Femoropopliteal bypass with a compliant, composite polyurethane/Dacron graft: short-term results of a multicentre trial.

A new, compliant, highly porous, non-woven, polyurethane vascular prosthesis has been developed in an effort to improve on the performance of currently available prosthetic grafts for infrainguinal reconstruction. From April 1990 to August 1991, 57 femoropopliteal bypass grafts were implanted in 47 patients by surgeons at five university centres. In all instances, the saphenous vein was unavailable, unusable or reserved for use elsewhere.

Effects of clonidine on anesthetic drug requirements and hemodynamic response during aortic surgery.

The authors studied in a double-blind placebo-controlled study the effects of oral preoperative administration of 5 micrograms/kg clonidine upon the alfentanil and droperidol requirements, hemodynamic lability, distribution of the values of heart rate and blood pressure, and plasma noradrenaline levels, in two groups of ten normotensive patients undergoing infrarenal aortic surgery. The amounts of alfentanil supplementing a standardized continuous infusion, injected to maintain hemodynamic stability, were statistically identical between the groups (P = 0.23).

[Myocardial risk in patients undergoing carotid intervention. Medium-term follow-up].

We have evaluated the cardiac risk for 212 patients who underwent internal carotid surgery (245 operations). The mean age at the time of operation was of 63 +/- 8 years. A complete pre-operative cardiac assessment was performed splitting the patients in two groups: one considered as having a coronary heart disease (CHD) and the other as "healthy heart" (HH).

Omental panniculitis: an unusual cause of acute appendiceal syndrome.

We report the case of a 41-year-old patient with no history of abdominal symptoms who presented with an acute painful syndrome of the right flank and iliac fossa suggesting acute appendicitis. The diagnosis of panniculitis of the great omentum was suggested preoperatively by the particular aspect of omental fat observed by abdominal sonography and computed tomography. A subvoval omentum resection was performed and the outcome was uneventful.