Reduction of Pharyngocutaneous Fistulae in Laryngectomy Patients by a Comprehensive Performance Improvement Intervention.

Objective: Pharyngocutaneous fistula is a common complication in laryngectomy patients, particularly in previously irradiated cases. We initiated a comprehensive performance improvement intervention in all head and neck surgery patients intended to reduce postoperative infection and fistulae rates. We report our review of outcomes within laryngectomy patients.

Prevalence and predictors of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in a Hispanic patient population.

Minimal data exist on attributes of diastolic dysfunction in the Hispanic population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of diastolic dysfunction in a Hispanic patient population. We performed a retrospective review of 166 consecutive echocardiograms in a southwestern Texas Hospital that caters to a large Hispanic patient population.

Effects of hypothermic deep-anaesthesia on energy metabolism at brain and peripheral levels: a multi-probe microdialysis study in free-moving rat.

Reduction of central energy metabolism is a strategy to protect brain against neurotoxic events. The aim of this microdialysis study in rats is to evaluate changes in energy metabolite levels at central level (striatum) comparatively to peripheral level (subcutaneous adipose tissue) during hypothermic barbituric deep-anaesthesia (sodium pentobarbital 60 mg/kg intraperitoneally). At brain level, extracellular glucose increases (+14.

In vivo study of tumor metabolism: an application of new multi-probe microdialysis system in the striatum of freely moving rats grafted with C6 cells.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the in vivo tumoral brain metabolism in free moving rats using microdialysis. Cells from C6 glioma cell line were inoculated in one striatum 15 days before the microdialysis experimentation. Then, using a new system allowing perfusion of several microdialysis probes in free moving rat, normalised dialysate levels of glucose, lactate and pyruvate were monitored in both glioma and control striatum.

Hepatobiliary scintigraphy after biliary tract surgery.

Hepatobiliary scintigraphy provides a rapid, noninvasive, accurate means of assessing patients after biliary tract surgery. This is especially important, given the high incidence of biliary and enteric diseases. In this review article, the role of radionuclide imaging in postcholecystectomy and postgastroenteric surgery patients will be examined, as well as following invasive procedures and trauma.

Increased Tc-99m MDP in multiple lumbar intervertebral disk spaces in Scheuermann disease without concomitant radiographic calcification or diskitis.

A radionuclide bone scan serendipitously revealed deposition of Tc-99m MDP in multiple lumbar intervertebral disk spaces in a 29-year-old man with extensive trauma to the left femur as a result of a motor vehicle accident. In the authors' experience, alcoholic liver disease or altered weight bearing secondary to prior trauma are not associated with intervertebral radiotracer uptake. Although it is possible that radiographically undetectable microcalcifications in the intervertebral disk spaces associated with degenerative changes, common in Scheuermann disease, account for this unusual finding, a literature search found that increased disk uptake had been reported only in two patients with Scheuermann disease who had concomitant active or healing diskitis.

Scintigraphic evaluation of postoperative complications of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is gaining popularity as an alternative to standard open cholecystectomy. At our institution, approximately 400 laparoscopic cholecystectomies have been performed since May 1989. The frequency of major postoperative complications has been approximately 1.

Diagnosing osteomyelitis in Gaucher's disease. Observations on two cases.

Bone scans in two patients with Gaucher's disease were reported as consistent with Gaucher's-associated osseous crises. A bone-radiogallium subtraction study was also initially negative in each individual (although it later became positive in one). At surgery both patients were seen to have osteomyelitis.

The "warm" sacroiliac joint. A finding in pelvic abscess.

Two patients with pain referable to the low back and sacroiliac regions had bone scans with similar findings. In each, one sacroiliac joint was "warm" (uptake on that side was slightly greater than that in the contralateral area). Ga-67 imaging also demonstrated increased uptake in the same locale.

Nuclear medicine studies of aging: X. Relationship of liver and spleen lengths at age 65 years and older.

For 3 groups of patients aged 65 years or greater, liver and spleen lengths were measured from calibrated radiocolloid images. Length relationships between liver (L) and spleen (S) were examined in terms of S as a function of L, as well as (S/L) and (L-S) vs S or L. Liver and spleen lengths were the least well correlated in these patients.

[Comparative study of adrenaline-induced lipolysis of human deltoid and trochanter adipose tissue].

In vitro lipolysis by adrenaline, adrenaline + phentolamine (alpha-blocker) and isoprenalin (beta-agonist) was studied in deltoid and trochanter adipose tissues of sixteen obese females (10 android and 6 gynoid). Lipolysis differs in the upper and lower parts of the body. The more the obesity predominates in the upper part of the body, the more this difference is significant.