November, 2005

Dear Readers,

The clinical and research contributions in this issue of WOUNDS were selected by Dr. Tania Phillips, Section Editor for Dermatologic Perspective on Wounds. In her introductory commentary, Dr. Phillips provides brief summaries of the topics presented in this special issue: 1) a case study and review of the rare but potentially fatal disease, toxic epidermal necrolysis, by Federman et al. (Toxic epidermal necrolysis: report of a fatal case of recurrent disease and literature review); 2) an overview of necrotic skin lesions caused by a spider bite

Multidisciplinary John A. Boswick, MD Burn and Wound Care Symposium to Take Place in February

The 2006 John A. Boswick, MD Burn and Wound Care Symposium will take place February 20–24, 2006, at the Maui Prince Hotel, Maui, Hawaii.
This symposium is aimed at physicians, researchers, investigators, nurses, therapists, and others interested in development of techniques, drugs, and devices in the study and management of wound healing, wound management, burn care, and infection control.
This meeting is a cooperative effort with the American Burn Association, Australia-New Zealand Burn Ass

Wounds to the skin heal via a complex series of overlapping stages involving numerous cell and tissue types.1 In young individuals, these events are tightly regulated. However, in elderly subjects, this regulation and synchronization becomes disrupted. Evidence exists that sex hormones have a modulatory function in a range of biological systems. Differences in the timing and quality of cutaneous healing between genders are strongly indicative of hormonal regulation.2,3

Aging, Hormones, and Healing

Aging is accompanied by a reduction in systemic and local hormone l

In this issue, Federman et al. discuss a fatal case of toxic epidermal necrolysis and review the literature on this difficult-to-manage and often lethal condition. The authors also critically evaluate new therapies, such as intravenous immunoglobulin and immunosuppressant agents.
Brown recluse spider bite is the subject of an article by Norden and Phillips. This condition is probably over-diagnosed, and a wide differential diagnosis should be considered before a chronic skin ulcer is attributed to a spider bite. In this patient, the diagnosis of spider bite was unlikely. However, for the r