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Escharotomy incisions must be made in the inelastic skin eschar that is typical of circumferential third-degree burns. Later, the necrotic tissue must be debrided and substituted with a skin graft. Many reports on this topic have revealed that concepts and techniques vary widely. This study aims to present a critical review of the literature about escharotomy in burns and to highlight a different strategy to perform escharotomy in patients with burned extremities. We conducted a critical review in Pubmed/MEDLINE using the keywords "escharotomy" and "burns." In the present study, we included 22 articles published from 1955 to 2015 (60 years) that contain the aforementioned keywords. With respect to the extremities, most of the publications recommend that medial and lateral longitudinal incisions be performed and that care must be taken to avoid deep structures, particularly nerves. Moreover, the publications mention that escharotomy might result in thick, hypertrophic, retracting, and painful scars. We advocate that incisions performed only on the lateral and medial borders of the extremities are usually unnecessary, and that they contribute to the creation of misconceptions about burns. In addition, these incisions can somehow trigger complications that can be avoided by using the concept of escharotomy in multiple directions, as highlighted in this review.

Gluteal augmentation with intramuscular silicone implant can be a viable option to treat patients with HIV with gluteal lipoatrophy related to the use of HAART. The patients were satisfied with the outcomes of the procedure, and there were only minor self-limited postoperative complications.

Since the nose is located in the center of the face, small asymmetries and imperfections are easily recognized. One subunit of the nose is the nasal ala, a region that, when reconstructed, requires the achievement of esthetic and functional results. This poses a challenge to the plastic surgeon. In this article, we describe 3 cases of composite auricular grafts used for nasal alar reconstruction. The grafts presented total integration and provided satisfactory esthetic and functional results. A literature review revealed no differences in the complication rates between grafts and local flaps. Moreover, the shape of the auricular cartilage was maintained over time, showing rare distortions and no or minimal absorption, contrary to costal cartilage and bone grafts. The use of composite auricular grafts is versatile and safe. This procedure ensures excellent results in nasal alar reconstruction and guarantees low morbidity within the donor areas. Therefore, the use of this technique efficiently enables the repair of nasal defects.Keywords: Nose/surgery. Reconstructive surgical procedures. Ear, external/transplantation. RESUMOO nariz ocupa o centro da face, o que torna pequenas assimetrias e imperfeições evidentes. Uma de suas subunidades é a asa nasal, região que exige não apenas resultados estéticos, mas também funcionais, em sua reconstrução, tornando-se um desafio ao cirurgião plás-tico. Neste artigo são descritos 3 casos em que foi utilizado enxerto composto auricular para reconstrução da asa nasal. Os enxertos apresentaram integração total, com resultados estéticos e funcionais adequados. Segundo revisão da literatura, não há diferença nos ín-dices de complicação comparando-se os enxertos com os retalhos locais e, a longo prazo, a cartilagem auricular tende a manter-se no formato moldado, sofrendo raras distorções e mínima ou nenhuma absorção, diferentemente das cartilagens costais e dos enxertos ósseos. O enxerto composto auricular é uma técnica versátil e segura, com excelentes resultados na reconstrução da asa nasal e com baixa morbidade das áreas doadoras, cumprindo com eficiência seu objetivo reparador.

No abstract