Surgical blades as bacteria dissemination vehicles in dogs undergoing surgery – a pilot study

Surgical site infections (SSI) are post-surgical incisional infections in superficial or deep tissues, including organs. Due to their importance in veterinary medicine, the role of surgical blades in bacterial dissemination to internal tissues of dogs undergoing surgery was evaluated. A total of 46 dogs presented for orthopedic or soft tissue surgery in different anatomical regions were included in this study. From each animal two swab samples were collected, from the skin post-asepsis and from the scalpel blade after skin incision, for bacterial growth evaluation in Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) agar and detection of methicillin-resistant species. Results showed that 30.4% (14/46) and 28.3% (13/46) of the post-asepsis and blade samples originated positive bacterial cultures in BHI agar, respectively. However, only 10.8% (5/46) of the positive blade samples also corresponded to a positive post-asepsis sample. Nevertheless, all samples were negative for methicillin-resistant bacteria. Although no dog has developed SSI, the present report showed that the scalpel blade may act as a dissemination vehicle of potential bacterial pathogens to superficial or internal tissues of dogs undergoing surgery, potentially leading to SSI development. Therefore, it is recommended to use a single blade for skin incision and a new blade for the remaining surgical approach, reducing the potential of bacteria dissemination into deeper tissues by the first skin incision blade.

A note on the volumetric-deviatoric split on the anisotropic constitutive model for fiber-reinforced materials

In the literature, it has been suggested that for a class of anisotropic constitutive laws for fiberreinforced materials, the volumetric-deviatoric split should only be performed on the isotropic (matrix) term, but not on the anisotropic (fiber) term. In this research note, we follow up on the theoretical and numerical analyses adopted in these early publications with an intuitive example that allows us to directly analyze the effect of this split. We demonstrate that performing such split on the anisotropic term leads to non-physical volume growth of the material sample. Therefore, we consolidate the observation that the volumetric-deviatoric split should not be applied to the anisotropic (fiber) term of the total strain energy.

Biomedical Engineering International joins the Family of Platinum Open Access Journals

We are delightfully announcing the launch of Biomedical Engineering International, a new interdisciplinary international scholarly open-access journal dedicated to publishing original and innovative research in the field of biomedical engineering. Any type of scientific paper, including reviews, original research papers, communications, or short notes, are welcome to be submitted. Any paper will further undergo the process of peer-reviewing according to the scientific standards of the journal. The scope of Biomedical Engineering International comprises all the directions of interest for the development of (pre-)clinical applications that could improve the quality of life, from tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery systems, to microfluidics, neural engineering, and micro- and nanotechnology. Thus, Biomedical Engineering International aims to create an interdisciplinary communication tool for scientists in various fields, from chemists, engineers, biologists, to physicists, informaticians, and theoreticians. For this, the publication is done under the policy of Platinum Open Access, meaning that articles are free for readers and no article processing charges are demanded from authors, nor from their institutions. The publication charges for articles in Biomedical Engineering International are covered by AMG Transcend Association, Romania. Through this, Biomedical Engineering International addresses equality in academic publishing, by making the process available to both researchers and readers. Additionally, authors benefit from increased visibility of their research and thus, an increase of citations and higher influence in the academic world. There are no restrictions on the total length of the papers as the journal encourages the publication of detailed experimental and theoretical research. In this regard, Biomedical Engineering International paves the way to completely free academic publishing services in the biomedical engineering research field. In this manner, we gladly invite you to submit your papers in the field of biomedical engineering to be considered for publication in Biomedical Engineering International and we are looking forward to collaborating with you!

Bioactive composites for bone regeneration

Bone, the organ that separates vertebrates from other living beings, is a complex tissue responsible of mobility, body stability, organ protection, and metabolic activities such as ion storage. Ceramic materials are appropriate candidates to be used in the fabrication of scaffolds for bone healing. Biocompatible ceramic materials may also be created to deliver biologically active substances aimed at maintaining, repairing, restoring, or boosting the function of tissues and organs in the organism. Glass-ceramic materials furnish flexible properties appropriate for some particular applications. Because of the controlled devitrification and the evolution of variable dimensions of crystalline and glassy phases, glass-ceramics considerably overcome the lacunae found in glasses. A wide range of bioactive glass compositions had been developed since the early 1970s to make them appropriate for many clinical applications. Many bioactive ceramic composite materials attach to living bone through an apatite layer, which is developed on their surfaces in the living body. This paper reviews the most used bioactive ceramics for bone tissue regeneration, with specific accentuation on the material characteristics.

Microfluidics – Organ-on-chip

This review is an introduction into the world of organ-on-chip models. By briefly explaining the concept of microfluidics and ‘lab-on-chip’, the main focus is on organs-on-chip and body-on-a-chip. The usual method to test the toxicity of a drug is through animal testing. However, the results do not always correlate to humans. In order to avoid animal testing, but also attain useful results, human-derived cell cultures using microfluidics have gained attention. Among all the different types of organ-on-chip devices, this review focuses on three distinct organs: heart, skin and liver. The main requirements for each organ-on-chip, as well as recent researches are presented. There have been considerable advancements with organ-on-chip models; however, even these have their limitations. Due to the fact that the system mimics a single organ, the systemic effect of drugs cannot be fully tested. Therefore, body-on-a-chip systems have been developed; which basically are a composed of a single chip that has several chambers, each chamber accounting for a distinct organ. Multi-organ-on-chip systems have been investigated, and even commercialized, the field still being under extensive research.