[Child with a vascularized throat mass].

We report the case of an 11-year-old girl with difficultly speaking and a history of singular, self-limiting oral bleeding. Clinical and radiological examination in the emergency room showed a vascularized tumor of the base of the tongue, which almost completely occluded the oropharynx. After complex anesthesiologic preparation and endoluminal embolization, the tumor was safely removed by transoral laser microsurgery.

[Hemorrhage of the innominate artery during percutaneous dilatation tracheotomy].

The report describes the rare case of a periprocedural hemorrhage during percutaneous dilatation tracheotomy. In the final analysis, the innominate artery could be identified as the source of the hemorrhage. Particular attention must be paid to preprocedural evaluation of the puncture site and the procedure following unexpected hemorrhage.

Serum heparan sulfate levels are elevated in endotoxemia.

Background: Increased vascular permeability is a characteristic feature of sepsis which, in the past, has been ascribed exclusively to a malfunction of endothelial cells. However, recently it has become evident that the endothelial glycocalyx is of considerable importance concerning various aspects of vascular physiology, e.g.

Does the estimation of light attenuation in tissue increase the accuracy of reflectance pulse oximetry at low oxygen saturations in vivo?

A new technique was validated in vivo in reflectance pulse oximetry for measuring low oxygen saturations. Two pairs of light emitter/detector diodes allow for estimation of light attenuation (LA) in tissue, which is assumed to be responsible for the inaccuracy of pulse oximetry at less than 70 % arterial oxygen saturation. For validation, 17 newborn piglets were desaturated stepwise from 21 % to 1.