Standard and reduced high-dose volume radiation therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer provide comparable tumour control and decreased late toxicity when compared to surgery, according to a study. The research is part of the United Kingdom

One of the keys to healthful living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes is monitoring blood glucose (sugar) levels to ensure they remain at stable levels. People can easily and reliably do this at home using electronic devices that read sugar levels in a tiny drop of blood.
Now a team of German researchers has devised a novel, non-invasive way to make monitoring easier. Using infrared laser light applied on top of the skin, they measure sugar levels in the fluid in and under skin cells to read blood sugar levels.
‘This opens the fantastic possibility that diabetes patients might be able to measure their glucose level without pricking and without test strips,’ said lead researcher, Werner M

Patients with massive burns causing complete loss of the facial skin pose a difficult challenge for reconstructive surgeons. Now a group of surgeons in China have developed an innovative technique for creating a one-piece skin flap large enough to perform full-face resurfacing.
Dr. QingFeng Li and colleagues of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine describe their approach to creating ‘monoblock’ flaps for use in extensive face skin resurfacing. In their successful experience with five severely disfigured patients, the full-face tissue flap ‘provides universally matched skin and near-normal facial contour.’
Complete destruction of the facial skin and underlying (subcutaneous) tissues presents ‘the most challenging dilemma’ in facial reconstructive surgery. Multiple skin flaps and grafts are needed to provide complete coverage, creating a ‘patchwork’ appearance. Standard skin grafts are also too bulky to provide good reconstruction of the delicate features and expressive movement of the normal facial skin.
To meet these challenges, Dr. Li and colleagues have developed a new technique for creating a single, large skin flap appropriate for use in full-face resurfacing. Their approach starts with ‘prefabrication’ of a flap of the patient’s own skin, harvested from another part of the body. The skin flap, along with its carefully preserved blood supply, is allowed to grow for some weeks in a ‘pocket’ created under the patient’s skin of the patient’s upper chest.
Tissue expanders

Scientists at Bonn University Hospital and at the Max Planck Institute for neurological research in Cologne have developed a method with which the chances of success of a surgical procedure for temporal lobe epilepsy can be accurately predicted. The rate of accurate predictions is more than 90%.
When many nerve cells simultaneously fire in the brain, an epileptic seizure results. The most frequent form is temporal lobe epilepsy. It originates in one of the two temporal lobes which contain, among other things, important structures for co-ordinating memory. Because many patients do not respond to medication over the long term, the seizure focus in the affected temporal lobe is often removed in a neurosurgical procedure. However, approximately one-third of patients who undergo surgery do not experience any subsequent improvement.

A new