Clinical utility of routine use of continuous transesophageal echocardiography monitoring during transvenous lead extraction procedure.

Background: Data on the use of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) during transvenous lead extraction (TLE) procedures are scarce.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the routine use of TEE during transvenous lead extraction.

Methods: From January 2009 to January 2014, TLE of 241 leads in 168 patients (mean age 70 ± 13 years, 129 male, left ventricular ejection fraction 37% ± 13%) was performed.

Intraoperative three-dimensional versus two-dimensional echocardiography for left ventricular assessment.

Background: Three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) technology is now widely used intraoperatively in cardiac surgery. Left ventricular (LV) measurements with 3D transthoracic echocardiography correlate better with cardiac magnetic resonance measurements compared with traditional two-dimensional (2D) transthoracic echocardiography. In this study, we compared intraoperative 3D TEE against 2D TEE regarding quantitative indices of LV function.

Continuous veno-venous hemofiltration with regional citrate anticoagulation: a four-year single-center experience.

Background: Hemofiltration protocols using a citrate-buffered replacement solution offer the advantage of regional anticoagulation and a buffer effect. The role played by such fluids in clinical practice is not yet well established. The risk of electrolytic disorders, acid-base imbalance, or citrate accumulation should be clarified.

Outbreak of Query fever among Argentinean special police unit officers during a United Nations mission in Prizren, South Kosovo.

After an outbreak of Query fever (Q fever) in an Argentinean special police unit, 115 officers were investigated to evaluate the risk of infection with Coxiella burnetii after having been exposed to contaminated dust originating from a nearby barn harboring infected sheep. All officers were serologically tested and the medical history of potential risk factors was performed. The percentage of officers showing acute Q-fever seroconversion was found to be 51.

[10 years experience in surgical resuscitation at a university hospital center. Determination of a criterion for identifying patients at risk for fatal irreversible coagulopathy].

The authors evaluated ten years of surgical reanimation in the University Centre of Lausanne (CHUV). Irreversible coagulopathy (IC) is the predominant cause of death for the polytraumatized patient. Acidosis, hypothermy, and coagulation troubles are crucial elements of this coagulopathy.

[Thoracoscopy: diagnostic and therapeutic use].

From 1986 to 1989, we performed 74 thoracoscopies in 70 patients (37 persisting or relapsing pneumothoraces, 30 chronic pleural effusions, 3 primary pleural tumors, 2 chylothoraces, 1 empyema, 1 persisting bronchopleural fistula). 29 supplementary diagnoses were established by thoracoscopy: 11 carcinomas, 4 cases of pleural tuberculosis, 12 of nonspecific pleurisy, 1 pleural fibroma, and 1 hamartoma. Pleurodesis was done with talc under thoracoscopy with success in 32/34 cases of pneumothorax (94%) and in 19/20 patient with chronic pleural effusion (95%).