Clinical Research Directory

Efficacy of Amicar for Children Having Craniofacial Surgery

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Amicar (ε-aminocaproic acid) is effective in reducing blood loss in children undergoing craniofacial reconstruction surgery. The investigators hypothesize that Amicar will decrease intraoperative blood loss and decrease the need for perioperative blood product administration in children undergoing craniofacial surgery.

Ocular Characteristics in Patients With Craniosynostosis

Craniosynostosis are cranial deformations due to the premature closure of one or more cranial sutures. These deformations affect approximately one in 2.500 births. In most cases, craniosynostoses are isolated with unknown (non syndrome). On the other hand, 20% of these deformations are associated with other concentration (syndrome). Craniosynostosis has morphological (associated dysmorphism) and functional (growth conflict between the skull and the brain) repercussions. Ophthalmological disorders are frequent: refractive disorders, oculomotor disorders, optic nerve damage, sensory damage. This retrospective study aims to describe the ocular clinical characteristics associated with craniosynostosis in patients followed at the Amiens University Hospital.

Network Of Clinical Research Studies On Craniosynostosis, Skull Malformations With Premature Fusion Of Skull Bones

Craniosynostosis (CS) is a common malformation occurring in \~4 per 10,000 live births in which the sutures between skull bones close too early, causing long-term problems with brain and skull growth. Infants with CS typically require extensive surgical treatment and may experience many perioperative complications, including hemorrhage and re-synostosis. Even with successful surgery, children can experience developmental and learning disabilities or vision problems. Most often, CS appears as isolated nonsyndromic CS (NSC). Of the several subtypes of CS, unilateral or bilateral fusion of the coronal suture is the second most common form of CS accounting for 20-30% of all NSC cases. The etiology of coronal NSC (cNSC) is not well understood, although the published literature suggests that it is a multifactorial condition. About 5-14% of coronal craniosynostosis patients have a positive family history, with a specific genetic etiology identified in \>25% of cNSC cases, suggesting a strong genetic component in the pathogenesis of this birth defect. The causes for cNSC and its phenotypic heterogeneity remain largely unknown. An international team of investigators will generate large genomic and gene expression datasets on samples from patients with cNSC. State-of-the-art imaging, genetic, and developmental and systems biology approaches will be used to quantitatively model novel pathways and networks involved in the development of cNSC. Novel variant-, gene- and network-level analyses will be performed on the genomic data obtained from cNSC cases, their relatives, and controls to identify novel variants and genetic regions associated with cNCS. Quantitative, analytical, and functional validations of these predictions will provide insights into the etiology and possible therapeutic targets for CS and potentially other bone-related disorders.

Influence of General Anesthesia on the Dynamic Changes in Brain Damage Markers During and After Craniosynostosis Operations in Infancy

The issue of anesthetics neurotoxicity is one of the most discussed topics in pediatric anesthesiology, thus it opens the question of the safety of commonly used anesthetics in the pediatric patient. Preclinical studies have shown that anesthetics can have a toxic effect on the maturing brain of pups and cause cognitive impairment. In human medicine, the influence of anesthetics is studied by monitoring the psychomotor development of children who have undergone surgery under general anesthesia. Some work deals with laboratory evidence of brain damage due to general anesthesia, but none of the work deals with the observation of markers of brain damage in infants. The aim of this work is to examine the dynamics of changes in the concentrations of selected markers of brain damage in craniosynostosis operations under general anesthesia in infants in order to optimize perioperative management and the correct timing of surgery.