[Successful cardiac transplantation after 38 days of circulatory assistance with a heterotopic artificial heart].

The survival of a patient with irreversible cardiac failure on the cardiac transplantation waiting list was assured for 38 days by circulatory assistance with heterotopic Pierce Donachy prosthetic ventricles and followed by successful cardiac transplantation. This method of circulatory assistance is relatively simple to install from the technical point of view and provides a satisfactory haemodynamic result whilst waiting for a compatible donor organ. Several complications, some of them serious, were observed.

[Antibiotherapy in gangrene of the perineum].

Fifty cases of extensive and necrotizing perineal cellulitis ("perineal gangrene") are reported. The disease, remarkable for its many anatomical and bacteriological varieties, is regarded as a therapeutic requiring multidisciplinary management. Bacteriological samples were polymicrobial in 40 cases.