[Important hypercalcaemia due to hyperparathyroidism induced by lithium].

Lithium treatment, which is still extensively used in bipolar affective disorders, may give rise to hypercalcaemia induced by hyperparathyroidism. We present a patient of 50-year-old treated with lithium for 19 years for bipolar illness and who developed an important hypercalcaemia. After symptomatic treatment of the hypercalcaemia and extrarenal dialysis the clinical evolution was favorable but measurements of serum calcium and parathormon showed that he had developed hyperparathyroidism.

[Predictors of in-hospital mortality in the surgical management of acute type A aortic dissections: impact of anticoagulant therapies].

Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to study the incidence and consequences of anticoagulant therapy in the surgical management of acute aortic dissections.

Study Design: Retrospective study.

Patients And Methods: We reviewed all acute type A aortic dissections that were surgically managed in our institution from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2000.

[Convulsions due to a postpartum cerebral angiopathy associated with the administration of bromocriptine].

We report a case of postpartum convulsions due to a benign cerebral angiopathy occurring after bromocriptine therapy to suppress lactation. This case analyses the current knowledge concerning this rare entity. It allows pointing out special measures that must be taken with the administration of bromocriptine.

[Unusual complication after hip surgery under spinal anesthesia].

The development of an acute respiratory distress syndrome following hip surgery in elderly patients is suggestive of thromboembolism in most instances. However, we must keep in mind the possibility of rarer complications, which can remain undiagnosed because they are hidden by prominent abnormal behaviours, which can develop following any type of anaesthesia. We report the case of a patient who developed a confusion following an orthopaedic surgery under spinal anaesthesia; this confusion concealed a penetration syndrome resulting from accidental inhalation of a dental crown.