Hepatotoxicity from isoniazid and rifampin in inner-city AIDS patients.

Objective: To determine the incidence of hepatotoxicity due to isoniazid and rifampin in inner-city patients with active tuberculosis.

Design: A hospital-based review of 70 consecutive in-patients in a 770-bed, inner-city hospital. The patient population is primarily African-American and Hispanic.

Mechanical lithotripsy of common duct stones.

Over the past 8 years we have utilized various types of mechanical lithotriptors to crush common bile duct stones. The procedure was performed in 93 patients with an overall success rate of 94%. However, because many accessories were in a developmental stage, entrapment of stones was not always possible on the first attempt, and the procedure was repeated in some patients a second or third time.

Effectiveness of endoscopic drainage for pancreas divisum: endoscopic and surgical results in 31 patients.

Thirty-one patients with symptomatic pancreatitis and pancreas divisum were treated prospectively by inserting an endoprosthesis into the dorsal pancreatic duct for drainage. Pain was a feature characteristic of all 31 patients; of these 92% had an improvement in their subjective complaints of pain after sphincterotomy and insertion of a prosthesis in the minor papilla. During a two-year follow-up period, 84% (26/31) of the group showed improvement in all the signs and symptoms associated with their pancreatitis, and this improvement was sustained in all patients for at least several months.