[Personality disorders and aging].

Personality disorder can be defined as an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that markedly deviates from the expectations of the individual's culture. With aging, personality disorders may improve or worsen. Their prevalence in the elderly is slightly lower than the prevalence in young adult.

[Irritability associated with major depressive episodes: its relationship with mood disorders and temperament].

Objective: Irritability is a well-known feature of some mood states. Within the framework of major depressive episodes (MDEs) irritability has been associated with subtypes of depressive mood, personality traits, depressive mixed states, and a bipolar diathesis. This study aimed to assess the symptomatology of irritable depression and the effect of personality.

Low-dose combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia for caesarean section in a patient with Eisenmenger's syndrome.

A 34-year-old woman (G3,P0) with Eisenmenger's syndrome and positive HIV serology presented to hospital at 16 weeks of pregnancy. She was hospitalised at 20 weeks under the care of a multidisciplinary team. At 33 weeks caesarean section was performed under low-dose combined spinal-epidural anaesthesia using a needle-through-needle technique.

Loop ileostomy versus loop colostomy for defunctioning low anastomoses during rectal cancer surgery.

Several studies have compared loop ileostomy with loop colostomy to defunction colorectal anastomoses. The discordant results may be due to the heterogeneity of the indications. We therefore performed a retrospective study to compare the two procedures in a homogeneous group of patients operated on electively for rectal cancer.