The place of upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy before and after vertical banded gastroplasty for morbid obesity.

In industrialized countries, surgical gastroplasty is performed more and more frequently in patients with morbid obesity. The aims of this prospective study were to determine the incidence of upper gastrointestinal lesions in obese patients and to assess the place of digestive endoscopy in symptomatic patients after gastroplasty. A consecutive group of 159 obese patients were studied before and after vertical banded gastroplasty.

[The treatment of morbid obesity with gastroplasty].

Morbid obesity is related to a severe decrease in life expectancy. No medical or dietary treatment offers an alternative to control hypertension, apnea syndrome, orthopedic diseases, ..

Efficient retroviral-mediated gene transfer into primary culture of murine and human hepatocytes: expression of the LDL receptor.

The ex vivo approach to hepatic gene therapy involves several steps, which include the isolation and culture of hepatocytes, followed by their transduction with a retrovirus. Subsequently, autologous hepatocytes are transplanted. The number of hepatocytes that can be transduced by retroviruses bearing the therapeutic gene is one of the limiting steps that can impair the success of this strategy.

Elbow arteriovenous fistulas for chronic haemodialysis.

Arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) were created at the elbow, rather than using prosthetic grafts, when forearm vessels were inadequate. A total of 272 such fistulas were constructed: 49 between the brachial artery and a forearm vein, 91 between the brachial artery and the elbow perforating vein, 52 between the brachial artery and the cephalic vein and 80 between the brachial artery and the basilic vein. In each case the vein was sutured end to side to the artery.

Role of surgical therapy in management of intractable ascites.

Almost 10% of patients with cirrhosis and ascites develop intractable ascites. When large-volume paracentesis fails to relieve ascites, patients may be submitted to one of the three following surgical options: portosystemic shunting, peritoneovenous shunting, or liver transplantation. Portosystemic shunting is efficient in clearing ascites, but it is associated with a high rate of encephalopathy and liver failure.