Experimental study on a large animal model of a new thermoablation technique.

Background: A novel technique of thermoablation, using a microtube to deliver pulses of hot water vapour, was tested on a large animal model in order to evaluate its efficacy and potential adverse effects.

Materials And Methods: The medical device consisted of a microtube extension connected to a hydropneumatic pump. Pulses of pure water were injected though the microtube where they were heated and delivered as vapour into the target zone.

[Perforation of a jejunal diverticulum].

An observation of jejunal diverticulum is reported by the authors. It concerned a woman 82 years old whose disease appeared as an acute white spread peritonitis complication. The delay brought to perform the operation made it impossible to save diseased.

Mountain frostbite. Current trends in prognosis and treatment (from results concerning 1261 cases).

From an experience of a large number (1261) of cases of mountain frostbite, an attempt is made to explain its pathophysiological mechanisms and describe the different modalities which to now allow early prognosis to be made. Laser-Doppler, microwave thermography, nuclear magnetic resonance (31P spectroscopy) and bone scintigraphy (technetium 99) are some of the investigations which deserve a special attention. Treatment is discussed, which still appears to be limited to saving viable tissue, especially for severe frostbite lesions, the only ones which pose problems.

[Mountain frostbite. A new approach to early prognosis. A study of 1,267 cases].

Regarding an important series of mountain frostbite (1,267 cas), the authors try to explain the physiopathological mechanism. They expose the different methods that make possible nowadays an early prognosis. They set forth the treatment that seems still limited to save what can be spared; and this is valid for severe frostbite, the only ones to put problems.

[Mountain frostbite (apropos of 1260 recorded cases)].

Based on an important statistic of mountain frostbite (1260 cases), the authors try to explain the underlying physiopathological mechanism which remains largely unknown. An early prognosis may nowadays be improved by several diagnostic tools whose efficiency is reviewed. Difficult problems arise with severe frostbite only.

[Hang-gliding accidents in high mountains. Apropos of 200 cases].

A review of 200 cases of "paragliding" accidents in high mountain areas has been completed. The first flights have been murderous, a thesis written in 1987 in Grenoble showing seven dead out of 97 casualties. Since then the statistics seen to be improving as a consequence of the setting of regulations and the establishment of "paragliding" schools.

[Severe frostbites of the limbs. Apropos of 4 cases. A new approach of early prognosis].

The statistics of frostbites of the Chamonix Hospital surgical service include 1232 cases, 587 of them having been treated at the hospital. As regard four cases of severe frostbites having led to an amputation, the author reviews the complementary examinations that make possible an early prognosis. Among them, the bony scintigraphy must be privileged.

[Frostbite: findings May 1990].

Frostbites are a frequent pathology in mountain sports; we treat 80 cases per years in Chamonix. Usually due to a bad equipment, they are favoured by humidity, wind, the high altitude polycythemia and dehydration. Physiopathology associates a physic phenomenon (freezing) with a vasomotor response.

[Lightning injuries in high mountain areas. Report of 29 cases].

Lightning, usually scarce, is a frequent phenomenon in high mountains. Due to our location at the foot of the Mont-Blanc, we have been able to examine twenty nine cases of people struck by lightning in the Chamonix Hospital. Lightning that has interested people since old times is the result of complex meteorological phenomenons, able to deliver a huge instant power.

[NMR spectrometry in vivo with a resistive magnet at 1,2 T].

A resistive magnet, operating at 1.2 T, intended to magnetic resonance spectroscopy in man was set up and evaluated in the hospital of Chamonix. Drusch S.

[Treatment of frostbites. Analysis of results in twenty patients with buflomedil chlorhydrate (author's transl)].

Twenty cases of mountain frostbites of various degrees are presented, showing that buflomedil hydrochloride allows an improvement of the usual treatment of frostbites. Two protocols were used: 1) in 8 patients, after the usual treatment (bath at 38 degrees C, dextran perfusion, heparintherapy, antibiotherapy), buflomedil hydrochlorhydrate was administered by perfusion of 8 vials/day, during 10 days; 2) in 12 patients, buflomedil was injected directly by intravenous route on their arrival in the Emergency room. When the injection is given early, a potentiation of the effects of the warm bath is observed, and in two cases, this therapy has perhaps allowed to avoid the amputation.