In vitro smooth muscle contractility before and after relief of experimental obstruction in the rat: application to the surgical management of ileal dilatation.

Purpose: Bowel dilatation occurs proximal to an obstruction and predisposes to intestinal dysmotility. The present study sought to determine whether or not changes in smooth muscle contractility and the thickness of the proximal, dilated bowel wall can be reversed following relief of the obstruction.

Materials And Methods: Three groups of seven male Wistar rats were studied.

[Parent counseling following an antenatal diagnosis of malformation or a diagnosis at birth. The pediatric surgeon's perspective].

Since many years age for pregnancy in women is increasing with elderly parents whose possibility to get others child is improbable. Diagnosis of major congenital anomalies during a prenatal test or severe surgical complication in neonate period, sometimes on a premature newborn, will be a very difficult problem for parents to make the good choice. Relationship between parents and paediatric surgeon must be clear with good explanations but the own point of view of the surgeon must not interfere with parents choice when vital prognosis or severe aftereffects are expected.

[Inflammatory pseudotumour of the bladder in children: report of a new case and review of the literature].

Bladder tumour is rare in children and usually corresponds to embryonic rhabdomyosarcoma. However one of the differential diagnoses is inflammatory pseudotumour of the bladder which is a benign lesion with a good prognosis. The authors report the case of a 3-year-old boy who presented with macroscopic haematuria related to a lesion of the anterior bladder wall.

[Evaluation of the results of the Snodgrass procedure in hypospadias surgery].

Objective: The Snodgrass urethroplasty, described in 1994 for the treatment of distal hypospadias, has very rapidly become a popular technique. However, incision of the urethral plate could be associated with a risk of stenosis of the neourethra. We present our preliminary results with this technique.

Assessment of the efficiency of warming devices during neonatal surgery.

This study assessed the relative efficiency of different warming devices (surgical sheets covering the body and a tubegauze on the head, forced-air warming, warming mattress) commonly used to prevent body hypothermia during neonatal surgery. Dry heat losses were measured from a thermal manikin, which simulated a low-birth-weight neonate of 1,800 g. The manikin's surface temperatures (35.