodes on the active side, led them to amicroprocessor imbedded on the skull, and then put stimulating electrodes on the orbicularis oculi and razoriusmuscles. Contraction on the active side readily produced stimulation and contraction on the denervated side in amost dramatic way.
Bruce Achauer used "Massive Skin Allografts in Rats with Low Doses of Cyclosporin" and although the graftingcould be accomplished, there was still a significant mortality from the extent of the massive burn. Scott Bartlett,working with Linton Whitaker, studied the "Growth and Survival of Vascularized and Non VascularizedMembranous Bone" showing only a slight advantage of the vascularized specimens. Bert Meyers discussed"Augmentation of Vascularity -Measured with the Flash Fluorometer -and Survival of Rat Flaps fromNitrendipine." The fluorometer was made from "off-the-shelf photographic equipment" with reproducible results,and nitrendipine was described as " the most promising agent we have ever tested or heard about to prevent necrosisin acute flaps." S.S. Ramasastry studied "The Effects of Exogenous Topical Prostaglandin -D 2 on Skin Flap Survival in Rats."When applied topically with DMSO the enhancement was significant. Thomas Whetzel, from the University ofCalifornia in San Francisco, described "The Vascular Territories of Perforating Cutaneous Facial Arteries" in a veryclear and convincing way. Sean Wolfort from the Mass General asked whether "Epinephrine in Local AnesthesiaAffects Inosculation and Survival of Split and Full Thickness Skin Grafts?" He felt that epinephrine significantlydecreased survival of full thickness skin grafts, presumably, by delayed inosculation. Kenneth Warner, also fromHarvard, studied "The Comparative Response of Muscle and Subcutaneous Tissue pH to Isolated VascularOcclusions" finding this a reliable means of quantitating peripheral ischemia.
Ralph Holmes described "Cranial Reconstruction with Porous Hydroxy Apatite .Implants and Split Rib Autograftsin the Dog." Histologically mature lamellar bone grew into the implants, but not into the grafts. Tom Krummel,from MCV discussed "Observations on Wound Healing in the Fetal and Neonatal Rabbit." The data suggested thatneonatal wounds may heal similarly to late fetal wounds, thus bridging the gap between embryonic regeneration andclassic healing. Patrick Sullivan, from Brown, described "Ischernia Induced Synthesis of Prostaglandins in Man"using tourniquet ischernia for his studies. Jim Hunyadi from the Cleveland Clinic described "MicrovascularAnastornotic Thrombolysis with Recombinant Human Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator." The agent appeared tobe safe as well as effective in lysing fibrin and platelet clots. Howard Edington, working at the National CancerInstitute and the University of Norfolk, Virginia -1.986 Pittsburgh, described the "Effects of Enhancing Immunotherapy on Grafted Tissue." Administration of"alloantibodies" to recipients of tissue allografts prolonged graft survival and was felt perhaps to be a saferalternative to host immunosuppression. Tom Whetzel described the "Generation of Vascularized Bone Grafts UsingPeriosteal F%ps to Induce Tricalcium Phosphate for Treatment of Craniofacial Abnormalities." Musculoperiostealflaps were used to induce new bone formation with TCP ceramics in young pigs. Richard Bartlett, from theGraduate Hospital in Philadelphia, studied "The Effect of Superoxide Dismutase on Macromolecular Leakage andLeukocyte Accumulation in the Skin Microcirculation After Ischemia and Reperfusion." SOD was associated withdecreased polymorphonuclear accumulation which he felt was significant for tissue survival.
Switching away from biochemical work, Bill Leighton from Southern Illinois, discussed "Pre-Transfer Expansionof Free Flap Donor Sites Expanding Both Latissimus Dorsi and Buttocks Flaps in Pigs." Deirdra Marshall fromStanford described a "Peripheral Nerve Coupler-Sutureless Nerve Repair at the Fascicular Level." This was abioresorbable device which was applied microsurgically and showed good function. K. Narayanan, working at theUniversity of Pittsburgh, used "Magnetic Resonance Imaging" in assessing bum depth in vivo which seemed towork quite accurately. Amado Ruiz-Razura from Houston compared "Laser-Assisted and Conventional Techniquesof Arterial End to Side Anastomosis" feeling that the two were comparable. G. Bjoern Stark, also from Pittsburgh,discussed a technique for "The Elongation of Arteries and Veins with a Tissue Expander" feeling that this wouldyield rapid gain in vessel length with good microvascular patency. K.J. Smith in Julia Terzis' lab described the"Reinnervation of Skeletal Muscle Via Ventral Routes Replanted into the Lateral Columns of the Rat Spinal Cord."In spinal cord transection, they implanted the ventral roots into the lateral columns of the spinal cord showing someencouraging results in reinnervation.
The special interest discussion groups each morning included, among other things, a discussion of "Funding."Allen Moshel, from NIH, discussed research grants and how one should go about making an application. He alsodescribed the review process and mentioned a number of areas where they were supporting research. Charlie Hortondiscussed "Non-Government Funding." His method of describing a project to potential donors and foundations wasextremely thorough and his persistence was amazingly effective. The second discussion group was lead by CharlesCuono on the "Practical Use of Computers." Bill Lindblad, from Richmond, described "Collagenase Activity In Vitro as Modulated by Cellular Proliferation"suggesting a close relationship between procol- The Thirty-First Meeting lagenase secretion and cellular proliferation in the rat. Howard Klein, from the University of California at Davis,described "NMR Monitoring of Revascularized Limbs" by measuring total phosphorus in various models. He feltthat he could predict the recoverability of an ischemic limb. J. Grossman, from Charlie Horton's lab, discussed"Cutaneous Anatomy and Sensibility in the Penis." The concern was how to compare the normal with the replantedpenis, which was studied in great detail. Jim May questioned whether the sensibility was different in the erect penisthan in the flaccid penis and this testing had not been carried out. That's a new one for the books isn't it? Maybe wehave some volunteers. To-Nao Wang, from the University of California at San Francisco, had tried to reproduceamniotic bands by banding extremities of rabbits in utero. They had tried suture and amniotic tissue without goodresults and using an umbilical tape technique produced a high instance of edema, amputation, and infarct.
T. Patselas, working with Julia Terzis, described "The Use of Cellular Surgery as a Novel Approach to ClinicalNerve Repair." The nerve injury was done with a pair of scissors to simulate clinical injury and was repaired twenty-four hours later with either end-to-end coaption or an interposition nerve graft. The results were not as good as thosesevered more cleanly and repaired immediately. Peter Tucker, working with John Franklin at the University ofTennessee, studied "Membranous Bone Healing as Compared with Endochondral Bone and Hydroxy Apatite."Although endochondral bone often showed radiographic evidence of healing prior to that of membranous bone, themembranous bone had superior strength at an earlier point in time and hydroxy apatite appeared to provide usablebuilding blocks. David Frank, from U.C. San Diego, described the "Biological Fate of Injectable Bovine Collagen"finding that Zyderm. may well be more immunogenic than previously recognized. John Persing, from Charlot-tesville, studied "Cranial Base Expansion Effects on Craniofacial Growth" using metal springs in rabbits and wasable to produce significant differences in the local area. Patrick Briggs, from Pittsburgh, discussed the "RapidTissue Expansion with Sutures." He put in 2-0 nylon horizontal mattress sutures in the pig twenty-four hours beforeexcising the wound and closing it primarily and showed significantly less tension. This was also true if done fortwo hours or even one and a half hours preoperatively and in several patients, it presuturing" was done the nightbefore using marcaine anesthesia and this also seemed to show benefits. H.B. Evans, from London, Ontario, studiedthe "Effects of Early PostOperative Radiotherapy on Vascularized Bone Grafts." In the radiated group, the osteocyteswere destroyed whether vascularized or not vascularized, and though there was union in the vascularized graft, therewas none in the non-vascularized graft which was largely necrotic, and neither were as good as the non-radiatedcontrols.
At the Business Meeting, Jim May as Program Chairman, noted that "Work in Norfolk, Virginia -1986 Progress" was still accepted as a valid subject for the program. Of the 191 abstracts submitted, 53 were selected.
Elected to Active Membership were: Lawrence B. Colen, M.D. Howard W. Klein, M.D. Samuel E. Logan, M.D. Linda G. Phillips, M.D. Venkat K.
Rao, M.D. Brooke R. Seckel, M.D. Michael J. Yaremchuk, M.D. James E. Zins, M.D.
Elected to Associate Membership were; Robert E. Falcone, M.D., and Hans Ulrich Steinau, M.D. Jim May waswelcomed as the new Chairman and Steven Mathes was elected Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman.
The member's dinner was held in the elegant Town Point Club, continuing the gracious hospitality of our hostess.
The Thirty-Second MeetingMassachusetts General HospitalBrigham and Women's HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolBoston, MassachusettsMay 20-23, 1987 This meeting was chaired by Jim May, Chief at the Mass General, having succeeded John Remensnyder who hadtaken over the division from Brad Cannon. This was the first time that the Research Council had a repeat meetingin the same institution; John Constable had hosted our 1972 meeting at the Mass General. The meeting was co-hosted by Elof Eriksson, who had just been appointed to succeed Joe Murray at the Brigham. We stayed at thebeautiful new Westin Hotel adjacent to a fabulous shopping mall. The first day's meeting was held at the Shriners,Bums Institute with lunch on the lawn outside of the famous Ether Dome, the second day's meeting at the Brigham(Women's and Children's Hospital), and the third half day at the Westin.
It was interesting to meet in the same "pit" at the Bums Institute where Steve Lewis and J.B. Lynch had turnedloose thirty-four diamondbacked rattlesnakes seventeen years before. They had only recovered thirty-two, and thoseof us who had been there before looked carefully under our seats before sitting down. Greetings were extended byDr. Gerald Austen, Chief of Surgery, and Dean Tosteson, who still made rounds on the pediatric service. BradCannon, who started the Plastic Surgery Program at Massachusetts General and who was one of our best supportersin the formative years Of the Research Council, was present to welcome the group along with Joe Murray who wasone of our sixteen founding members. Steve Lewis and Bob McCormack also attended this Thirty-Second meeting,and as you will recall, it was in Steve Lewis' hotel room at the Del Coronado Hotel during Board Exams in 1954that the real ground work for the Council was laid. Brad had urged that we hold the meetings at Universities to takeadvantage of the local talent.
Dr. Phillip Leder, Professor of Genetics, led off, and described how a microglass pipette could be used to transplantan oncogene into a fertilized ovum and the ovum implanted into a pseudo-pregnant mouse to give rise to a strain ofanimals with a high risk of problems such as an 80% incidence of breast adenoma, or a profound limb deformity.
He felt that this was really not due to the oncogene, but that the process had produced a mutation.
This presentation was followed by one of the most exceptional talks we have ever The Thirty-Second Meeting heard by one of the most exceptional speakers -Dr. Judah Folkman. Judah had been Chief of Surgery at theChildren's Hospital, and within the past few years, had resigned from this position so he could resume more workin his laboratory. He spoke on his favorite subject of "How is Angiogenesis Regulated in Normal and NeoplasticTissue?" He noted that the principles of healing, transplantation, and neoplasia depend on an adequate blood supply,and he proceeded to show us how these little vessels manage to grow. Endothelial cells are very slow growing untilthey are "turned on," and then they really take off, increasing their turnover rate from years to days. Capillaries,confined by the basement membrane on all surfaces learn to grow through this membrane and to give rise tobleeding seen in neoplasms and also in granulation tissue. There is a known tumor angiogenic factor which ispotentiated by heparin. Endothelial growth factor can be dormant for years and then be called into action within aperiod of three minutes. This was rather heady stuff.
Dr. Nicholas Tilney clearly described the development of transplantation research from Tom Gibson, BillBillingbam, and Sir Peter Medawar, through renal transplantation by Joe Murray, to cyclosporin (a fungus derivedfrom a single find in Norway). The difficulties of immune suppression in skin allografts surfaced again.
We were fortunate to be able to listen to Nobel Laureate Dr. Dudley Herschbach, Chairman of the Department ofChemistry, who discussed "Transferring Pre-Meds into Future Physicians." In a most engaging way he describedwhat "education is," i.e. "What's left after all you've learned is forgotten?" -the changing curriculum for our "futurephysicians" and how to spot them. One answer was, "Why not ask them to write a poem?" Dr. Howard Green discussed his work with epithelial cell cultures "What They Do, and What They Can't Do," avery provocative talk. From a single cell, he could grow a colony 10cm. in diameter within three weeks. Dr. HenryMankin, our only "home team" speaker to have presented his material to us before in another institution, was nowChief of Orthopedic Surgery. In a highly amusing presentation involving the historic twins, Saint Cosmas andSaint Darnion, he described his experience with allotransplantation of bone in 364paticnts. If the tumor risks areexcluded, he was attaining long range (55 month average), good to excellent results in almost 80% of these patients,which was certainly this country's best experience, if not the best in the world.
To start the members' and guests' program, C. Randall Harrell, from Baylor, reported on using "Injectable Amnionfor Soft Tissue Augmentation." Human amnion was sterilized with gamma irradiation, which also eradicated thehepatitis virus and H.I.L.A. virus, and was compared with Zyderm 11 and Zyplast. In addition, the Boston, Massachusetts, 1987 irradiation increased the cross linkage, and by using human tissue, it was hoped that it would reduce the problemsof bovine allergies. Abram Nguyen, from the University of Michigan, spoke on a controversial matter:"Comparative Study of Survival of Autologous Fat Cells." The cells removed by suction were mostly destroyedand those removed by excision not only survived, but showed a response to insulin as well. However, insulin didnot seem to add any protective effect.
Bob Hardesty spoke on "Craniofacial Onlay Bone Grafting: Graft Morphology vs. Embryonic Origin." Membranousbones survive best, and neither the orientation nor the transplantation of bone with one cortex or both corticesseemed to make any difference. Denton Weiss, from the Medical College of Wisconsin, studied "Epiphyseal PlateIntegrity" after different periods of ischemia. Three hours of ischernia was well tolerated. L. Zhang, from U. Mass,in a "Microneuromuscular Unit Study in the Rat Model," showed that this unit not only survives as a free graft, buthas contractile function, and can even effect reinnervation and contractile function in an adjacent denervatedatrophied muscle. L.J. Gottlieb, working with Tom Krizek (now in Chicago), spoke on "Goodbye LangerhansCells." They felt that the Langerhans cell was the antigen-processing arm of the immune system, and they used asystem of adding complerrient to monoclonal antibodies directed towards the cell surface antigens of the LangerhansCells in human split thickness skin grafts to reduce their number. This they were able to do, and next we'll see if itmakes this highly antigenic tissue more tolerable.
Jim Thornton, from the University of Michigan, describing "Living Skin Equivalents," was able to growkeratinocytes on human dermis, and also on three different collagen sheets as the first step in producing a "newdermal substitute." Jeff Aldridge from Southern Illinois, was interested in "The Antifibrinolytic Property ofSulfamylon Solution in Vitro" and felt that it was not fibrinolytic when streptokinase mediated fibrinolysis wasinhibited by sulfamylon. The unexpected and desirable antifibrinolytic property was revealed and was felt mostlikely to occur at the plasmin-fibrin interaction site. J.M. Nelson, working with Kel Cohen, spoke on why "FetalWounds do not Contract in Utero." He showed that in rabbits the sutured wound healed, whereas all unsuturedwounds gaped open and showed no evidence of contractile forces. They did not have a good explanation for thisphenomenon since contractile forces are demonstrated with fibroblast-populated collagen lattices. David Dreyfuss,sponsored by Tom Krizek, had an interesting study on "Silicone Implants as an Anticarcinogen." He quoted figureson the low instance of breast cancer in patients who had had silicone implants and then studied 2 cm implants in300 rats which he followed for 200 days with various types of implants. A mammary cancer stimulating agent wasinjected and a high instance of a mixed adenocarcinoma with a low benign tumor incidence occurred in the controls.
The Thirty-Second Meeting The animals with polyurethane sheet, free silicone gel, and silicone sheet implants, had similar tumor instances tothe controls, but those with silicone implants had a statistically significant lower tumor incidence as compared withthe controls. That left a great deal of food for thought.
The next paper by L. Weinstein working at Pittsburgh, showed that "Rapid Tissue Expansion" substantiallyretarded "Intradermal Mammary Carcinoma in Rats" when the expander was placed beneath the tumor and furtherrapid expansion was carried out. T.M. Masterson, working with Ray Morgan, showed that "Local TumorRecurrence -A Consequence of Wound Healing" would indeed recur with a greater incidence rate in wounds thatwere in the process of healing. Andrew Lee, working with Michael Yaremchuk, studied "Cell-Mediated andHumoral Immune Responses to the Components of Vascularized Composite Tissue Allografts" and showed adifference between vascularized bone allografts from their non vascularized counterparts.
The second morning, we traveled to the Brigham where Elof was our host. Actually, we met in the student's LectureRoom A at the Harvard Medical School, and lunched in the student lounge in Vanderbilt Hall. The CountwayLibrary and the Plastic Surgery Archives are located roughly in between. We had two panels to begin the morning.
'Me first was chaired by Bruce Achauer on "The Future of Allotransplantation." Bruce gave a little of the history,and then noted that with the availability of cyclosporin people were thinking of the transplantation of ears andlimbs. Bob Walton had indeed transplanted several limbs in squirrel monkeys, but even the control limbs werenever really utilized by these animals. Two out of six or seven animals lived six months and one thirteen months,and although the tissue looked pretty good and the nerves did work, they weren't very much use. BruceCunningham and Frances Delmonico expounded on these themes.
Mary McGrath chaired a very interesting panel with George Cherry, Bruce Donoff, and Julie Glowacki on"Synthetics for the Future." Julie's demineralized bone powder was actually stronger than bone, but there weredifficulties with the interface. John Mulliken was using it in craniofacial cases. The possible use of growth factors,monoclonal antibodies, and microsequencing techniques, were felt to have promise in the future. Bruce Donoffspoke on "Nerve Regeneration," and George Cherry on various skin substitutes for leg ulcers which were veryprevalent in England (about 1-2% of the population) primarily due to venous disease. Mary then talked on thevarious bioadhesives including fibrinogen, fibrin glue, and cynoacrylic "crazy glue." She had some very interestingobservations on how oysters, clams, barnacles, and muscles not only develop very unusual glues, but they even "setup" in salt water.
Boston, Massachusetts -1987
In welcoming the group, Joe Murray gave a little bit of the history of the Harvard Medical School and how it hadstarted in Cambridge, moved to the Harvard Yard, then to MGH, and in 1906, out to Longwood. In the mid 1800s,Jonathan Mason Warren carried out one of the first skin grafts in the United States, and Dr. Monks, a dentalsurgeon, used an arterial flap in the late 1800s. Drs. Ladd and McCollum, were primarily responsible for the plasticsurgery developments at the Children's Hospital. Brad Cannon had started a training program at the Mass General in1950. The first plastic surgery residency was started at the Brigham and Children's by Dr. Murray in 1966.
R.L. DePalma, working with Kel Cohen, was interested in studying the difference between fetal wound healing andadult wounds, and found that "proteoglycan deposition" had significantly higher levels in the fetal wound with theabsence of collagen. Increased deposition of hyaluronic acid and an absence of a classic inflammatory response,make the fetal wound quite different from the adult wound. Joseph DeLozier, in Riley Rees' lab, showed that"Epidermal Growth Factor on Fetal Wound Healing" did indeed exhibit a response which was not typical of theresponse in the adult wounds, and in the absence of fibroblast infiltration and cellular inflammation, it may beuseful in the repair of intrauterine anomalies. Steve Morris, from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, studied"The Pathogenesis of Ischemia-Induced Tissue Damage in Myocutaneous Flaps in Pigs." It was felt that tissuedamage was mediated by oxygen free radicals during reperfusion, and he was able to demonstrate that ischemia-induced regional skeletal muscle damage occurred in the presence of adequate reflow before the occurrence ofmicrovascular damage or occlusion.
To-Nao Wang, from Steve Mathes' lab, showed that "Unilateral Masseter Muscle Relocation in Rhesus Monkeys"had considerable effect in mandibular growth, although Jeff Marsh remarked that totally detaching the massetcrmuscle in weanling primates did not seem to have altered growth in his lab. Tom Bartell, in Jeff's lab, described aprospective study to determine "Changes in Alveolar Ridges in Unilateral Cleft Lip-Palate." He was documentingthe changes seen with lip adhesion and an alveolar molding plate. Byron Barber, in Don Serafin's lab, was studyingthe "Pharmacologic Modulation of Cutaneous Ornithine Decarboxylase Activity Using DFMO." DFMO in drinkingwater significantly improved survival of random skin flaps and might be useful in treating certain hypermetabolicconditions such as keloids and hypertrophic scars. Steve Chang, also from Duke, had a probe which would produce"Ultrasonic Thrombus Generation in Microvascularature." Videos of the process with the probe in place were quitestriking and showed platelet aggregation. James Jeng, working in Mary McGrath's lab, studied "Critical IschemiaTime of Canine Jejunal Flaps" and clamped the vessels in six to twelve centimeter segments in the dog. Hedescribed the changes seen 48 hours The Thirty-Second Meeting later. He also had found that after four hours, ischernia peristalsis only occurred with stimulation. MichaelSchwartz, working in Mel Spira's lab and curious about treatment for Reynaud's, studied the "Blood Flow Changesin Selective Versus Cervical Sympathectomy in the Rabbit Ear Model." He showed that with selectivesympathectomy, he could produce a significant increase in blood flow as well as temperature which was fairlylasting. Transecting the artery and reanastamosing it did not achieve the same changes. Jim Nachbar, from RayMorgan's lab, studied the "Effect of Lidocaine on Epinephrine-Induced Vasoconstriction." Using the rat cremastermuscle he could show marked constriction with epinephrine, but when mixed with lidocaine, significant dilationoccurred. In fact, in this model, lidocaine alone was shown to cause constriction. Tom Bartell, in Paul Week's lab,was studying various "Animal Models of Tissue Expansion" and felt that dog skin was much more similar tohuman skin for these experiments than was pig skin or any rodent skin. There was a Yucatan Micro Pig whichwould be good except that they cost $400 apiece.
George Cherry, from Oxford, England, was studying "Measurements of Cell Production Rates in Epidermis and theHair Matrix During Skin Expansion." He didn't find any change in the rate of mitoses in the hair follicals, butmarkedly increased mitoses in the epidermis. Michael Rossini, from the University of Maryland and sponsored byNelson Goldberg, was concerned that skeletal muscle when used for myocardiurn required pacing and"conditioning." He used a "left ventricular rhomboid flap of myocardium" as a substitute replacing specific defectsand eliminated the need for pacing. Bill Panza, from Duke, was studying "Ischemia-Reperfusion Effects on SkeletalMuscle Function," and found that preperfusion with Deferoxamine or Verapamil may help to preserve the muscle,but that DMSO could lead to damage. Hugh Bailey, working with Victor Lewis in Chicago, studied "TheInteraction of Transferred Tissue and Osteomyelitis in Rabbits," and felt that the type of tissue for coverage ofinfected bone might have been overstated and that the key to success was really adequate debridement. DavidLeland, working in Steve Mathes' lab, compared "Otoplasty Techniques" in the rabbit and showed that the suturingtechniques gave consistently better results than cartilage scoring alone.
Natalio Debs, in J.0. Kucan's lab in Southern Illinois, studied the "Effect of Various Topical Antibacterial Agentson Flow Cytometric Assessment of Human Fibroblasts." Silvadene, Dakins, Betadine, and several others, exhibitedsignificant cellular toxicity, while Sulfamylon in several concentrations showed none. Sang Heon Lee, in BillFutrell's lab, showed that both grafted arteries and veins could be expanded. Craig Vander Kolk, working at boththe University of Michigan and St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne on "Surface Area and Collagen Changes inTissue Expansion," Boston, Massachusetts -1-987 showed migration, stretching, and a stimulation that increased in the overlying tissue component. R. Jesudass,working with Paul Manson, showed that "The Quantitative Importance of Free Radical-Mediated Reperfusion Injuryin Frostbite" did have a significant effect on injury severity. Deborah Kerlin, working with Howard Kleinat U. Cal.
Davis, with "free muscle grafts in hypertensive rats" showed impaired regeneration and recovery due to thehypertension. B. Turnbull, working with both Berish Strauch and Julia Terzis studying "Skin MechanoreceptorsAfter Replantation Versus Nerve Transection and Repair," felt that alterations were related primarily to the physicaldisruption of the peripheral nerve. David Chiu, at N.Y.U., had used vein grafts as a conduit for twenty-three nervesin twelve patients. He felt that the vein grafts ameliorated neuroma pain and produced a useful regain of sensation,but were not as good as either direct nerve repair or internerve graft. Harvey Himel, in Jim May's lab, found moreblood in wounds where the tourniquet was released after closure than in those in which it was released prior toclosure.
Friday morning's "Special Interest Discussion Groups" were repeated Saturday morning so that one could attendboth, and the closing papers included Alan Seyfer's, from the Walter Reed labs, on studies of "The SurfaceMorphology of Healing Tendons" with the electron microscope which showed in primates a surprising amount ofadhesion even with a normal range of motion. George Picha, working with Alan Shons at Western Reserve, studied"The Effect of Ion Milled Surface Structure on Soft Tissue Wound Healing" referring to the surface structure ofimplants. He was interested in the appearance with different textures. With small "pillars," there was a conspicuouslack of capsule, and the vascularity was much closer to the implant. Brian Boyd, from Hugh Thomson's lab inToronto, was trying to "Augment the Vascularity in TRAM Flaps in Pigs" and found that ligation of the superficialepigastric did indeed improve the vascular territory between fourteen and twenty-eight days. Marc Liang, fromPittsburgh, in studying "The Pharmacological Manipulation of Collagen Cross-Linking," showed that DMSOsignificantly decreased the pressure following tissue expansion, and felt 11hat it might allow more rapid expansion.
Bill Morain, from Dartmouth, showed that combining radiation with hyperthermia produced a higher rate ofsubsequent wound infection than an equivalent dose of radiation alone. Ignacio Chrislieb, working with FredHeckler in Pittsburgh, described the "Experimental Conditioning of the Latissimus Dorsi Skeletal Muscle Flap forCardiac Assistance" in a forty-six year old male with a left ventricular aneurysm. This was the first documentedconversion of a human skeletal muscle flap and seemed to do very well. R.F. Diegelmann, working with KelCbhen, pretty much debunked the idea that denervation of a region significantly altered the fibrogenic process. SamLogan at Washington University had a "miniature fiberoptic probe" for laser doppler measurement of local muscleperfusion. G.J. Picha, working The Thirty-Second Meeting with Alan Shons in Cleveland, studied "The Soft Tissue Interaction and Enzymatic Degradation PolyurethaneFoam." The histological response was quite different from that of smooth silicone and he felt that this was due notonly to the surface microstructure but also to polymer chemistry.
Dinner the first night was at the Westin and was followed by an authentic unique evening at the "Boston Pops."Tables with beverages served throughout the evening, and not just a little interchange between orchestra andaudience, completed the ambience and enjoyment.
At the Business Meeting, considerable time was spent discussing a proposal by Bob Russell and Jim May toestablish a permanent fund of money for Plastic Surgery Research Council Members' projects. It was proposed that$6,000 per year for a five year period would be appropriate. Tentative verbal commitments had already been receivedfrom four interested companies for support; the contributions would be free of all commercial ties. A committee wasappointed to look into this, and also to coordinate these actions with the Educational Foundation. Elected to ActiveMembership were: John A.I. Grossman, M.D Kevin F. Hagan, M.D. Raphael C. Lee, M.D. William C. Lineawaver, M.D. John 1.
Persing, M.D. Sai S. Ramasastry, M.D. Joseph M. Rosen, M.D. Lawrence S. Zachary, M.D.
Thomas M. Krummel was elected to Associate Membership. Steve Mathes assumed the Chairmanship and FoadNahai was elected to Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman for 1988.
The member's dinner was held in the country in Jim's delightful wooded hideaway, and the weather was as pleasantas Linda's and Jim's hospitality.
Photograph taken in front of the Ether Dome at the Massachusetts General Hospital at the Thirty-Second Meeting, May 21, 1987.
R.K. Snyderman 27 S.A. MacKinnon 55 R.F. Diegelmann62 The Thirty-Third MeetingUniversity of CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaMay 19-21,1988 The Thirty-Third meeting was our fourth trip to California, but our first to the fabulous city of San Francisco. SteveMathes had arranged accommodations at the Ramada Renaissance where we had our welcoming cocktail party. Ouropening sessions were at Cole Hall in the Medical Science Building. The Toland Medical College opened its doorsin 1864 with Hugo H. Toland being "appointed" the first Chairman of the Department of Surgery. HowardNaffziger, Professor and Chairman of Surgery in 1929, was a direct influence on the development of the AmericanBoard of Plastic Surgery in 1933, and his appointment of Harry Blackfield allowed the early development of plasticsurgery in this teaching institution. Dr. Blackfield was an early organizer of their Cleft Palate Clinic and amultidisciplinary clinic for "visible tumors." Steve Miller was appointed Chief of Plastic Surgery by EnglebertDunphy in 1973, and in 1978, Luis Vasconez and Steve Mathes joined the full time faculty. Luis was head of thedivision from 1978-1984, and Steve Mathes took over the directorship at that time.
Dr. Julius Krevans, the Chancellor, welcomed the group and gave an excellent review of "Biotechnology and theUniversity" outlining the interchange of many of these fast-developing fields. Michael Harrison, Co-Directorof theFetal Treatment Program, spoke on "Fetal Surgery Update." There were rather remarkable advances that were beingmade in the surgery of hydronephrosis and hamartoma of the sacrum. Robert Markinson, Chairman of the HandSurgery Service, spoke on "Computer Assisted Surgical Education" developing further the involvement ofcomputerization into analysis of surgical experience. Victor Richards gave an excellent and very thorough account of"The History of Academic Surgery in San Francisco," and Al De Lorimier, Chairman of Pediatric Surgery, gave apaper with true California "flavor" describing the details of "Starting Your Own Winery." It sounded as though halfof the population of California was involved with wine making (or its consumption), one way or another.
Louise Gerberding spoke on the tremendously growing problem of "HIV Infection in Health Care Workers," whichin San Francisco was a major concern. The current proposed incidence of infection after needle sticks etc. from HIVcarriers was 0.4%. Protective steps were becoming rather drastic.
The afternoon sessions started with the members' and guests' papers. Roberta Gartside, from Mary McGrath'sprogram, led off with her paper on "Median Sternotorny The Thirty-Third Meeting Infection Following Internal Artery Ligation." Their instance of median sternotomy infection was 14% whether ornot the internal mammary artery was used for myocardial revascularization. In the pig, they did show that ligationcaused a significantly higher instance of subcutaneous soft tissue abscess. It did not seem to effect the sternal bloodflow nor the magnitude of the sternal bone infection. A similar paper by Tom Miller, from Walter Reed usingRhesus primates, showed that in their studies a severe ischemia resulted on the sternal half where the internalmammary artery was mobilized. They felt that there was "no evidence of collateral flow." Christian Paletta,following in his father's footsteps, reported on the "Viability of the Rectus Abdominis Muscle Following InternalMammary Artery Ligation" showing that in dogs this was not a problem because of a predominant blood supplyfrom the fifth intercostal space, and he discussed some of the details in humans which showed a similar collateral.
Isaac Wornom from Emory studied the "Latissimus Dorsi Dynamic Cardiomyoplasty in a Canine Model" replacingpart of the right ventricle with this muscle in the dog, and documenting a change from fast twitch fibers to slowtwitch fibers.
Dick Sadove from Ed Luce's program reported on "Bladder Mucosa Lined Expanded Rectus Abdominis MusclePedicle Flap" to augment the urinary bladder. The flap was meshed and showed healing with successfultransplantation to the bladder. It was hoped that this would prove to be safer than cecocystoplasty. Gayle Gordillo,with Bob Ruberg, was able to develop "A Full Thickness Oral Mucosal Equivalent Suitable for Intraoral Graftingby an In Vitro Process on a Collagenous Dermal Equivalent." Maher Anous, from Ed Withers' lab, studied "TheVascular Territory of the Medial Perforations of the Profunda Femoris Artery." This was used for the developmentof new flaps.
J.D. Stuart, from Charlottesville, studied "Traditional and Textured Surface Silicone Implants" and the resultingcapsule. The textured implants actually had a thicker capsule with a marked inflammatory response which wasabsent in the smooth textured surfaces. Jim Sanger, working with Rudy Gingrass, studied "Microbial Adherence toBreast Prosthesis" showing no statistical difference between the microorganisms and the various prosthetic surfacesat the highest concentrations of organism, but fewer numbers in the foam-covered prosthesis than the smoother onesat lower concentrations. Denise Kenna, from John Grossman's lab at Brown University, studied the "Diffusion ofAntibiotics Across Skin Expanders" showing Bactrim to have the greatest effect with staph aurius, and Nafcilinwith staph epidermidis. Along the same line, Carol Hathaway, from Gainsville, was studying"The Effects ofBacterial Contamination and Antibiotic Prophylaxis on Breast Capsule Contracture" showing a slight increase incapsule contraction rate with contamination. M.R. Llaneras, from Charlot- San Francisco, California -1988
tesville, was interested in "Increased Bacterial Susceptibility of Fibrin Glue Treated Wounds" which showed asignificant "bacterial clearance of staph aurius with this material." William Lindsey, also from Charlottesville, spoke on "Seroma Prevention Using Fibrin Glue in Modified RadicalNeck Dissection Model." This material decreased seroma-hematoma formation in the rat. (How many nodes do yousuppose you get in a neck dissection in a rat?) Dick Ellis, working with Bob Russell from Springfield, reported on"An Experimental Comparison of Methylmethacrylate Beads in Collagen in Sponges as Systems for AntibioticDelivery Into a Fibrotic Cavity." Both systems were effective, but the sponges (which eventually dissolved)achieved an earlier initial level. The release from the methylmethacrylate, beads lasted much longer. Issa Eshima,from Steve Mathes' lab, reported a "Comparison of Intracellular Bacterial Activity of the Leukocyte inMusculocutaneous and Random Pattern Flaps." The musculocutancous flap was superior in resisting gram negativebacterial inoculations with better leukocyte activity. Marck Dobke, from Jack Fisher's lab, studied the "OxidativeActivity of Polymorphonuclear-Neutrophils After Thermal Injury" showing an increase in spontaneous activity invivo. Steve Morris, from the University of Toronto, found that "Deferoxamine Prevents Ischemia-InducedReperfusion Injury" which was based mostly on prevention of cell injury rather than augmentation of capillary flow.
Bob Leggon, working with Steve Ariyan, studied "The Variable Tissue-Preserving Effects of Topical Agents UponExperimental Ischernic Skin Flaps." Silver Sulfadiazine best preserved compromised tissue in this study, whileNivea and Petrolatum were detrimental, and PBN as well as Mafenide, were intermediate in their action.
Jeffery Nelson, working with Kel Cohen, used "Sonographic Determination of Burn Wound Depth" and showed anexact correlation with the clinical impression of the bum with good predictability of outcome. Brad Rockwell, fromElof Eriksson's lab, found that "Human Dermal Endothelial Cells Produced a Fibrinolysis-I Inhibitor Contributingto Bum Trauma Ischemia." This inhibition increased the longevity of fibrin clots which contributed to localischernia. Ed Tredget, working with Mac Alton from Edmonton, reported on "The Combined Effects of Interleukin-1 and Tumor Necrosis Factor Upon Carbohydrate Metabolism in Vivo," showing the combined infusion of thesetwo agents produced many of the metabolic manifestations seen in severe injury and sepsis. This may account forthe profound alterations of energy metabolisms seen in these conditions. Dick Martin, from Walter Reed, reportedon "An Analysis of the Human Embryonic Upper Limb Using Serial Histologic Sections and Computer GeneratedThree-Dimensional Models." They were particularly interested in the upper extremity vasculature, showing a seriesof large axial blood vessels of The Thirty-Third Meeting temporary duration within the growing limb bud. These vessels were almost as large as the aorta and appeared tosupport a strip of rapidly developing cells in embryonic growth. This unusual study was felt to be of great value inreconstructing events that occur sequentially in development. Dan Greenwald, working in Leonard Sharzer's lab,reported on "The Effects of Supplemental Vitamins A, E, and B-Carotene on Tendon Healing," feeling that vitaminA doubled the bursting strength in as little as three days while vitamin E halved it.
That evening, the whole group went to the North Beach Restaurant for a delightful San Francisco style dinner andthen retired to "Beach Blanket Babylon" booked as "the longest running legitimate musical review." Steve Silverhas kept adding to the original script with a continuous dialogue between "Mary Martin and Carol Channing with ahost of colorful characters -famous and infamous -as well as a few that defied description." The next morning there were two "eye opener" sessions, one moderated by Tom Stevenson with Bruce Achauer,Charlie Cuono, and Greg Gallico discussing the "Status of Living Skin Equivalents" and the other moderated byCourt Cutting with Joe Boykin, Tom Krummel, and Bill Goodson discussing "Future Clinical Applications ofCurrent Wound Healing Research." These were repeated Saturday morning so it was possible to take in bothsessions. These eye opener sessions had been very popular and allowed a good free exchange of information.
The morning session continued with a paper by Leland Chick, from Bob Walton's labs at U. Mass, on"Development of Vascularized Allografts and Neocomposite Autografts." The purpose was to develop complexforms of tissue using the central artery and vein of the rabbit ear. These were placed in disks ofpolytetrafluorethylene, which could then be isolated and grafted with skin and transferred microsurgically. A secondexperiment put the vessels in a polyethylene block carved in the shape of an ear and then grafted, and the third sethad diced cartilage within silicone sheeting. Each of the three had some measure of success. Roger Khouri, workingwith Bill Shaw, on "Prefabrication of Flaps Using an A-V Bundle and Angiogenesis Factor," was able to produce aconvenient "carrier" in these flaps.
Anna Drzewiecki, from Johns Hopkins, studied "Vascularized Growth Plate Transplantation: A Comparative Studyin the Rat" which had three different types of tibial transplant, and showed four different growth factors. Denervatedgrafts had poor growth, and growth was best in the young recipient. Mark Kobayashi, working with Tim Milleron"The Effects of Graft Size and Tension on Free Muscle Graft Regeneration and Functional Capacity," showed thatwhole free muscle grafts under physiological tension produced twice as much tension when compared with graftsunder constant tension.
San Francisco -1988 Cissy Tan, studying "Vascularized Muscular Allografts and the Role of Cyclosporin" described a reliable model
for free muscle transplantation, and showed the initial immune response was suppressed across a major
histocompatablilty barrier. Short term use of CYA did not induce tolerance. Andrew Lee, working with Michael
Yaremchuk at Johns Hopkins, reported on the "Prolonged Survival of Vascularized Limb Allog, rafts in Chimera
Donors." The chimeras were produced by bone marrow transplantation and the transplant was the knee joint. This
produced much slower rejection than transplants where only the marrow was allogenic, so it was felt that the
marrow was the predominant allogenic stimulant.
Alice Rocke, from Pittsburgh, reported on "Vessel Elongation with Tissue Expanders as Microvascular Grafts." Shehad a maximum gain of about 93%, as opposed to 25% in the controls. All but one artery in the ten experimentsremained patent, so this should provide a new source for autogenous vascular replacement. Martin Adson, workingwith Allen Van Beek in Minneapolis, studied the "Generation of Nerve Length Using Tissue Expansion" andachieved about 50% expansion with good nerve function. To continue this diverse use of expansion, Laura Finnworking with Ernie Manders at Hershey, elongated the small bowel, and could double thelength of ilium, but thiscaused a change in the morphology and function in the elongated segment. About two months after elongation, thesegment returned almost to its original length. Gregory Brown, working with Josh Jurkiewicz, used "BiosyntheticHuman Epidermal Growth Factor (to) Accelerate Epidermal Regeneration of Donor Sites in Man." Twelve patientswere enrolled in this prospective randomized double-blind trial. The difference between Silvadene and Silvadeneplus EGF in healing was 10.75 days and 8.1 days (p<0.05). Thomas Mustoe, in Paul Weeks' laboratory, hadanother wound healing study, this time in irradiated rats. The radiation was given two days before wounding, andPDGF was able to partially restore healing properties in wounds that were surface irradiated (in animals whose bonemarrow was unaffected). Those with total body irradiation did not show this change. Tom had another paper on"Promotion of Wound Healing in Steroid Treated Rats" using the same model. PDGF had no effect on healing thesteroid treated animals, while TGFB did. Bob Hardesty was also studying growth factors at Loma Linda, and theireffect on "Cranial Onlay Bone Grafts." Three different growth factors were studied on cancellous bone grafts on therabbit's snout and skull. FGF treated bone grafts had reduced absorption. The snout appeared more receptive thanthe skull.
Sang Tae Ahn, working with Paul Weeks, developed an "Ischemic Wound Healing Model in the Rabbit Ear." It waspossible to make a circumferential incision down to cartilage leaving the smallest artery and three veins in theischernic model, and the smallest vein and three arteries in the congestic model. The ischernic car had considerablyincreased pCO 2 and decreased pO 2) but the congested car showed no The Thirty-Third Meeting significant difference from the control ear in wound healing. T.M. Masterson working with Ray Morgan, described"The In-Vitro Effects of Wound Sera in a Murine Tumor Model." Relative to mouse sera, the late wound fluid (day10) suppressed the growth of the metha-a sarcoma. Clyde Smoot, from Springfield, Illinois, reported on "TheEvaluation of Topical Antibacterial Toxicity in Human Epidermal Cell Cultures." Flow cytometry was used todetermine the ratio of viable and non-viable cells. They also used the migration index, and everything tested (9agents) seemed to reduce the flow cytometry. Bryan Forley, from Duke, studied "The Potential of PolyamineInhibition in Keloid Therapy." Ornithine decarboxylase was increased in all the keloids studied, and 2%difluoromethylornithine produced a significant reduction in collagen formation.
Malcolm Marks, from Ann Arbor, studied the "Effects of Aging and Chronic UV Light Exposure on FibroblastContraction." He studied cultured fibroblasts from preauricular (sun exposed) and post auricular (sun protected) skinremoved at the time of face lift. Fibroblast lattice contraction was greater in chronicly exposed skin samples and thedifference was more marked in the younger patients suggesting less fibroblast activity in older people. W.G.
Eshbaugh, working at Duke, reported that "Polyamines and UV-B Radiation Stimulate DNA Synthesis in HumanEpidermis." Human skin was grafted to athymic nude mice and both agents significantly increased DNA synthesis.
B.L. Thomas, working with Kel Cohen, described how "Fetal Wound Healing can be Switched to an Adult Type ofResponse by the Attraction of Neutrophils to the Site of Injury." They used formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine,a proven chemoattractant for neutrophils, and were able to demonstrate a neutrophil response which did indeed leadto fibroblast attraction and collagen formation. John Siebert, working with Joe McCarthy, described how "Collagenis Present in Fetal Wound Healing." They used Gore-Tex in rabbits, and though there was no chemically injectablecollagen, there was a striated fibrillar structure seen on electron microscopy, so they felt that collagen was indeedpresent. B.L. Thomas, with Kel Cohen, reported that "Fetal Fibroblasts are Autonomously Programmed forSynthesis of Increased Amounts of Collagen." They used fetal dermal fibroblast cultures from rabbits and were ableto show that collagen synthesis is actually greater in the fetus than in the adult. They hypothesized that perhaps thiswas related to the ability of the fetus to synthesize normal bundles of collagen fibrils rather than a distorted affay.
After this study of fetal wound healing, there were several papers on skin equivalents and other types of woundhealing, starting with Michael Morykwas, from Michigan, reporting on "In-Vivo Survival of Living SkinEquivalent on Rats." This was a thin collagen "dermal substrate plated with keratinocytcs," and indeed, they didsurvive grafting onto syngenic animals. Michael Gordon, working with Berish Strauch, San Francisco – 1988 described "A Computer Model of Wound Approximation," built with six springs. This mechanical model
reproduced the defects caused by a simple linear incision and helped show the most effective location for suture
approximation and demonstrated that the deeper parts of the skin incision tend to separate more than the surface
layer. Patrick Nassaux, from Walter Reed, described a "Modified Species of Epidermal Growth Factor in Mouse
Calvarial Cells." EGF was shown to occur in three distinct intracellular spacies which developed very quickly in the
mouse. Mark Gold, working with Dave Furnas, described the "Growth of Vascularized Heterotopic Bone Allografts
in Young Rabbits Treated with Short Term Cyclosporin." Forelimb allografts in rabbits were divested of skin and
placed subcutaneously in animals pretreated for eight weeks. Ten of the twenty-one surviving grafts with continued
cyclosporin showed growth in the following eight weeks which the controls did not do, and then survived for an
additional ten weeks, without suppression.
Kant Lin from the University of Pennsylvania, studied "The Effect of Rigid Fixation on the Fate of ExperimentalOnlay Facial Bone Grafts Using the Femur and Snout," showing that the fixed grafts retained more volume than theunfixed,, that calvarium as a donor site was better than ilium, and that the femur was better than Snout as arecipient site. Court Cutting remarked that calvarial bone just seems to take longer to resolve, but ends up the sameway. Phillip Szwajkun, working with Marty Robson in Detroit, described "Revascularization of MembranousVersus Endochondral Bone Grafts in the Rat." There was no difference between fresh and demineralized 'bone,although those autoclaved showed significantly less revascularization. Contrary to previous reports, there was greaterrevascularization in endochondral grafts than membranous grafts, but the latter had a better maintenance of volume.
Kant Lin also reported on "The Effects of Plate and Screw Fixation on the Developing Craniofacial Skeleton"showing an effect on subsequent growth particularly when placed across a suture line. G.S. La Trenta, working withJoe McCarthy, wondered whether "fixation increases bone graft survival" and felt that indeed it did.
We then had a number of excellent papers on nerve graft repair moderated by Julia Terzis. The first was by JoeRosen, from Palo Alto, on "Nerve Repair at the Axon Level," describing again his work with a chip with tiny holesdrilled by a laser (8-12 micron). Whereas there seemed to be about 95% axonconnections with a careful suturetechnique, the chip provided only about 3501o. There were indeed myelinated axons distal to the chip. RogerKhouri, from NYU, described "Nerve Regeneration through an Analogous Venous Nerve Conduct" and wasexamining the conduit diameter. He felt that the larger conduit produced better neurotization, the larger conduitsachieving results nearly comparable to nerve grafts. "Enhanced Locomotion in Rats Treated With a Pulsing The Thirty-Third Meeting Electromagnetic Field After Sciatic Nerve Transection" was described by Dick Zienowicz working at U. Mass. Heused a very low frequency current and then studied the post-op functional gait. The vein graft conduit was inferior tostandard epineural repair, and a five day delay was superior to immediate repair. Calcium influx inhibition signifi-cantly enhanced early axonal regeneration which was blocked by PEMF. So, a combination of calcium influxinhibition delayed nerve repair, and prolonged PEMF gave their best results.
Michael Mendelow, working with Mel Spira, described "A New Method Employing Retrograde Fluorescent Tracersin Evaluation of Repair of Rat Sciatic Nerve." He described the advantage of this labelling technique overhorseradish peroxidase. Diane Wong, working with Julia Terzis, compared "Vascularized Versus Non-VascularizedNerve Grafts: The Controversy Persists." She produced scarring in the bed of the nerve graft with a CO 2 laser,showing superior histological patterns in the vascularized grafts though there was not a significant difference in thetoe spread data. Jim Bain, working with Susan MacKinnon, presented "A Preliminary Report on Peripheral NerveAllografting in Primate Immunosuppressed Cyclosporin A," using a 3 cm. segment in the distal u1nar nerve.
Regeneration with cyclosporin A was good when studied at one year.
Leonard Yu, working with Don LaRossa, studied "The Survival and Function of Peripheral Nerve Allografts AfterCessation of Long Term Cyclosporin Immunosuppression." There was no significant difference between a 4.25 cm.
isograft and an immunosuppressed allograft at 150 days, though both were less than normal. Four months afterstopping this CSA, four animals demonstrated a progressive loss of function and three exhibited persistent nerveconduction, demonstrating a variable result. Mark Kobayashi, with Tim Miller, reported on the studies of "MotionVersus Immobilization on the Regeneration of Free Muscle Grafts." We all climbed into buses and headed down past Candlestick Park and the airport to Hillsborough, where Jenniferand Steve live in a very attractive home in a neighborhood so well-groomed, that in the daytime, there must bemore gardeners than residents to keep it looking so well. Our membership had grown so much that these smallexclusive "members only" dinners were reaching very sizable proportions. That didn't stop Jennifer and Steve frommaking this a very warm and jovial evening. It did cause us to bring up the question of costs at the BusinessMeeting.
The following day started off with an excellent paperby Julie Glowacki on "Studies of Composite ImplantsContaining Dernineralized Bone Powder and Other Materials." The powder itself caused no inflammatory response,and within seven days recruited mesenchymal cells. By fourteen days, cartilage and bone could be identified and San Francisco, California -1988 hematopoietic activity was abundant. When combined with hydroxy apatite, the same characteristics persisted sothis may be a means of developing shape as well as structure. John Persing, from Charlottesville, presented a paperon "Morphologic Changes in the Craniofacial Skeleton Following Lateral Cranial Base Suture Expansion." He putin a stainless steel spring subperiosteally in thirty-day-old rabbits, which statistically increased bone growth at thecoronal and lambdoid suture ipsilaterally. However, the midline cranial base and facial skeletons were unaltered bythe spring. Adrian Lo, from London, Ontario, spoke on "Orbital Expansion Using Tissue Expanders" achievinggood expansion in kittens as a possible treatment for anophthalmos. George Cherry reported on "PreliminaryStudies on the Effect of Tissue Expansion on the In Vitro Wound Contraction" using human and pig culturedfibroblasts on a collagen lattice. In the pilot studies, reproducible contraction occurred with both the pig and humanfibroblasts and was considerably more in the cultures of expanded tissue. Bob Hardesty reported on "TissueExpansion Enhancement: Adjunctive Capsulotomy or Capsulectomy." Using the canine model, he made incisionsat I cm. intervals that were just as effective as capsulectomy. It was felt that perhaps the gain would be 10% in thelong run. Momdouh Mottaleb, from Hershey, Pennsylvania, questioned "Does the Capsule Contribute to the BloodFlow of Expanded Flaps?" Using 15 micron labeled microspheres, he showed that those flaps with the capsuleintact had a highly significant increase in blood flow. James Mahoney, from the Hospital for Sick Children inToronto, was also studying the "Effect of Capsulectomy on Hemodynamics and Viability of Random Pattern SkinFlaps Raised on Expanded Skin in the Pig." Contrary to the reports from Hershey, their conclusion was thatcapsulectomy did not effect the viability of their expanded flaps.
Jim Sanger, from Milwaukee, reported on the "Temporal Effects of Axotomy on the Cholinesterase and CarbonicAnhydrase Activities of Axons in the Proximal and Distal Stumps of Rabbit Sciatic Nerves." They were able toidentify histochernically myelinated motor axons by cholinesterase activity, and sensory axons by carbonicanhydrase activity. The differentiation persisted for nine days which they felt was a valuable time limit for nerverepair. Joel Pickar, from U.Cal. Davis, spoke on "A Comparison of the Sciatic Function Index and FunctionalRecovery of Denervated Muscle Following Nerve Transection." This is a non-invasive behavioral measure offunctional recovery, and their studies suggested that a direct correlation existed between the SFI and physiologicmuscular reinnervation.
Yutaka Maki, from the Kleinert Institute in Louisville, discussed "Neurolysis and Blood Flow in the Sciatic Nerveof the Rabbit." He showed that with complete neurolysis, there was a significant decrease over normal blood flow,whereas with The Thirty-Third Meeting incomplete neurolysis, there was negligible change. Charles Cuono, from Yale, described the "Utilization ofCyclocreatine Phosphate" in skin flaps during ischemia. Creatine Phosphate dropped markedly in the middle anddistal parts of flaps that necrosed. They reasoned that cCP is thermodynamically more favorably poised to buffercritical falls in ATP for longer periods of time than CP. Carolyn Kerrigan, from McGill, used tissue impedance to"Monitor Flap Viability." She was concerned with the risk to the pedicle with implanted probes. She would preferto implant the probes in the muscle than around the vessels, expecting that the reliability would be just as good.
Gerald Sloan, working at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, described the "Direct Assessment ofMicrovascular Blood Flow by Radionuclide Emission Vascular Scans." Using technetiurn 9m in the rabbit ear, hewas able to show good resolution in 1 mm. diameter blood vessels. Hani Matlaub, from the Medical College ofWisconsin, used "Hyperbaric Oxygen: A Means of Decreasing Ischernic Epiphyseal Injury." He showed significantimprovement in the rabbit, and felt that it would probably be useful for prolonged warm ischernia in the pediatricpatient.
Walter Sullivan, from Wayne State, described "In-Utero Cleft Lip Repair in the Mouse." He used Dilantin andoperated on day seven using 11-0 nylon. No incisions were made and of 415 mated animals, eleven had at least onefetus with a cleft, eight of which were repaired (some of which were resorbed). But in three viable fetuses (allbilateral clefts) where the sutures were able to coapt the edges, the lip appeared to be "normal" with no suture line.
This remarkable work raises a number of questions about its relevance to man.
Allan C. Roth, working with Bob Russell, described "Reperfusion Injury in the Microcirculation of SkeletalMuscle After Ischemia." Using a dramatic video presentation, they showed a large increase in neutrophil adhesionimmediately following reperfusion. When this was marked, it lead to the irreversible blockage of themicrocirculation resulting in "no reflow." They felt that the model provided a good opportunity to study the effectof various pharmacological manipulations.
At the Business Meeting, it was decided that the status of the various award recipients would be determined to be atthe time the work was done and not at the time it was presented. Foad Nahai spoke about the problems of fundingfor the various social activities. Recent Chairmen agreed that this was becoming more difficult, and a motion waspassed to pennit funding of social activities by companies to help defray the cost of the Annual Meeting. BrookeSeckel discussed the activities of the "Research Proposals Committee" of the Educational Foundation, providinginformation for investigators of work in progress and possible openings for researchers.
San Francisco, California 1988 Elected to Active Membership were: Scott P. Bartlett, M.D. Joseph V. Boykin, Jr., M.D. Gregory Brown, M.D. Diane V. Dado, M.D. Craig R.
Dufresne, M.D. Lawrence Gottlieb, M.D. James Grotting, M.D. Robert A. Hardesty, M.D. Larry S. Nichter, M.D.
Jay M. Pcnsler, M.D. Rodney J. Rohrick, M.D. Richard C. Sadove, M.D. Alan E. Seyfer, M.D. Saleh Shenaq,M.D. E. Clyde Smoot,111, M.D. Walter Sullivan, M.D. Craig Alan VanderKolk, M.D. Marcus Walkinshaw,M.D.
Bruce Klitzman, M.D. was elected to Associate Membership.
Brian L. Thomas, from the Medical College of Virginia, won the Peter J. Gingrass Award for his paper "FetalWound Healing Can Be Switched to an Adult Type of Response by the Attraction of Neutrophils to the Site ofInjury." He also gave a paper on "Fetal Fibroblasts are Autonomously Programmed for Synthesis of IncreasedAmounts of Collagen." Diane Wong, from Eastern Virginia Medical School, won the John F. Crikelair Award forher paper on "Vascularized Versus NonVascularized Nerve Grafts: The Controversy Persists." Adrian K. Lo won theClifford C. Snyder Past Chairman Award. He did his work in London, Ontario, on "Orbital Expansion'UsingTissue Expanders" in the cat.
Foad Nahai was welcomed as the new Chairman, and described his plans for the meeting in Atlanta. Mary McGrathwas elected Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman. The meetings were certainly getting bigger and better each year.
The Thirty-Fourth Meeting
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia
April 23-26,1989
Foad Nahai was our Chairman and host, and unlike virtually any of our previous meetings, we were not housed in adowntown hotel or motel, but at the rather spiffy Ritz Carlton Hotel in "suburban Buckhead." This lead to anumber of the old tirners wondering "how high on the hog" we should go, but regardless of the pampering., theenvironment, spring flowers, and flowering dogwoods were enjoyed by all.
The meeting opened at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, where we were welcomed by Josh Jurkiewicz. Joshhad been appointed in 1971 by Dean Warren, and since Dean had become quite ill, Josh had taken over many ofthe administrative duties in the Department of Surgery. However, back in 1971, within ten days of arriving onthe campus, he applied to the Residency Review Commission for permission to train eight residents, four at eachlevel. The RRC decided that six would be a better number, which was approved and has remained. Prior to theResearch Council Meeting, the "Jurkiewicz Society" had met with a smashing array of papers by former residents.
Josh had been Vice Chairman of the Board of Regents of the American College of Surgeons, and later the sameyear, he was installed as President of the American College of Surgeons, appropriately at the Congress held inAtlanta. Dean Warren, in his 1971 report to the Trustees of Emory University, had said "I believe that the twomost urgent needs of the Department of Surgery are to improve the attending coverage at Grady . and to establishnew divisions of pediatric and plastic surgery, which are essential to the development of a top-flight medicalcenter." Luis Vasconez joined the faculty in 1972 and John Bostwick was the Junior Resident. John McCraw wasresident 1972, and with the help of Steve Mathes, then a junior resident in surgery, developed the concept of themusculocutaneous flap.
James T. Laney, President of Emory University, spoke on "Ethics in Research," reviewing some of the historicaldevelopments that had occurred, and the rare disastrous deviation from the "straight and narrow road." He felt thatone of the most insidious problems today was the pressure from the public. This included pressures from early leaksof information, early releases, premature conclusions, and pressures to get the name of the University in the publicpress, all of which should be guarded against. Dr. Frederick A. King, who was Director of the Yerkes RegionalPrimate Research Center which we were later able to visit, described the life-long wish of Dr. Yerkes. Dr.'Yerkeswas a behavioral psychologist at Yale, and hoped to spend more time and effort studying The Thirty-Fourth Meeting the social, psychological, and biological patterns of primates. The Yerkes Center was one of seven such centersestablished in the U.S. and was using primates to study AIDS, infertility, and contraception problems. Patterns insocial behavior and a host of human related problems such as nerve regeneration, collagen disease, autoimmunedisease, etc., were on their protocols. In one such study, they had isolated a virus similar to AIDS from one strainof monkey in which it was not lethal, transmitted it to another strain in which it proved to be very lethal, and thentransmitted it back to the original strain as an apparent mutant with persistence of its lethal capabilities. It wassuspected that the AIDS virus had undergone just such a mutation. During our visit to the Yerkes Center, we sawmany of these projects in progress, and a remarkable electron microscope with 1.5 million magnification capability.
Our next speaker was Dr. Gary Noble, Deputy Director of the Center for Disease Control, who spoke on "Prospectsfor Control and Prevention of HIV Infection." Much data had been collected on the transmitability of AIDS. It wasencouraging to see that the incidence in new recruits in the Armed Forces had remained almost constant, and thecurrent thought on the likelihood of contracting the disease from a patient with AIDS through a needle stick wasabout 0.3%. Dr. George Cierny, Associate Professor of Orthopedics, showed how his collaborative efforts withFoad Nahai had achieved a marked improvement in the salvage of limbs with severe chronic osteomyelitis. Dr. RoyBakay, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, reported on his results of "Grafting Adrenal Medulla in Fragments tothe Cerebral Cortex of Patients with Parkinson's Disease" with about 56% showing objective improvement, thoughthe procedure was still considered very controversial.
Finally, John Coleman, a transplanted Yankee cardiothoracic surgeon, traced with great humor the career of Dr.
Crawford Long, an outstanding Georgia surgeon who documented the use of ether anesthesia in three cases twoyears before Warren and Mott carried out their celebrated case in the Ether Dome at the Mass. General.
The rest of the scientific meeting was equally superb, marked by the youthfulness of the researchers, and also astriking amount of good basic laboratory research with important clinical applications. Many of the paperscontinued to relate to preliminary results or work in progress, and much of the discussion included suggestions onhow to improve the protocol, to use a better laboratory animal, or to expand the technique to other areas.
The meeting started with eight papers on various aspects of "expansion." Nolan Karp, working with JosephMcCarthy, elongated the canine mandible by osteotomy, external pins, and extraction. Brent Moelleken, workingwith Steve Mathes, showed Atlanta, Georgia -1989
defects in the cranium from skin expanders under the scalp in growing micro-pigs. This study was similar to someof the problems seen in children. The cranial bone was thinned in the center and thickened at the periphery, whereasthe effect on the femur was nil. They felt that the changes were reversible.
There were two papers on the technique of expansion. One was "A Companison of Rapid and Slow Tissue'Overexpansion by Laurie Casas, working with Bob Russell in Springfield. Even though inflation pressuresgenerally exceeded 200 mm. HG, there was not a single instance of necrosis, showing that this technique is thoughtto be fairly safe with daily expansion. Samuel Logan, with Stephen Schmidt from St. Louis, developed a techniquefor "Continuous Tissue Expansion," showing that this was technically feasible with much shorter periods ofexpansion.
The question of "expansion" during surgery had been suggested, and from Ernie Manders' lab, Neville Kotwal feltthat "Undermining is More Important than Intraopcrative Expansion." They worked with pigs and achievedsignificant results. Randall Harrell, from Mel Spira's lab at Baylor, asked whether "Overexpansion Prevents CapsuleContracture?" He showed a large difference between experimental and control animals immediately, but nosignificant difference after two weeks, two months, and three months. There was a trend towards thinkingoverexpansion was stable, with some increase in benefit by increasing the length of time the tissue wasoverexpanded.
Amado Ruiz-Razura, from Ben Cohen's lab in Houston, studied "Acute Intraoperative Vascular Expansion." Threeexpansions were carried out at fifteen to twenty minute intervals, and gaps of 12-20 mm. were anastomosedprimarily after expansion. At two weeks, all anastomosis were patent without complications. Joanne Jannetta, fromPittsburgh, used a special expander to obtain "Longitudinal Expansion of Canine Saphenous Veins." There was a40-85% increase in length with good success except for an infection in one dog. Examination of these vesselsshowed endothelial thickening, edema, and holes in the endothelial surface with significant platelet aggregation. Theexpansion could be done, but it produced endothelial damage and significant clotting. Gilles Dautel, working withHarry Buncke, reported "The Preservation of Transplanted Muscle Mass by Motor and Sensory Reinnervation."With no nerve reconstruction, the muscle fibers atrophied, and this was reduced with motor nerve reattachment.
However, it was surprising to see that there was even some preservation with three anastomosis to a sensory nervewith no motor component. Bill Kuzon, working with Nancy McKee, showed "Motor Nerve Morphometry andIsometric Function in Experimental Free Vascularized Muscle Transfers." For some reason, there was better musclefunction after transfer with small nerve fibers rather than with larger ones. Barry Eppley and Mike Sadove, fromIndiana, reported survival of "Free Bone Grafts for Reconstruction in The Thirty-Fourth Meeting Irradiated Tissue" with the use of angiogenic stimulation. Without the stimulation, there was consistent loss of thebone graft. Anna Drzewiecki, working with Bruce Williams but in her own labs in Ottawa, studied "The Effect ofCyclosporin on the Growth of Transplanted Vascularized Growth Plates." Many congenital and acquired deformitiesresult from absent growth plates. These prefabricated ones in a two stage procedure using vascularized fascia,appeared to work quite well. Axel-M. Feller, from Munich, used magnetic resonance imaging to follow fatreimplantation. Following suction, 40-50% of the cells were damaged, and successful replant could only be donewith very small volumes. Bryan Bartle, from the University of Maryland in Nelson Goldberg's lab, described the"Development of a Synthetic Replacement for Flexor Tendon Pulleys," using expanded polytetrafluoroethylenemembrane which worked well in the chicken model. Gordon Telepun, from the same lab, described "A New FlexorTendon Repair" of "wrapping the tendon in the same material." The new repair was equally strong as the controlsand increased in strength with motion. Furthermore, there was better excursion due to the formation of a tunnelpseudo sheath.
The first evening, we were all bused to a reception and dinner at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center. This was anunusual modern building, placed in a lovely setting with beautiful gardens, paths and waterfalls. We were taken ona tour of the center which included President Carter's library, a replica of the oval office, and rather elaborateexhibits of a number of the outstanding accomplishments that occurred during his presidency. Many of the giftsfrom visitors of state (which apparently the President is not allowed to keep) were exhibited, including one from theShah of Iran which was unbelievably elaborate.
The following morning, there were two "Special Interest Discussion Groups." One was on "Studies of ImplantCapsules and Capsular Contracture" and was moderated by Alan Seyfer. This included six brief papers, the first byBob Peterson on "New Parameters" discussing steroids, antibiotics, lathyrogens, and over-expansion as well astexture. S. Bern, working with Jim May, discussed "The Biophysical and Biochemical Properties of Capsules"showing a difference between smooth and irregular surface silicone implants with the latter having thicker andgrossly more adherent capsules. T.R. Hester studied the "Histology Around the Capsules of Smooth, Textured, andPolyurethane Covered Implants in Monkeys." There had been no reports of any adverse reactions from thepolyurethane, but it was still unclear whether the improved results with polyurethane were primarily due to thetexture of the surface or to "nuances of its chemical structure." J.P. Heggers, working with Marty Robson, studiedthe possibility of "Silicone Hypersensitivity." Hydrocephalic patients who had a malfunction of their shunts not dueto infection, had an immunoglobulin band which was diffused. In Atlanta, Georgia -1989
excessively high concentrations, when compared with controls, this suggested an immunologically mediatedinflammatory reaction. J.R. Sanger wondered if "Silicone Gel is Really Biologically Inert?" When injected intonerves, it did elicit a perincural inflammatory reaction, but no axonal degeneration.
The other discussion group was on "Postoperative Facial Skeletal Development" chaired by Court Cutting of NewYork. He presented a fascinating study of the face as a sequence of "closed polyhedrals." Describing the face in thisway will allow computerization for surface abnormalities. Henry Vasconez studied "Facial Growth AfterConstruction of a Pharyngeal Flap in the Dog." Initial results showed no difference. G.S. LaTrenta also studiedfacial growth, "After Timed Soft Tissue Undermining" (unfortunately, I do not have the results of this presentation).
M.P. Mooney, working with Dennis Hurwitz, studied "Pharmacologic Inhibition of Scar Contraction andCraniofacial Growth Following Cleft Lip Repair With Undermining." While lip compression has been shown torestrict growth, it was hoped that papaverine would minimize this effect. L. Wong, working with Paul Manson,spoke on " The Effect of Rigid Fixation on the Growing Craniofacial Skeleton," showing some limitations ongrowth.
In the regular sessions, Julia Terzis started off with a study of "Quantitation of Sensibility in Full Thickness SkinGrafts to the Hand," pointing out that even though Meissner's corpuscles were absent in non hair-bearing skin("glabrous skin") it still provided the best coverage. Peter Evans, working with Susan MacKinnon, reported on"Selective Reinnervation in Rat Sciatic Nerve." By rotating the ends 180" before anastomosing, he producedconsiderable gait distortion from inappropriate reinnervation which, interestingly, was greatly reduced if a siliconetube was used keeping the two ends of the nerve 5 mm. apart, suggesting some attempt to regenerate appropriatetopography. Dick Ehrlichman, working with Brooke Seckel at the Lahey Clinic, compared "Conventional and NerveGuide Techniques in Bridging Peripheral Nerve Gaps," again showing better nerve growth in direct repairs than withnerve grafts, but a better overall result with the sensory nerves than with the motor nerves. Yutaka Maki, from theKleinert Institute, studied "Quantitative Blood Flow in Pedicle Nerves," showing a relationship between thediameter of the nerve and the length of the graft with better results in those with better blood flow. FuminoraKanaya, from the same institution, studied the results with "Vascularized Versus Non Vascularized" nerve graftingin a functional model, again showing that maintaining the vascular supply gave better results.
Lenard Yu, working with Don LaRossa at Penn, continued his work on "Immunosuppression for Peripheral NerveAllografts" showing the need for indefinite imnauno- The Thirty-Fourth Meeting suppression. He even demonstrated the persistence of endothelial and Schwann cells from the donors, whichmaintatined their immunocompetence, even though host axons had grown into the grafts as well as they had intothe isograph controls. When the cyclosporin was stopped and rejection occurred, it destroyed these regeneratedaxons.
Julia Terzis again presented a paper on "Regeneration of Central Axons in Peripheral Nerve Grafts." It was astartling step in animals with spinal cord injuries. She introduced the possibility of restoring limb function bytapping central spinal cord neurons into sciatic nerve grafts, introduced centrally, and going to the denervatedgastrocnemius muscle distally. These showed single motor unit potentials in the muscles with transcranial brainstimulation. Horseradish peroxidase activity was found in the dorsal root ganglion cells, and the animals withpositive HRP labelling displayed regenerated myelinated fibers in the sciatic nerve distal to the nerve repair site.
David Luethcke, working at the University of Texas in Houston, was developing a detection system for H.I.V.
infections in human skin. Pro-viral DNA could be detected in human skin using the polymerase chain reaction withabout a 45% success. Riley Rees, having moved his Brown Recluse Spider collection to Michigan and havingisolated the toxin, introduced the toxin into the Boyden Chemotactic Chamber with human neutrophils and showedpotent chemotactic activity. These results suggested that the toxin caused the marked neutrophil vasculitis andchronic wounds seen when these nasty little fellows manage to bite you. Brad Rockwell, working at the Shriner'sBum Institute in Boston, examined "Human Bum Blister Fluid" finding a plasmin-inhibitor which sustainedvascular occlusion. Clyde Smoot, from Southern Illinois, was studying "Leech Therapy" and compared it to dermalwounding with venous occlusion. Leech therapy seemed to be superior, but it peaked at 45 minutes with little effectafter 2 hours indicating the need for frequent applications.
Kim Koger, working with Don Serafin, described a "Microvascular Prosthesis with Decreased Thrombogenicity." Agel, chitosan, significantly reduced thrombin formation and may be of widespread usefulness. John Barker, fromGordon Tobin's lab in Louisville, described "A New Model for Studying Thrombus and Embolus, FormationAssociated with Free Tissue Transfer." It consisted of the rat cremaster muscle, which was surgically isolated. KarlBreuing, working with Elof Eriksson, studied "In Vivo Diffusion Across Experimental Bum Wounds in SealedChambers." Protein and electrolytes were both found to diffuse across the bum surface into these chambers over atwenty-four hour period. Edward Tredget, with Mac Alton in Alberta, studied "Collagen Metabolism" using a dualstable isotope approach. They used "'0 2 as a label for detecting the highly dynamic aspects of collagen metabolismin vivo. Bill Lindblad, working with Kel Cohen, described that "Collagenase Activity in the Healing Dermal Atlanta, Georgia -1989
Rat Wound Regulates Collagen Deposition." Although there was very little collagen activity in the wounds in thefirst four days, collagenase activity goes up very sharply on day two and stays elevated until day nine. Otto Placik,working in Victor Lewis's lab, was working in a similar vein on "The Effects of Lymphocyte Eluates, BearingAntifibroblast Antibodies, on Collagen Synthesis by Keloid Fibroblast Strains." Keloid and sear fibroblasts werenot affected by the eluate.
Roberta Mann, working with Marty Robson (now in Galveston), reported that "Synthetic Thrombin Receptor-Binding Peptide Increases Incisional Breaking Strength." This suggested that synthetic peptides may be useful inaccelerating certain aspects of wound healing. Tom Shima, working at NIH, discussed how "Polymerase ChainReaction Provides Genetic Information on Altered Wound Repair." They studied the genes in human keloid tissue,hypertrophic scar, and normal skin. The former had a large amount of Collagen In RNA without keratin beingnoted. This suggested that this gene is overexpressed in both the keloid and the hypertrophic scar tissue.
S. Sengottuvelu, working with Paul Manson at the University of Maryland, studied "Healing of Cutaneous Woundsin Normal and Obese Diabetic Mice." Reepithelization in the diabetic animal is three times slower than in thenormal with impaired epithelial migration, both of which were improved by hyperberic oxygen, although 02decreased contractility. Phil Falcone, working in Lee Edstrom's lab at Brown, reported "In Vitro Effects of GRGDSon Wound Fibroblast Replication and Adhesion." This is a synthetic peptide, considered a reversible competitiveinhibitor of fibronectin binding, and perhaps a modifierin the process of scarring. C. Bi, from Larry Gottlieb's labin Chicago, described "A Proposed Mechanism for Decreased Hypertrophic Scar Formation Associated withCultured Epithelial Autographs." Interested that hypertrophic scar formation did not seem to occur under culturedepithelium in bum patients, the authors cultured fibroblasts immediately deep to the epidermal base membranewhich seemed to have growth characteristics that were different, and may inhibit fibroblasts.
After our second day, we were bused out through the hills and woodlands around Atlanta to Shahnaz and Foad'slovely home in the suburbs. Of course they were still building it, but that didn't stop them from constructing aplatform over their swimming pool to accomodate all their friends and having a perfectly wonderful evening underthe stars. Foad's family is rather unique, and Josh and I thoroughly enjoyed a long conversation with his fatherabout time in the old country and what life was like over there.
The morning of the third day, we had the same special interest discussion groups so that what you missed the daybefore, you could pick up the next day. The papers started with one by Steve Buchman, working with LintonWhitaker on "Experimental Studies The Thirty-Fourth Meeting
on the Regulation of Craniofacial Growth." Steve had enucleated one orbit in young kittens and put in expandersshowing that this alone would prevent many of the adverse sequelae due to the loss of an eye. J. Pensler fromNorthwestern was interested in "Estrogen Receptor Density and In Vitro Cellular Metabolism in Normal andAbnormal Osteoblasts." They obtained specimens from fibrodystrophy and polyostotic fibrous dysplasia. Theabnormal bone patterns had increased levels of estrogen receptors which may enable endoginous circulatingestrogens to produce alterations in bone growth. John Persing, from Charlottesville, was studying "CraniofacialSuture Synostosis." Premature synostosis was produced by applying methyl-cynoacrylate adhesive to the coronaland frontonasal suture lines in young white rabbits. This resulted in a reduction of growth producing cranial baseand facial skeletal abnormalities somewhat similar to Crouzon's and Apert's syndrome. Andy Turk at UCLA studiedvarious osteoconductive matrices in reconstructing "large cranial defects." Unlike other experiments, they foundmore vascularization in endochondral bone than membranous bone. Andrew Burd, from the Shriner's Bum Institutein Boston, described "The Use of Long Gestational Period with a Urge Animal Model," to investigate the collagenstory in fetal wound healing. Their animal was the sheep, and they found wound * healing was more closely akin toadult wound healing. D.J. Whitby, from the University Hospital of South Manchester, England, and the Universityof California in San Francisco, felt that "Rapid Epithelialization of Fetal Wounds is Due to Early Deposition ofTenascin." Tenascin was found earlier in fetal wounds than in adult wounds and it antagonizes the cell attachmentpromoted by fibronectin. The rapid epithelization of fetal wounds may be due to the early appearance of tenascin.
Jeff Ditesheim, working with Riley Rees at Bowman Gray, described in "Characterization of Fetal ExcisionalWound Healing," that contrary to incisional wounds, fetal excisional wounds did not heal. It was thought thatperhaps transforming growth factor-a could stimulate fetal mesenchymal cells to proliferate, but they were unable tomake this take place. The fetal response to excisional injury remains incompletely understood.
N. John Yousif, with Rudy Gingrass, studied "The Axial Orientation of Perforators in the Upper Medial Thigh"supporting the use of a large skin paddle with the gracilis muscle. Nancy Falco, with Eloff Eriksson, described"Skin Neovascularization Following Implantation of a Vascular Pedicle." This was a technique of flap prefabricationwith new vessel growth from an implanted arteriovenous pedicle. Michael Kreidstein, from the Hospital for SickChildren in Toronto, discussed "The Design of a Human Skin Free Flap Model for Laboratory Research." This wasreally the first such suggestion in the human, and it used skin normally discarded after an abdominoplasty. Thesuperficial inferior epigastric artery can be prepared for infusion and preliminary studies indicated that this wouldbecome quite useful.
Atlanta, Georgia -1989
John N. Barker, working with Gordon Tobin in Louisville, discussed "Monitoring Nutritional Blood Flow in aSkin Flap Following Normovolemic Hemodilution." Using the ear of the hairless mouse, normovolemichemodilution appeared to be a practical way of improving hemorheological properties of the failing flap. LuisPicard-Ami from McGill, working with Carolyn Kerrigan, discussed "ne Pathophysiology of Ischemic Skin Flaps."Xanthine oxidase levels did not significantly increase in the rat, pig, or man during eight hours of ischemia.
C.G. Mellow, working with Ray Morgan and Bernie O'Brien, discussed "The Effect of Thromboxane SynthetaseInhibition of Tolerance of Skin Flap to Secondary Ischemia Caused by Venous Obstruction." This substancesignificantly salvagedflaps rendered ischemic by venous obstruction. Chen Lee, also from McGill, discussed"Ischemia-Reperfusion in Myocutaneous Flaps." Phorbal myristate acetate (PMA) stimulated neutrophils isolatedfrom ischernic flaps showed a significantly accelerated release of superoxide radical. This occurred immediatelyfollowing an ischemic insult. The responsiveness was rather brief and not detectable one hour after reperfusion. DaneBurkland from Jack Fisher's lab in San Diego described "Reverse Triiodothyronine." This lesser known thyroidhormone is normally found in high concentrations in the skin. Wounds treated with this hormone contracted at arate of 1.5 times those treated with other thyroid hormones.
Karla Richey, working with Lauren Engrav, described "Platelet-Derived Growth Factor and Wound Contracture inthe Rat." They felt that in the normal ariimal accelerated wound contraction does not occur, but that PDGF mayaccelerate wound contraction in situations of impaired healing. Gary Salomon, from the NIH, studied "The Effectsof Local Tumor Necrosis Factor on Wound Healing." His experiments showed that TNF tended to impede healing,particularly in high concentrations. Sang Tae Alin, working in Jeff Marsh's lab, was interested in "The Effects ofGrowth Factors (PDGF & FGF) on Ischemic Ulcer Wound Healing." Wounds treated with PDGF formed moregranulating tissue and did this at a more rapid rate, while FGF had a minimal effect in this model. Tom Mustoe,from the same lab investigating "Platelet Derived Growth Factor and Transforming Growth Factor," showed that invitro and in vivo, these substances potentiate activities of wound healing with an increase in cellularity and breakingstrength which persisted for weeks. This was some of the first work being done in living models. The study resultsare serving to define the activity of growth factors, since previously available information came only from lessclinically relevant tissue culture environments.
One of the unscheduled papers was given by Roger Khouri, who with Joe Upton and Bill Shaw, had experimentallytaken a knee, stripped it of its soft tissue, wrapped it The Thirty-Fourth Meeting in muscle with a pedicle and could then transfer it. A middle finger lawn mower injury presented, and they used thetemporal parietal flap around the second toe and six weeks later transferred it up to the hand. The thirty-six hourbone scan looked very good, so a staged transfer appears to be a reality.
At the Business Meeting, there was considerable discussion whether or not we should seek funding from outsidesources to help defray the cost of the meeting. There were many who felt that we should have no such association,and it was decided that if needed, this could be done discretely. A By-Laws change that had been previouslycirculated allowing a registration fee to be charged to Active Members, Senior Members, Associate Members, andguests, with a reduced fee for residents and a fee to all registrants attending the social activities, was passed.
Ernie Manders brought up the possibility of either considering a classification for Corresponding Members fromoverseas, or allowing foreign participants to be considered Associate Members.
Elected to Active Membership were: Martin H. Adson, M.D. J. Brian Boyd, M.D. Warren C. Breidenbach, III, M.D. Roger K. Khouri, M.D. Marc D.
Liang, M.D. Hani S. Matloub, M.D. Robert L. McCauley, M.D. Thomas A. Mustoe, M.D. Michael J. Olding,M.D. Christian E. Paletta, M.D. Julian J. Pribaz, M.D. William F. Reus, 111, M.D. James R. Sanger, M.D.
Randy 1. Sherman, M.D. Gerald M. Sloan, M.D. Robert J. Spence, M.D. Richard S. Stahl, M.D. Edward E.
Tredget, M.D. Kent T. Yamaguchi, M.D. N. John Yousif, M.D.
Atlanta, Georgia -1989 Associate Members elected were; H. Paul Ehrlich, Ph.D., Amado Ruiz-Razura, M.D., and Gregory Saggers.
Ray Morgan was elected Chairman-Elect and Program Chairman, so the meeting will move back to Milt Ederton'shome town of Charlottesville for its Thirty-Sixth meeting. Unfortunately, Milt had miscounted and thought thiswas going to be the Thirty-Fifth in Charlottesville, so instead of closing out the first thirty-five years, he will havethe pleasure of starting off the next thirty-five years.
Mary McGrath was welcomed in as Chairman and outlined the plans for the meeting in Washington, D.C.
The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
George Washington University Medical Center
Washington, D.C.
April 19-21, 1990
Our Thirty-Fifth meeting was in our Nation's Capital at the George Washington University. Mary McGrath, ourChairperson, arranged an unusual program with Ray Morgan as Program Chairman. Mary, our only female TrainingProgram Director, has had a distinguished career at Yale, Columbia-Presbyterian, and has been Chairman at GeorgeWashington for six years.
Because this chapter is being written well before the meeting in an attempt to have this "Thirty-Five Year History"available at the time of the meeting, all of the information has been garnered through plans and paper abstracts.
Hopefully, it will be fairly accurate.
Ray and his committee have received 227 abstracts from which they selected sixty-one papers from forty-sixdifferent laboratories in four different countries. That's a far cry in thirty-five years from the eight papers from eightlaboratories presented at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 19-55. Unfortunately, five of those original labs are notrepresented on the 1990 program, but this is more a matter of today's competition than non-production, for all buttwo of the labs are still quite active. Every one of the eight presenters at the 1955 program are still living, and fourare still in active practice.
Dr. McGrath has an unusual group of speakers from the Washington area discussing a number of aspects of medicalresearch as they are likely to affect us in the future. The first is Dr. Michael J. Jackson, Dean of Research, theGeorge Washington University Medical Center, and also Chairman of the AAMC Ad Hoc Committee onMisconduct and Conflict of Interest in Research. Dr. Jackson will be speaking on "The Changing Environment ofAcademic Medical Research" which is obviously of critical importance. Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, Director,Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, who is in a very key position in a very key city, will bespeaking on "Animal Research versus Humane Use." At this time, many of us are experiencing pressures from thosewho are totally opposed to animal research, and this constitutes a severe and continuing problem.
Dr. L. Thompson Bowles, who has both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree and is Vice President for Medical Affairs atGeorge Washington and is also Chairman of both the Association of Deans at the AAM Caswell as Chairman of theNational Board of Medical Examiners, will be speaking on "Issues for Surgical Specialties in the 1990s." We are The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
seeing a number of changes as surgery seems to become more splintered and as funding for residency trainingprograms is becoming more limited. Dr. Roger J. Porter, Deputy Director of the Neurologic Institute at NIH and"Scholar-In-Residence" of the AAMC, will be discussing another interesting topic: "Academic and IndustryRelationships in Research." Finally, Dr. William A. Knaus, who is Professor of the Department of Anesthesiologyat George Washington and Director of ICU Research, will discuss another unusual topic, "Taking Research to theMarket Place -Scientific, Ethical, and Commercial Considerations". With this array of speakers, we should have avery interesting session.
The first afternoon will start off with papers from the members and guests, mostly on aspects of bone grafting.
David Brown, working with Roger Khouri at Washington University in St. Louis, will discuss "CustomFabrication of Vascularized Bone Grafts with Osteoinductive Transforming Factors," wondering whether readilyavailable soft tissue island flaps could be molded under the effect of osteogenin. Silicone molds of various shapeswere coated with osteogenin in a dernineralized bone matrix vehicle and after two weeks, the vascularized flapswithin the molds had a rigid and gritty bony consistency. A major portion of the original soft tissue had beenreplaced with spongy cancellous bone. Ndan Karp, working with Joe McCarthy in New York, is continuing thestudy on "Membranous Bone Lengthening." This had been reported on previously as being successful, and in thisstudy, they are analyzing the changes that occurred. The central radiolucent zone was found to consist of highlyorganized, longitudinally oriented, parallel strands of collagen. At the edges of this radiolucent zone, the spindlecells were replaced by osteoblasts with evidence of new bone formation at the periphery of the radiolucent zone.
Craig Hobar, from the same lab, is studying "Bone Regeneration in the Immature Animal." They found thatperiosteum in the mature animal was not different from periosteum in the immature animal as far as its ability tostimulate bone regeneration. Dura in the mature animal was either incapable of providing adequate osteoprogenitorcells for bone regeneration or is inhibitory to bone regeneration in the infant environment. On the other hand, durafrom the immature animal was thought to be perhaps the most important factor in bone regeneration response byproviding the necessary osteoprogenitor. Andrew Turk, working with Tim Miller at UCLA, reports on"Reconstruction of Large Cranial Defects with Resorbable Polymer Beads and Bovine Osteogenic Protein." Theyused a resorbable hydrophilic polymer as beads to act as a carrier matrix for an osteoinductive, 23000 MW bovineosteogenic protein preparation in the reconstruction of large osscous defects made in the cranium of rabbits. Thebeads alone had a 20% greater bone ingrowth than the untreated controls, and with the Washington, D.C. -1990
osteogenic protein preparation, the new bone formation was increased by 45%. M. Yazdi, working at USC withJohn Reinisch, willdiscuss "The Efficacy of Demineralized Bone/Polydiaxannone Composite for Bone Grafting."This was a slowly resorbable template in combination with a demineralized bone matrix, which they felt wassuperior to autogenous bone in healing of cranial defects in the rat. Todd Wider is interested in "The Effect of FibrinGlue on Skin Grafts in Infected Sites." Working with Norm Hugo at P and S, they found that the addition of bothfibrin glue alone and fibrin glue with aprotinin restored graft take in spite of the wounds being highly infected withbacterial counts greater than 101. In fact, the aprotinin was not necessary for the beneficial effects of exogenousfibrin. Louis Miller, working with Lu-Jean Fung at Western Reserve,will describe "A New Method to AssessSkeletal Muscle Viability after Ischemia and Reperfusion in the Rat Hindlimb Model." The reduction oftriphenyltetrazolium chloride salts was found consistently to assess muscle viability early after ischernic injury.
There was a marked difference between four hours of ischemia, and eight hours of ischernia and further damage withreperfusion. M.A. Codner, from Cornell, reports on "Dendritic Cell Migration Following Rat LimbTransplantation." The dendritic cell is a motile leukocyte of bone marrow origin, which functions as an antigenpresenting cell, causing T-cell sensitization. By days five and seven, donor cells were no longer seen in the lymphnodes or spleen. Accordingly, this distribution apparently occurs very early after rat limb transplantation.
The next series of papers will be on tendon healing and wound healing, starting with Nadine Semer, working withNelson Goldberg at the University of Maryland, describing "Differences in Scar Adhesions and Vascular IngrowthDuring Experimental Versus Standard Flexor Tendon Repair and Healing." Their experimental tendons werewrapped with expanded polytetralluoroethylene membrane. This produced a vascularized pseudosheath with a lack ofdense adhesions which was taken to explain their previously reported results of equivalent strength and improvedrange of motion. Daniel Greenwald, working with Lawrence Gottlieb at the University of Chicago, has carried out a"Biomechanical Analysis of the Effects of Vitamin A and Vitamin E on the Healing of Tendon In Vitro." In therabbit model, the tendons were transected, repaired, and incubated in a standard tissue culture media, and then testedat zero, two, eight, and twelve week intervals. There was no difference between the control and vitamin A treatedgroups, but the vitamin E treated groups showed a steady increase in the burst energy after an initial two weeks.
This was felt to be the first study to generate biomechanical evidence of intrinsic tendon healing in vitro.
Kent Gabriel, working with John Reinisch at USC, will discuss "The Histologic Analysis of Wounds FollowingDebridement: A Comparison of Ultrasound to Tradi- The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
tional Debridement Methods." They concluded that wound healing was maximized and tissue trauma andinflammation minimized with the ultrasonic method of debridement. Gary Salomon, from Monteflore, is studying"Collagen Gene Expression in Irradiated Wounds." Irradiation that was performed prior to or at the time ofwounding significantly impaired wound healing. The collagen mRNA expression was decreased at seven days inirradiated wounds and returned to normal levels at fourteen days. WBS was still depressed at fourteen days,suggesting a lag in recovery of wound bursting strength despite the recovery of collagen gene expression.
Ellen Morgan, working with Michael Angel from Charlottesville, used an animal model to study "TumorRecurrence in Previously Irradiated Tissue." More cells were needed to induce tumors in previously irradiated tissuethan in non irradiated tissue. Furthermore, growth of tumors was slowed as evidenced by the longer doubling timesin irradiated tissue. In addition, the instance of lymphatic spread was less; however, the frequency of systemicmetastases was higher. This was thought to be due to diminished microvasculature.
K.T. Yamaguchi, from the V.A. Medical Center in Fresno California, will note that "Tissue ATP in a WoundModel Exposed to High Ambient Oxygen" (following a bum wound) was higher as compared to controls for thefirst 96 hours. They felt that this confirmed less tissue destruction following the bum injury. Evan S. Dellon,working with Lee Dellon from Johns Hopkins, studied the technique of "Rat Track Analysis", showing a significantdifference between rat species, rat weight, and changes in the contralateral leg after sciatic nerve injury. They felt thatthese parameters must be considered in using this test. Peter St. Arnold, working with Suman Das from theUniversity of Mississippi, studied "Dermal Elastosis Following Ultraviolet Irradiation in the Hairless Guinea Pig."Elastosis is thought to occur following prolonged sunlight exposure, and indeed this is what they found in thismodel after exposure to UV light.
The following morning, there will be a number of papers on nerve growth and wound healing. These begin withDenton Watumull, working with Steve Harris from the University of Texas in Dallas, studying "'Me Effect of NerveGrowth Factor on Sciatic Nerve Crush and Transection Injuries in the Rat." Their sciatic function indices did notreveal a difference between salineand NGF treated groups in spite of a remarkable Schwann cell proliferation in thelatter group. There did appear to be a stimulation of sensory nerve function, but not motor nerve recovery. MatthewCooper, working with Stanley Sakabu at U.C. San Diego, describes "The Effect of Extracellular Matrix Peptides onEpithelialization of Meshed Skin Graft Interstices." The RGD peptide led to a significant decrease in the timenecessary to close the interstices in this model. They also felt that the epithelium in the treated animals was thicker.
Luis Dibos, working with Washington, D.C. -1990
Shaw Wilgis from the Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, reported that "Endothelial Cell Proliferation isStimulated by Heparin and Collagen IV." Endothelial cell proliferation is crucial to angiogenesis. In vivo, thereappeared to be a direct benefit with the topical application of heparin. Joe Molnar, working with Kel Cohen, hasmeasured "Collagen Synthesis in Vitro Using the Stable Isotope Oxygen-18." They felt that this isotope was stableand a useful label for the measurement of collagen synthesis.
Jeffrey Haynes, from the same lab, will report that "Amniotic Fluid Inhibits the Closure of Open Fetal Wounds."Using a latex patch, and another with a hole in it, they noted that in New Zealand white rabbits the uncoveredwounds enlarged and so did the doughnut covered wounds (but less so) while those completely covered decreasedin. size by an average of 84%. It was felt that the amniotic fluid inhibited cellular migration and proliferation.
Michael Longaker, sponsored by Joe McCarthy, will report that "Midgestation Excisional Wounds Contract inUtero." Unlike the fetal rabbit, these studies were done on fetal lambs, and though the size of the punch woundswere indeed less at three days if covered by a silastic patch, this difference was not significant at either seven orfourteen days. It was concluded that fetal lamb excisional wounds do contract in utero, and whereas amniotic fluidappears to retard wound contraction initially, it does so only in the early process of healing. Bruce Mast, againworking with Kel Cohen, has studied "The Addition of Hyaluronidase to Fetal Rabbit Wound Site to InduceFibrogenesis." They used polyvinyl alcohol implants saturated with hyaluronidase in a subcutaneous pocket andfound an organized ingrowth of fibroblasts surrounded by a collagen matrix. There was also the presence of earlycapillary formation. This healing response closely resembled that seen in the adult. Benjamin Chang, working againin Joe McCarthy's lab, will ask "Do Human Fetal Wounds Contract?" noting that fetal wounds contract inshcep butnot in rabbits, and that amniotic fluid appears to inhibit contraction in both. They used an in vitro model, studyingthe fibroblast populated collagen lattice. Both fetal and adult human fibroblasts contracted and were inhibited byamniotic fluid in a dose related manner.
The next series of papers discuss the many factors concerned with skin flap survival. William Koenig fromNorthwestern, will speak on "Augmenting Acute Skin Flap Survival by Stress-Conditioning." This was done byinducing "heat-shock" and, indeed in the rat model flap, survival was better in this stress conditioned group. He feltthat with heat shock, the cells within the flap had a greater tolerance for this stress . Peter Rubin, working with JimMay, wonders if "Degenerating Skeletal Muscle (Would) Stimulate Peripheral Nerve Growth In Vivo." They usedminced muscle which seemed to stimulate peripheral nerve regeneration. Giovanni Salerno, sponsored by LarryNichter from Omaha, will discuss "The Use of AICA Riboside to Improve Random Skin The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
Flap Viability." They felt the improved viability was possibly due to the drug's indirect inhibition of granulocyticsuperoxide radical synthesis. Stefano Fusi, working with Steve Ariyan, reports that "Topical 13-CIS Retinoic AcidEnhances Flap Survival." This substance is known to cause erythema topically and to predispose to excessivegranulation tissue when taken systemically. They also noted that this material was often used topically with patientsplanning to undergo a facelift operation. Their studies showed that there was no apparent vascular compromise withthis material, and in fact, they felt it might enhance skin flap survival.
Randall Yessenow, working with Norm Levine from Oklahoma City, has studied the "Effects of Nicardipine onRandom Skin Flap Survival in the Pig." This indeed resulted in a significant enhancement of random flap survival,which they thought might have been due to vasodilatation. Brent Moelleken, working with Steve Mathes, wondersif "Random Pattern and Musculocutaneous Wound Environments Determine Neutrophil Activation State." At threedays the random pattern flap had a greater neutrophil response which they felt was typical of the hypoxic acidicnonvascularized wound. By seven days, the random pattern flap neutrophils had a lower resting superoxideproduction as compared to the musculocutaneous flap and had almost completely lost their response to pma,indicating random pattern cells had lost their reserve by seven days. Ken Shaheen, working with Reily Rees, hasstudied "'Me Early Role of PMNs in Skin Flap Failure." They felt that with increase in PMN, and lipidperoxidation products in the distal flaps at six hours, which was greater in 48 hours, supports the role of PMNinjury in skin flap early failure. Also, they felt that PMNs contribute significantly to oxidant production inischemic skin flaps.
That afternoon, there is a session on various studies concerned with implant surface structure and the surroundingfibrous capsule. Robert Brohim, working with George Rodeheaver from Charlottesville, reports on "A HistologicalEvaluation of the Early Tissue Reaction to Textured Silicone Surfaces" studying a number of commerciallyavailable materials and suggesting that implants with significant surface texturing disrupt and thus delay theformation of a continuous collagen capsule around the implant. The degree and maturity of tissue reaction wasproportional to the magnitude of surface texturing. David Ruebeck, from Indianapolis, reports on "Fibrous CapsulesFormed Around Smooth Versus Textured Silicone Implants." He felt that in their rabbit model, there was not asignificant difference in contracture pattern or collagen makeup of two types of implants although there was evidenceof a gross structural difference with the textured implant producing a thicker, more opaque, and more vascularheterogeneous capsule. This suggested that the textured implants do not prevent capsular contracture when comparedto smooth silicone implants. Mimis Cohen, from the University of Washington, D.C. -1990
Illinois, also studied "Capsular Contracture Around Various Types of Silicone Breast Implants" and with atensiometer, showed significantly thicker capsules around smooth-walled implants in pigs. Some of their implantswere filled with saline and some with silicone and they did not see that this played any significant role in capsuleformation.
Timothy J. Mickel, working with Rod Rohrich from the University of Texas in Dallas, obliterated the frontal sinusin the cat and used various substances, such as autogenous fat, muscle, and cancellous bone, to see if there was adifference compared to doing nothing. They felt that there was more osteoneogenesis doing nothing, and betterresults with cancellous bone than with implants from either of the other two substances. Kathleen Waldorf, fromPortland, Oregon, has studied "Ute Sternal Blood Flow and Healing After The Harvesting of the Internal MammaryArtery." Previous studies in primates showed an immediate severe ischernia of the sternum following. 'IMA use butshe felt that the blood flow was reestablished on the affected side by three weeks. Gurhan Ozcan, working with MelSpira, has studied "Nerve Regeneration in Vascularized Versus Non-Vascularized Nerve Grafts in a Bony Bed" withbetter regeneration using the vascularized nerve graft. George Kovacs, working with Joseph Rosen from Stanford,will report further on the "Development of a Chronic Neuroprosthesis for Direct Man/Machine Connection." This iscontinuation of previously reported work on nerve generation through a silicone interphase with micro holes in it.
Physiologically viable myelinated axons were demonstrated, in the micro holes following implantation, and theywere able to document recordings from and stimulation to these nerves, using this device.
Daniel Durand, with Bruce Williams at McGill, has an implantable electrical system with which he was able to"Prevent Muscle Atrophy Following Peripheral Nerve Repair" by stimulating the muscle during the period ofrecovery. Kyeong-Hee Kim, in Bill Furtrell's lab, has studied "Histomorphological Changes in Expanded SkeletalMuscle in Rats." They will show that the expansion of skeletal muscle is not just a "stretching" process, but rathera growth process of the muscle accompanied by an increase in the number of sarcomeres per muscle fiber." GeorgeLetsou, working with Steve Ariyan, is studying "The Use of Latissimus Dorsi Muscle for Extra-Aortic CounterPulsations for Hemodynamic Support, and Cardiac Augmentation." A nerve cuff, wrapped around the thoracodorsalnerve and connected to a pulse train stimulator for synchronization with the heart, showed the feasibility of bothsystolic augmentation of blood pressure and also diastolic unloading. They felt that a fully implantable stimulatorwould also allow for training of a fatigue resistant latissimus over several months time - The next morning, Bob Hardesty in his crusade against smoking, will examine the "Preoperative Cessation ofCigarette Smoking and its Relationship to Flap Survival." The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
Using a "chronic smoking rat model" he shows that pre and postoperative "smoking" demonstrates a markedincrease in flap necrosis which was favorably altered by preoperative cessation of smoking. There was a linearrelationship that existed in respect to the length of time that the smoking was stopped with the crucial intervalbeing seven-fourteen days preoperatively.
Richard Rand, working with Josh Jurkiewicz at Emory and U.C. San Francisco, will describe an unusualexperiment to produce "Neovascularized Intestinal Segments in the Treatment of Short Bowel Syndrome in theDog." They show that the bowel could be consistently revascularized by omentum flaps and survive completelyindependent of the mesentery. This flap was further capable of augmenting intestinal absorption. In addition, theysplit the segments longitudinally, and effectively lengthened the bowel and increased the absorptive surface. JoeBanis, from Louisville, reports on an ingenious "Experimental Reconstruction of Tracheal Defects UsingPrefabricated Jejunal Free Tissue Transfer." He implanted a 2 cm. cylindrical teflon sheet (0.8 cm. in diameter) inthe rat around the jejunum, slit to allow entrance of the vascular pedicle, and showed good incorporation into thistissue. They hope to be able to transplant this segment to the chest to replace missing pieces of trachea.
Ricardo Izquierdo, with Bill Swartz at Tulane, discusses the "Treatment of the Ischemic Jejunum Prior toReperfusion: Correlation Between Biochemical and Histological Changes." The use of free radical scavengers in thismodel did indeed reduce free radical production, but did not appear to improve the effect of ischemia on tissueinjury.
Bob Acland, from Louisville, reports on "The Relationship Between Alterations and Tissue Perfusion andAnastomic Patency in an Experimental Free Flap." The concern was that emboli in the microcirculation of recentlyrevascularized tissue might be responsible at least in part for postoperative perfusion problems. They use theisolated rat cremaster muscle, and felt that contrary to general belief, early postoperative alterations in tissueperfusion can exist independent of thrombotic occlusion of the arterial anastomosis. By direct observation, theycould show that flow alterations were associated with microemboli. Howard Clarke, from Nancy McKee's lab,reports on "Peripheral Neovascularization of Muscle and Myocutaneous Flaps in the Pig." with surgical oraccidental trauma causing late loss of free muscular flaps. Their studies show enhancement of peripheralneovascularization in flaps that were muscle only as compared with those that were myocutaneous. The blood flowwas further increased after simple elevation of the muscle-only flap, suggesting that the skin paddle may actually"steal" blood from the underlying muscle in myocutaneous flaps. E.G. Wilkins, working with Dave Smith, hasstudied "Evidence of Xanthine Oxidase Activity in Human Free Flaps Following Reperfusion." They felt that thismight be the source of Washington, D.C. -1990
oxygen derived free radicals. They studied the venous effluent from free rectus abdominous flaps and showed a 2.5fold increase in XO activity at 10 minutes from pre-ischernia levels which did not return to baseline even after 15minutes of reperfusion. In one clinical case this rise was prevented by cooling during the ischemia.
J.M. Pensler, from Northwestern, will describe the "Isolation of Osteoclasts from Membranous Bone of NormalChildren Which Exhibited Nuclear Estrogen and Progesterone Receptors." They note that bone resorption appearedto be mediated by cellular events which were effected predominately by osteoclasts and that sex steroids werethought to have a role in bone resorption. Indeed, they found sex steroid hormone receptors in the nucleus ofosteoclasts derived from children with normal membranous bone.
In a session on expansion and wound healing, M.D. Liang from Pittsburgh, will present his studies on "TissueExpander Injection Port Leakage" showing quite a difference between the various commercial expanders and theirlikelihood to leak. For some reason, a # 23 gauge needle seemed to function better than the # 25 gauge needle. Onceleakage occurred, it always seemed to come from the same hole. Linda Phillips, working with Marty Robson inGalveston, will describe "Correction of Diabetic Incisional Healing Impairment with Basic Fibroblast GrowthFactor." The edges of incised wounds were injected with the growth factorand the animals that were not treated andhad diabetes (produced by streptozotocin) had weaker wounds at seven and fourteen days than the non-diabeticanimals. By treating the wounds with basic fibroblast growth factor the wounds in the diabetic animals were asstrong as the non-diabetic animals, and considerably stronger than in the untreated diabetic animals. Tom Mustoe,from Washington University in St. Louis, describes "Absorbable Electrically Charged Particles: A New Method toPromote Healing." Beads with negative surface charges and those with positively charged surfaces were comparedwith uncharged Sephadex bead suspensions applied to wound edges in rats. Positively charged beads significantlyenhance healing whereas negatively charged beads did not. There was also an increase in the number of giant cellswith a positive charge, and it was felt that this could easily be used clinically. Raphael Lee, with Paul Ehrlichworking both at Chicago and Harvard-M.I.T., discuss "The Dynamics of Collagen Matrix Remodeling andCrosslinking by Human Mbroblasts and the Effect of TGF-B on Matrix Synthesis." This study was done in vitro;in fibroblast populated collagen matrices the breaking strength increased between day seven and day 84 in culturewith TGF-B. When treated with BAPN, at three weeks the breaking strength was much lower, suggesting that theprimary mechanism was a BAPN sensitive crosslink formation.
Carl Breuing, workingwith Elof Eriksson, has studied the "Effect of Growth Factor The Thirty-Fifth Meeting
Solutions on Healing Times of Excisional Wounds" using an experimental partial thickness excision wound inpigs. Healing times were determined from protein leakage data and wounds treated with either EGF or PDGFresurfaced more rapidly than FGFIGF-, or saline-treated wounds. Wounds treated with CT were even slower.
George Cherry, from Oxford, England, will discuss "Minoxidil-Induced Changes in the Contraction of CollagenLattices by Human Skin Fibroblasts: A New Means of Control of Excessive Clinical Scar Formation?"Considerable inhibition was evident within twenty-four hours with concentrations of 100 and 400 micro g/ml, butthere was inhibition of cell proliferation even at concentrations of 10 micro g/mI after 48 hours. John Yousif,working with Ron Warren from Milwaukee, has studied the microcirculation in 30 lateral arm flaps, 10 radial armflaps and 10 scapular flaps with latex injection and described a "Cluster Analysis of Cutaneous Perforators" whichwould allow a variety of flap designs.
Saleh Shenaq, working with Mel Spira, will describe a new flap model in the rat using two flaps caudally based atthe level of the symphysis pubis. These flaps have the advantage of being useful as a random pattern, an island, oras a free flap. It allows a control and an experimental flap in the same animal and permits pharmacologicalmanipulation of each flap directly as well as independently. Wolff Kirsh, working with Bob Hardesty at LomaLinda, describes a new micro clip for microvascular anastomosis which coopted the endothelium withoutpenetrating the intimal surface. This could be applied in three to five minutes with excellent patency rates andendothelialization. WaqarAziz, from the Kleinert Institute in Louisville, has studied "Entrapment Neuropathies andMicrocirculation." Using the principles of MacKinnon and Dellon, he studied the sequence of physiological changesin the involved segments. Nerve conduction velocity was decreased, but blood flow seemed to be slightly increasedin these segments. Filip Stockmans, working with Bob Ackland in Louisville and in Leuven, Belgium, has studied"A New Platelet Dependant Thrombosis Model with Relevance for Microvascular Surgery." They studied a microcrush injury applied to only one side of a vessel, and an illuminating system making it possible to observe the areacontinuously. The peak of thrombus development occurred in six to seven minutes after injury, and decreased tozero over the following fifteen minutes. They planned to use this model to assess the effectiveness of antiplateletdrugs. Peter C. Johnson, in Bill Futrell's lab, will discuss the "Modulation of Platelet Deposition on PTFEMicroconduit by Interference with the Adhesion Mechanism." They used a platelet membrane glycoprotein attachedto artificial surface-bound fibrinogen in a tubular system 10 cm. long and 1 mm. internal diameter. Using humanwhole blood, they showed that monoclonal antibody 10E5 markedly inhibited platelet deposition to this tube.
Aspirin and Dextran exhibited a partial but non-significant inhibitory effect.
Washington, D.C. -1990
The first evening, we will be going to the Capital Hill Club for a reception in the Eisenhower Room. This is anunusual location, and has been the site of many diverse affairs. Our speaker of the evening, will be none other thanSenator Lowell Weicker, a familiar name in medico-political circles. He is the President and Chief Executive Officerof "Research! America" and will speak to us on "Finding the Funds for Medical Research." This is a very pertinentsubject, and he will be a key person to give us information on these matters.
Mary has arranged for the members' dinner the following evening at her own home. I have never been to Mary'shome, but unless she owns one of the large Georgian mansions or has rented a circus tent, neither of which seemsfeasible, it sounds as though her guests for that evening might be rather overwhelming in numbers.
With prospects of such an outstanding meeting, it is obvious that the Research Council continues to serve itsoriginal purpose admirably. It has helped us to gain an insight into a great deal of fascinating work, to help eachother with difficult problems, to stimulate basic science research as well as clinical research in plastic surgery inmost of our training centers, to allow us to see what is being done in many laboratories in both Canada and theUnited States, and, finally, to get to know each other much better.
The papers have become so technical and esoteric, that few if any of us are sufficiently familiar in all of the fieldswhich are being presented to feel knowledgeable about the details. A real effort is being made to present work that isin progress or which is incomplete, with helpful, as well as sharply critical discussions still a lively part of everymeeting. Yet, it is somewhat prophetic that in trying to identify the familiar faces in the photograph taken in frontof the Ether Dome at our Thirty-First meeting at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1987, it was virtuallyimpossible to find anyone who could identify all of our members.
We wish Mary McGrath all the best for the Washington meeting, and with our great thanks to Milt Edgerton andRobin Anderson for our beginnings, we can also say good luck to Milt and Ray Morgan in Charlottesville inlaunching the next thirty-five years. It's been a lot of fun.
P.R.

Source: http://ps-rc.org/about/history-1978-1990.pdf