[Recent concepts regarding the treatment of traumatic hemopneumothorax].

Background: The aim of the study was to examine the different therapeutic options for traumatic hemopneumothorax and in particular the latest concepts (videothoracoscopy).

Methods: A retrospective study was performed on a group of 20 patients with post-traumatic hemothorax and/or pneumothorax attending the emergency department at Ospedale Vittorio Emanuele in Catania over the past 10 years where 2500 patients with abdominal and/or thoracic trauma were treated during the same period. The patients included 18 males and 2 females with a mean age of 35 years (range 13-70).

[Inhibin B immunocytochemistry for the prognosis assessment of undescended testis damage in children].

Inhibin B immunocytochemistry of both the alpha- and beta-subunits was studied in testicular biopsies from 18 prepubertal and postpubertal patients, with unilateral or bilateral cryptorchism. The present investigation was carried out to seek any prognostic significance for the expected fertility of such subjects in adulthood. All samples were also evaluated by histological and morphometric assessments, according a 1-6 grading sy-stem.

Giant hepatomegaly and portal hypertension in an elderly patient with primary liver amyloidosis: an uncommon clinical occurrence.

Primary systemic amyloidosis (AL) is an uncommon disease characterized by the extracellular deposition of a protein with a beta-fibrillar structure, consisting of monoclonal immunoglobulin light chains, lambda or kappa (ratio of lambda to kappa, 3:1). In systemic amyloidosis liver involvement is frequent but it rarely has clinical importance. The massive and localized liver deposition of amyloid, characterized by marked hepatomegaly and portal hypertension without hepato-cellular failure and by a severe prognosis, without systemic involvement, is less frequent.

UV-visible spectroscopy of organic carbon particulate sampled from ethylene/air flames.

A systematic comparison of spectra obtained with extra and in situ diagnostics in the soot preinception region of rich, premixed ethylene air flames suggests that combustion generated organic carbon (OC) particulate can be extracted from flames and isolated from other flame material for further chemical analysis. Both the trend with height above the burner and the form of UV fluorescence and absorption spectra from extra situ sampled material captured in water agree with those measured in situ. These results show that the OC particulate formed in flames is partially water soluble.

Successful renal transplantation in children under 6 years of age.

To evaluate the efficacy of renal transplantation in small pediatric patients, we have reviewed 41 allografts performed in 39 children (28 M/11 F) less than 6 years of age between 1987 and 1998 in the North Italy Transplant Program. Of these patients, 39 had a cadaver donor and 2 a living-related donor, with ages ranging from 20 days to 35 years. The mean follow-up was 56 months.

Affinity purification of immunoglobulins from chicken egg yolk using a new synthetic ligand.

Due to the peculiar composition of the egg yolk and the lack of specific affinity ligands, Y immunoglobulins are normally purified using complex and time consuming procedures involving a combination of precipitation and chromatographic steps first to extract and capture and then to polish IgY. In this study, we have examined the applicability for IgY affinity purification of TG19318, a synthetic ligand for immunoglobulin, obtained from the screening of combinatorial libraries, and already characterized for its capability to purify immunoglobulins of class G, M, E and A. Soluble proteins were separated from the lipidic fraction of egg yolk by the water dilution method and loaded on to TG19318 affinity columns prepared by immobilizing the ligand on the commercially available support Emphaze.

[The surgical treatment of liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma: our experience].

Data from twelve patients who had hepatic resections for colorectal liver metastases were retrospectively analyzed to determine: 1) whether the use of the ultrasonic surgical dissector and the Argon laser can significantly simplify major hepatic resections and decrease both perioperative blood loss and postoperative morbidity and mortality, and 2) whether an adequate patients selection for surgery can effectively determine an improvement in recurrence rate. We performed 4 bisegmentectomies (2 of V and VI; 2 of VI and VII); 1 trisegmentectomy (V, VI, VII); 2 left lobectomies; 1 right hepatectomy and 4 wedge resections, using both the ultrasonic surgical dissector to fractionate and aspirate the hepatic parenchyma and to clear major vascular and biliary structures and the Argon laser for the coagulation of minor vascular and biliary vessels. The resected metastases averaged 5.

[Surgical treatment of arterial hypertension: experience and results].

Hypertension is a wide spread disease. In a small percentage of cases (nephrosclerosis, renovascular hypertension, endocrine hypertension) surgical treatment could be resolutive. The Authors describe their experience of the last five years about the subject, emphasize the technical detail taken and the results achieved; they outline the necessity to give the indications for surgery in wise manner considering clinical, laboratory and instrumental findings.

Obesity and medicinal plants.

The effects of some medicinal plants (i.e. Fucus vesiculosus, Citrus aurantium) that are claimed to be useful in the treatment of obesity are reviewed.

[Mirizzi syndrome].

Mirizzi's syndrome is a rare, but well described cause of obstructive jaundice which occurs in less than 1% of patients presenting for cholecystectomy. The syndrome is due to a stone impacted in the cystic duct or in the neck of gallbladder, causing compression or obstruction of the common emphatic duct. The clinic, physiopathologic, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of this disease are described.

Prediction and treatment of recurrent focal segmental glomerulosclerosis after renal transplantation in children.

The recurrence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) after renal transplantation has a potentially detrimental course toward the loss of renal function. To identify prognostic markers for recurrence and efficacy of treatment, we evaluated the outcome of 32 renal allografts in 29 pediatric patients with FSGS who underwent transplantation from 1987 to 1998 in the North Italy Transplant program. Recurrence was observed in 15 of 29 patients (52%) after the first transplant and in 3 of 3 patients (100%) after the second graft.

Phylogenetic analysis of macrorestriction fragments as a measure of genetic relatedness in Staphylococcus aureus: the epidemiological impact of methicillin resistance.

The present study was undertaken for the purpose of defining the epidemiology and genetic relatedness of Staphylococcus aureus strains in a region of Italy by investigating the molecular background for which resistance to methicillin, mediated by the acquisition of another penicillin-binding protein gene, is embedded. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) data were used for phylogenetic analyses, since genetic distance values can be used as a general measure of the number of events generating distinct clones. The percentages of methicillin-resistant S.

[Preoperative diagnosis using color Doppler flowmetry in focal and diffuse thyroid pathology].

Color-doppler was first used in the study and classification of specific pathologies in 1992. One hundred and eighteen patients with focal and diffuse thyroid pathologies underwent color-doppler, flowmetry analysis and peak systolic velocity measurement (CD-FM-PSV). The PSV results allowed us to identify two subclasses a and b in class three and four (a: = < or = 30 cm/sec.

Vesico-ureteral reflux in pediatric kidney transplants: clinical relevance to graft and patient outcome.

From June 1985 to December 1998, 173 pediatric renal transplants were carried out in 170 patients at our center. From this pool, 73 patients (34 males and 39 females) with a follow-up of 48 months were examined. In all patients, ureteroneocystostomy was performed according to the Lich-Grégoire procedure.

[Echo-guided percutaneous drainage of abscesses and abdominal fluid collections].

Abdominal abscesses are pathologies characterized by an high decree of mortality and morbidity. The pathology was once dealt with surgery evacuation the percentage of success reaches 60% while mortality runned around 24%. Today this technic has been substituted by the echo-guided treatment.

[Conservative surgical treatment in differentiated thyroid carcinoma].

Background: Purpose of the present study was to compare survival of patients affected by differentiated thyroid carcinoma after total and partial thyroidectomy.

Methods: The study has been carried in a retrospective way; mean follow-up has been 160 months. Surgical setting has been the Institute of Emergency Surgery at the University of Catania, where about 80 thyroid surgical procedures are performed every year.

[The use of Dacron prostheses in laparoceles].

Background: Purpose of the study was to evaluate indications and efficacy of Dacron prostheses in the treatment of incisional hernias.

Methods: The study has been carried out in a retrospective way; mean follow-up has been 20 months. Surgical setting has been the Institute of Emergency Surgery at the University of Catania, where about 500 abdominal operations are performed every year.

Flexible intramedullary "classical" nailing in childhood: use in fractures of the femur and humerus.

The authors report their experience with flexible intramedullary nailing in the treatment of some fractures of the femur and humerus during childhood. The series goes back 2 years, with 16 patients treated, and 2 years follow-up for 10 of them. The method used took two variations into consideration: that of multiple bundle nailing, and that of two secant arc nails.

[Erectile dysfunction of vasculogenic origin: ultrastructural evaluation of cavernous myo-endothelial unit as prognostic index of penile revascularization].

The authors focus on the myoendothelial unit of the cavernous tissue, as they believe it to be of primary importance for the erectile event. The operations aimed at penile revascularisation were functionally unsuccessful, notwithstanding the haemodynamic resumption. This could be due to the myoendothelial unit not being perfectly integral.

gammac gene transfer in the presence of stem cell factor, FLT-3L, interleukin-7 (IL-7), IL-1, and IL-15 cytokines restores T-cell differentiation from gammac(-) X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency hematopoietic progenitor cells in murine fetal thymic organ cultures.

X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-Xl) is a rare human inherited disorder in which early T and natural killer (NK) lymphocyte development is blocked. The genetic disorder results from mutations in the common gammac chain that participates in several cytokine receptors including the interleukin-2 (IL-2), IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, and IL-15 receptors. We have shown in a previous report that gammac gene transfer into SCID-Xl bone marrow (BM) cells restores efficient NK cell differentiation.

Acyclovir plus CMV immunoglobulin prophylaxis and early therapy with ganciclovir are effective and safe in CMV high-risk renal transplant pediatric recipients.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is still a major cause of morbidity in high-risk renal transplant recipients. In the present report, we have reviewed our records of renal transplant pediatric recipients (RTPR; mean age 14.1 +/- 4.