Background: In 2009, a classification system for the open abdomen was introduced. The aim of such a classification is to aid the (1) description of the patient's clinical course; (2) standardization of clinical guidelines for guiding open abdomen management; and (3) facilitation of comparisons between studies and heterogeneous patient populations, thus serving as an aid in clinical research. Methods: As part of the revision of the definitions and clinical guidelines performed by the World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome, this 2009 classification system was amended following a review of experiences in teaching and research and published as part of updated consensus statements and clinical practice guidelines in 2013. Among 29 articles citing the 2009 classification system, nine were cohort studies. They were reviewed as part of the classification revision process. A total of 542 patients (mean: 60, range: 9-160) had been classified. Two problems with the previous classification system were identified: the definition of enteroatmospheric fistulae, and that an enteroatmospheric fistula was graded less severe than a frozen abdomen. Results: The following amended classification was proposed: Grade 1, without adherence between bowel and abdominal wall or fixity of the abdominal wall (lateralization), subdivided as follows: 1A, clean; 1B, contaminated; and 1C, with enteric leak. An enteric leak controlled by closure, exteriorization into a stoma, or a permanent enterocutaneous fistula is considered clean. Grade 2, developing fixation, subdivided as follows: 2A, clean; 2B, contaminated; and 2C, with enteric leak. Grade 3, frozen abdomen, subdivided as follows: 3A clean and 3B contaminated. Grade 4, an established enteroatmospheric fistula, is defined as a permanent enteric leak into the open abdomen, associated with granulation tissue. Conclusions: The authors believe that, with these changes, the requirements on a functional and dynamic classification system, useful in both research and training, will be fulfilled. We encourage future investigators to apply the system and report on its merits and constraints.

Background and Aims: The open abdomen technique is a standard procedure in the treatment of intra-abdominal catastrophe. Achieving primary abdominal closure within the initial hospitalization is a main objective. This study aimed to analyze the success of closure rate and the effect of negative pressure wound therapy, mesh-mediated medial traction, and component separation on the results. We present the treatment algorithm used in our institution in open abdomen situations based on these findings. Material and Methods: Open abdomen patients (n=61) treated in Tampere University Hospital from May 2005 until October 2013 were included in the study. Patient characteristics, treatment prior to closure, closure technique, and results were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The first group included patients in whom direct or bridged fascial closure was achieved, and the second group included those in whom only the skin was closed or a free skin graft was used. Background variables and variables related to surgery were compared between groups. Results and Conclusion: Most of the open abdomen patients (72.1%) underwent fascial defect repair during the primary hospitalization, and 70.5% of them underwent direct fascial closure. Negative pressure wound therapy was used as a temporary closure method for 86.9% of the patients. Negative pressure wound therapy combined with mesh-mediated medial traction resulted in the shortest open abdomen time (p=0.039) and the highest fascial repair rate (p=0.000) compared to negative pressure wound therapy only or no negative pressure wound therapy. The component separation technique was used for 11 patients; direct fascial closure was achieved in 5 and fascial repair by bridging the defect with mesh was achieved in 6. A total of 8 of 37 (21.6%) patients with mesh repair had a mesh infection. The negative pressure wound therapy combined with mesh-mediated medial traction promotes definitive fascial closure with a high closure rate and a shortened open abdomen time. The component separation technique can be used to facilitate fascial repair but it does not guarantee direct fascial closure in open abdomen patients.

Marinades are increasingly used to manufacture raw fish products. In corresponding meats, marinating is known to have a major effect on the composition of the microbiome, but the effect of marinating on fish is not known as well. This knowledge gap prompted our study of the microbial ecology and amine formation in marinated and unmarinated modified atmosphere commercially packaged rainbow trout fillet strips. According to our findings, marination increased the maximum concentrations (7-8 log CFU/g) of psychrotrophic bacteria by one loga-rithmic unit and led to 5 times higher average tyramine concentrations than the corresponding unmarinated product. Instead, trimethylamine concentrations were 30 times higher in the unmarinated product than those in the marinated one. According to the 16 S rRNA sequence analyses, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) predominated in the marinated strips one day after the use-by date, whereas in the unmarinated strips Fusobacteriaceae and LAB were the dominating taxa. Based on the culture-dependent analysis, Latilactobacillus fuchuensis was the prevailing LAB in both products. Since the subset of L. fuchuensis strains tested was able to produce tyramine in vitro, we hypothesise that the use of the acidic marinade activated the production of tyrosine-decarboxylating enzymes in L. fuchuensis and led to the increased tyramine concentrations.

Introduction: This study was designed to describe the time-course and microbiology of colonization of open abdomen in critically ill surgical patients and to study its association with morbidity, mortality and specific complications of open abdomen. A retrospective cohort analysis was done. Methods: One hundred eleven consecutive patients undergoing vacuum-assisted closure with mesh as temporary abdominal closure method for open abdomen were analyzed. Microbiological samples from the open abdomen were collected. Statistical analyses were performed using Fisher's exact test for categorical variables. Mann-Whitney U test was used when comparing number of temporary abdominal closure changes between colonized and sterile patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis was done to calculate cumulative estimates for colonization. Cox regression analyses were performed to analyze risk factors for colonization. Results: Microbiological samples were obtained from 97 patients. Of these 76 (78 %) were positive. Sixty-one (80 %) patients were colonized with multiple micro-organisms and 27 (36 %) were cultured positive for candida species. The duration of open abdomen treatment adversely affected the colonization rate. Thirty-three (34 %) patients were colonized at the time of laparostomy. After one week of open abdomen treatment 69, and after two weeks 76 patients were colonized with cumulative colonization estimates of 74 % and 89 %, respectively. Primary fascial closure rate was 80 % (61/76) and 86 % (18/21) for the colonized and sterile patients, respectively. The rate of wound complications did not significantly differ between these groups. Conclusions: Microbial colonization of open abdomen is associated with the duration of open abdomen treatment. Wound complications are common after open abdomen, but colonization does not seem to have significant effect on these. The high colonization rate described herein should be taken into account when primarily sterile conditions like acute pancreatitis and aortic aneurysmal rupture are treated with open abdomen.

We study the phenomenology of partially composite-Higgs models where electroweak symmetry breaking is dynamically induced, and the Higgs is a mixture of a composite and an elementary state. The models considered have explicit realizations in terms of gauge-Yukawa theories with new strongly interacting fermions coupled to elementary scalars and allow for a very SM-like Higgs state. We study constraints on their parameter spaces from vacuum stability and perturbativity as well as from LHC results and find that requiring vacuum stability up to the compositeness scale already imposes relevant constraints. A small part of parameter space around the classically conformal limit is stable up to the Planck scale. This is however already strongly disfavored by LHC results. In different limits, the models realize both (partially) composite-Higgs and (bosonic) technicolor models and a dynamical extension of the fundamental Goldstone-Higgs model. Therefore, they provide a general framework for exploring the phenomenology of composite dynamics.

We present a prescription for consistently constructing non-Fock coherent flavour neutrino states within the framework of the seesaw mechanism, and establish that the physical vacuum of massive neutrinos is a condensate of Standard Model massless neutrino states. The coherent states, involving a finite number of massive states, are derived by constructing their creation operator. This construction fulfills automatically the key requirement of coherence for the oscillations of particles to occur. We comment on the inherent non-unitarity of the oscillation probability induced by the requirement of coherence.