Direct percutaneous venous puncture and embolization of giant perimedullary arteriovenous fistulas.

PMAVFs are rare entities that are formed by a direct communication between an artery that feeds the spinal cord and a vein. The goal of treatment is to occlude the shunt; this is done endovascularly either from an arterial or a venous approach. When these approaches are not possible, direct percutaneous puncture of the draining veins may be attempted to embolize the arteriovenous shunt directly.

[Spontaneous intestinal hematoma as anticoagulant treatment complication].

The haemoperitoneum and bowel haematoma are complications of the oral anticoagulant treatment. The abdominal pain in patient under oral anticoagulant drugs represents a diagnostic problem; apart of the acute abdomen, we also have to consider unusual haemorrhagic lesion, rare in patients without coagulation problems. The early diagnosis of the complication in the patients permits a conservative treatment with excellent prognosis, instead of performing surgical operations in subjects with frequent comorbidities.

[Causes of reoperations in patients with lumbar spinal stenosis treated with instrumentations].

Objective: In present study we analyze the causes leading to reoperation patients treated for lumbar spinal stenosis with laminectomy and lumbar instrumentation.

Material And Methods: 74 patients operated between January of 1996 and December of 2000 with a minimum 4 year follow-up were seleted for the study.

Results: 16 patients (21.

[Dorsal subdural spinal abscess after epidural anesthesia].

Spinal subdural empyema (SE) is a rare condition. We describe a young patient with a torathic SE after lumbar epidural anaesthesia. SE was distant from the region of manipulation.

Tetanus intoxication causes an increment of serotonin in the central nervous system.

Mice injected with tetanus toxin (TTx) showed an increase of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 5-HT) levels in the central nervous system. The increment was not uniform throughout the central nervous system. Particularly significant were the 25% and 80% increases observed, respectively, in whole brain and spinal cord.