Background: Keloid disease is hard to fully eradicate. Recurrence and other unsatisfactory results were found in many patients. No current therapeutic modality has been determined to be most effective for treating keloid scars. Intralesional corticosteroid injections is most commonly recommended for primary management of small and young keloids as well as hypertrophic scars. However, it’s difficult for patients to adhere to long-term triamcinolone acetonide injection therapy because of the pain, inconvenience or complications including hormonal imbalance or irregular menstruation. Objective: We aimed to determine whether and how Strontium-90 brachytherapy as an adjuvant radiation could affect keloid recurrence after intralesional triamcinolone and 5-fluorouracil injections. Methods: We included keloid patients from March 2019 to September 2019 and randomly allocated them to two groups after 3 intralesional triamcinolone and 5-fluorouracil injections at 3 weeks interval. The experimental group received Strontium-90 brachytherapy at a total dose of 15-20Gy, while the control group didn’t receive any adjuvant treatment. We performed both Vancouver Scar Scale scoring and Color Doppler ultrasound examination to monitor and evaluate lesions regularly. A one-year follow-up was completed for each patient. Results: 31 patients who had 42 keloids in total were recruited. We found intralesional triamcinolone and 5-fluorouracil injections could effectively reduce the thickness and modify the hardness of small and young keloids. Strontium-90 brachytherapy reduced the one-year recurrence rate from 85.7 percent to 44.4 percent after 3 intralesional triamcinolone and 5-fluorouracil injections. The lesions’ thickness or elasticity was not affected by Strontium-90 brachytherapy. Conclusion: Strontium-90 brachytherapy as an adjuvant radiation could effectively reduce small sized keloids recurrence after intralesional triamcinolone and 5-fluorouracil injections. It worked by enhancing the lesions’ stability post-injection. Trial registration: The clinical trial registration number: ChiCTR2000030141. Name of trial registry: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (http://www.chictr.org.cn/)

BACKGROUND:We investigated the epidemiology of patients admitted to the Burn Center of West China Hospital during 2011–2016, to provide measures for burn prevention. MATERIAL AND METHODS:We conducted a retrospective review of patients admitted to t...

Hydrogels based on poly-(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (pHEMA) have been widely used as biomaterials in tissue engineering due to their biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and low friction coefficient. The terminal sterilization of hydrogels is a critical step in clinical applications. However, regulations and standardization for the sterilization of hydrogels based on pHEMA are still lacking. In this study, we explored six sterilization methods on pHEMA-based materials (A1: pHEMA, A2: pHEMA copolymerizes with acrylic acid, and A3: pHEMA copolymerizes with acrylic acid and further coordinated with iron ions), such as gamma irradiation, 75% ethanol, ultraviolet (UV), ethylene oxide (EtO), and autoclaving with or without deionized water (autoclaving-H₂O or autoclaving-dry). Combining results from the multifaceted approaches with assessment, pHEMA-based hydrogels can be completely sterilized via the autoclaving-H₂O method analyzed by sterilized testing. The physicochemical properties and cell behavior of sterilized hydrogels were not influenced by this sterilization approach, validated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and tensile tests. The pHEMA-based hydrogel sterilized by the autoclaving-H₂O method also had no effect on the cell behavior evaluated by in vitro cytotoxicity experiments and caused no evident inflammatory reaction in tissue in vivo implantation experiments. However, it was also found that there were still some defects in the A2 and A3 groups as biomaterials possibly because of an inappropriate proportion of formulations or raw material used in exploring sterilization methods. These findings have implications for the improvement and clinical application of pHEMA-based hydrogels.

Breast reconstruction remains hindered by the limitations of conventional implant materials such as silicone, which exhibit hydrophobicity and poor tissue integration, often leading to complications, including capsular contracture. Here, we report the development of a poly­(HEMA-MA)/Fe³⁺ (PHM/Fe³⁺) hydrogel as a next-generation soft implant material. This hydrogel is synthesized via copolymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) and maleic acid (MA), followed by immersion in FeCl₃ to induce secondary cross-linking through Fe³⁺–carboxyl coordination. The resulting homogeneous ionic network effectively mitigates stress concentration and hardening, enabling enhanced mechanical energy dissipation and conferring excellent elasticity, toughness, and fatigue resistance. In vitro and in vivo assessments demonstrate that the PHM/Fe³⁺ hydrogel is cytocompatible and elicits minimal immune response. Compared with traditional smooth and textured silicone implants, PHM/Fe³⁺ hydrogels induce significantly thinner fibrous capsule formation and promote more rapid tissue stabilization, indicating a markedly reduced risk of capsular contracture. These findings highlight the potential of PHM/Fe³⁺ hydrogels as biocompatible and mechanically resilient alternatives for breast reconstruction.