Faith healing: the threat of "Surucucu" and the local cure of Amazon floodplain dwellers.

Background: Snakebites are considered a neglected tropical disease responsible for many accidents, some fatal, and are related to poverty. The Brazilian Amazon has the highest incidence of snakebites per inhabitant, with the state of Pará having the most reported cases. For those who have difficult access to hospitals and pharmacies, this issue is even more urgent.

Risk factors for complications of laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication.

Background: Although the rate of complications from laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication is low and the adverse postoperative sequelae are well known, both are disturbing for the patient. Identifying risk factors could be helpful in the better selection of patients for this procedure.

Methods: A retrospective review of 126 patients with a mean follow-up period of 3.

[Spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage: etiology].

Spontaneous intraperitoneal hemorrhage is a rare and sometime fatal condition. The clinical presentation may range from a non-specific abdominal pain to an acute abdomen with hemodynamic instability. Often, a preoperative diagnosis cannot be obtained.

[Non-mutilating treatment of breast cancer: survival and recurrence].

During the last decades considerable progress was made in medical and biomedical techniques, enabling early diagnosis and a better understanding of how tumors develop. At the same time, treatment by surgery has changed, becoming less and less mutilating. In order to analyze loco-regional relapses and factors of prognosis, we studied 420 patients representing 415 cases of breast cancer, all of whom received breast-preservation therapy.