Assessment of hypothermia with a new "tympanic" thermometer.

Objective: Rapid and accurate core temperature measurement is vitally important in trauma patients, especially in those with accidental hypothermia. We tested a new aural thermometer to measure "tympanic" temperatures and assessed its accuracy during normothermic and hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass.

Methods: Tympanic, esophageal, and blood temperatures were compared in 10 patients undergoing open-heart surgery.

Acute traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta: immediate or delayed surgical repair?

The appropriate management of traumatic aortic rupture is often difficult to determine, particularly if the rupture is associated with severe additional lesions. Between 1986 and 1991, ten consecutive patients with acute traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta (ATRTA) and concomitant injuries were initially treated medically and submitted to delayed aortic repair. Within the same period no other patient had emergency reconstruction of the thoracic aorta.

[Thrombosis of the ascending aorta--a rare cause for recurrent arterial embolism].

A 41-year-old man suffered 3 episodes of transitory left leg ischemia before he was admitted with right brachial artery embolism. The diagnostic evaluation (i/v DSA, CT Scan) revealed a mass in the ascending aorta which was removed under hypothermic cardiocirculatory arrest. Histologically the mass was shown to be a thrombus adjacent to a arteriosclerotic plaque.

Traumatic rupture of the thoracic aorta in childhood with special reference to the therapeutic strategy.

Acute traumatic tear of the thoracic aorta is extremely rare in childhood. Based upon our own experience with two children, the essential diagnostic and therapeutic measures are discussed with special reference to timing of surgery. Aortic disruption must be suspected in a child who sustains severe blunt chest injury and develops an abnormally wide mediastinum.

Pericardial biopsy and fenestration.

Employing a video thoracoscopic pericardial fenestration constitutes a promising technique for the investigation and treatment of chronic pericardial effusions. It combines the benefit of low invasiveness with the advantages of open biopsy. The procedure simultaneously allows both an accurate diagnosis under visual control (inspection, aspiration, well-targeted biopsy of pathological processes) and the performance of effective therapeutic intervention.