Week 5 CGregg

For the 5th week of summer immersion I mainly worked on my research project but I was also able to observe some interesting surgeries.  As far as surgeries go, the most interesting surgery of the week was a foot reconstruction from a chronic wound on the bottom of the patient's foot.  The bone structure of the foot had collapsed and wound developed approximately one year ago due to the deteriorating structure of the foot compounded with diabetes that the patient suffers from.

In order to generate a free flap, the rectus muscle in the abdomen was used.  First the foot had to be cleaned and all dead tissue was removed from around the wound.  Next, the free flap from the abdomen was harvested.  Furthermore, this surgery was the first at New York Presbyterian to use a new technology called SPY.  This device was an optical based imaging device used to monitor perfusion over the traditional Doppler ultrasound.  A contrast agent was injected into the patient and then an IR laser was used to scan the area that perfusion was to be assessed, in this case it was the free flap.  The IR laser reflectance from the dye was monitored and absolute brightness values were ascertained from 255 shades of gray.  This could be translated into a color map and relative percentage values.  Once the flap was harvested, it was placed over the foot and the vessels were microsurgically connected and perfusion was once again assessed.  A final skin graft was used to cover the muscle flap.


As far as my research goes, I completed an RGD modification on my PEG-DA scaffold material and seeded the material with HUVECS.  I have fixed the samples at 3 days and 1 week from seeding and they are currently waiting to be sectioned and stained.


Lastly, I was able to obtain a month long license for the 3D modeling software Creo elements/pro so I can begin making my vascular constructs.