Value of anatomic and physiologic scoring systems in outcome prediction of trauma patients.

Objective: The goal of this study was to compare the prediction performance of two anatomic scales, the Injury Severity Scale (ISS) and the New Injury Severity Scale (NISS), with two physiologic scales, the Revised Trauma Scale (RTS) and the Simplified Acute Physiology Scale II (SAPS II), in trauma patients.

Design: Prospective study carried out over a 16-month period.

Setting: Emergency department of a teaching hospital.

[Primary biliary peritonitis].

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to debate the epidemiologic and clinical features of primitive biliary peritonitis (PBP) as much as a rare pathology; and especially to obtain a more comprehensive view of factors associated with a severe prognosis.

Method: It is a retrospective survey of 15 patients, collected from 2000 to 2003. Only primitive biliary peritonitis has been included.

[Compared effects of etomidate and propofol for anaesthesia during electroconvulsive therapy].

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) requires repeated short-term anaesthesia with muscle relaxation and deep narcosis and uses several anaesthetic agents. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the anaesthetic technique applied for ECT by comparing two products: propofol and etomidate.

Methods: This was a prospective randomised study that included ECT sessions.

[Traumatic rupture of the aortic isthmus revealed by a mesenteric infarct].

The traumatic rupture of the aortic isthmus is one of the worst complication due to high speed motor vehicle accidents. When death is not the immediate consequence of this lesion, the initial clinical signs are not very clear. The present article demonstrates the case of a 23-year-old patient, victim of a car accident.