The place of simulation in the surgical resident curriculum. The pedagogic program of the Nice Medical School Simulation Center.

Introduction: Surgical training relies on medical school lectures, practical training in patient care and in the operating room including instruction in anatomy and experimental surgery. Training with different techniques of simulators can complete this. Simulator-based training, widely used in North America, can be applied to several aspects of surgical training without any risk for patients: technical skills in both open and laparoscopic surgery, the notion of teamwork and the multidisciplinary management of acute medicosurgical situations.

[Spontaneous rupture of the spleen in chronic calcifying pancreatitis: report of three cases].

Spontaneous rupture of the spleen is a rare complication of chronic calcifying pancreatitis. Anemia and hemorrhagic shock may not occur, making diagnosis more difficult. Favourable response to conservative treatment does not prevent the need for splenectomy, as calcifiying chronic pancreatitis may progress locally.

Elastofibroma of the stomach.

We report the case of a 76-year-old woman who presented with abdominal pain caused by a gastric tumor. The stomach was resected and found to have developed an elastofibroma. The lesion was yellowish, unencapsulated, and characterized histologically by abundant collagen fibers mixed with numerous elastic serrated fibers.

[Adenocarcinoma in Barrett's esophagus. A study of 28 resected cases].

Study Aim: The aim of this retrospective study was to report a series of 28 patients with adenocarcinoma (ADK) arising in Barrett's esophagus (BE), treated by esophagectomy.

Patients And Methods: From 1992 to 1998, 28 patients were operated on for ADK in BE. There were 27 men and one woman (mean age: 65 years) classified as ASA I (n = 2), ASA II (n = 15) and ASA III (n = 11).

Video-assisted thoracoscopic treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax: technique and results of one hundred cases.

Objective: This article describes the technique and results for an initial series of 100 pneumothoraces treated by video-assisted thoracoscopy.

Methods: From May 1991 to November 1994, 97 patients (78 male and 19 female patients) aged 37.2 +/- 17 years (range 14 to 92 years) underwent video-assisted thoracoscopy for treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax (primary in 75 patients, secondary in 22 patients).