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Objective: To investigate effects of preoperative protective carotid artery (CA) stenting in complex head and neck cancer (HNC) resection., Material and Methods: HNC that encases the CA is complex. Fifty-five patients diagnosed with complex HNC from 2018 to 2021 were enrolled, and were divided into Control group (general complex cases) and carotid artery stent (CAS) group (severe complex cases). All patients underwent standard tumor resection, while patients in the CAS group also underwent preoperative covered CA stenting. Medical information was retrospectively analyzed., Results: CA stenting and tumor resection were successfully performed. Baseline demographics were recorded. CAS and Control groups had similar results for complete tumor resection rate, operation time, and intraoperative blood loss, although the CA was obviously more involved in CAS group than in Control group. However, recurrence rate in the CAS group was significantly lower than Control group, indicating that preoperative CA stent implantation facilitates complete tumor removal. Furthermore, perioperative CA-associated complications including common/internal CA ligation were more frequent in Control group. Overall survival and disease-free survival rate in CAS group and Control group was 87.5% and 69.2%, respectively. Disease-free survival rate in CAS group and Control group was 87.5% and 42.3%, respectively. No postoperative cerebral infarction was observed in either group. Overall hospitalization cost was recorded., Conclusions: Preoperative protective CA stenting facilitates more thorough tumor removal while better preserving the CA during complex HNC resection, reducing the surgical difficulty. Preoperative CA stenting may be a safe and effective therapeutic option for resection of HNC encasing the CA., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Sepsis is a severe life-threatening and rapidly developing disease that causes millions of deaths annually worldwide. Researchers have made tremendous efforts to elucidate the pathophysiology of sepsis using various animal models; the mouse model of sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) is widely used in laboratories. The three technical aspects that affect the severity and replicability of the CLP model are the percentage of cecum ligated, the size of the needle used for cecal puncture, and the volume of feces squeezed into the abdominal cavity. The rapid and specific diagnosis of sepsis is a crucial factor that affects the outcome. The gold standard for sepsis diagnosis is microbial culture; however, this process is time-consuming and sometimes inaccurate. The detection of sepsis-specific biomarkers is fast, but the existing biomarkers are unsatisfactory due to a short half-life, non-specificity, and insufficient sensitivity. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a reliable biomarker of sepsis in the early stages. Previous publications suggest that excessive neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) occur in sepsis. Citrullinated histone H3 (CitH3), as a NET component, is elevated both in septic animals and patients, and the presence of CitH3 is a reliable diagnostic biomarker of sepsis. The present study aimed to describe a standardized mouse model of CLP-induced sepsis and establish a reliable blood biomarker of sepsis. Our work may contribute to the early and accurate diagnosis of sepsis in the future.