Outcome of older persons admitted to intensive care unit, mortality, prognosis factors, dependency scores and ability trajectory within 1 year: a prospective cohort study.

Background: The outcome and functional trajectory of older persons admitted to intensive care (ICU) unit remain a true question for critical care physicians and geriatricians, due to the heterogeneity of geriatric population, heterogeneity of practices and absence of guidelines.

Aim: To describe the 1-year outcome, prognosis factors and functional trajectory for older people admitted to ICU.

Methods: In a prospective 1-year cohort study, all patients aged 75 years and over admitted to our ICU were included according to a global comprehensive geriatric assessment.

Effect of haemodilution on transfusion requirements in liver resection.

Between April, 1988, and February, 1989, 22 consecutive patients underwent liver resection (17 hepatectomy, 5 segmentectomy) with intraoperative haemodilution to avoid blood transfusion. The results were compared with those of 22 patients who underwent liver resection without haemodilution between February, 1987, and April, 1988, and who were matched for the nature of the tumour and the type of liver resection. Age, preoperative haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration, and intraoperative blood loss did not differ between the groups who did and did not undergo haemodilution.

[Fractures of the trapezium. Mechanisms. Anatomo-pathology and therapeutic indications].

Fractures of the trapezium are rare and often unrecognized lesions; their diagnosis can only be made by radiographs with specific projections that clearly separate the outline of the trapezium from the radial side of the carpal bony complex. Starting from a series of 88 cases collected from the world literature, 34 of which had been examined by the authors, a study was made of the different mechanisms of these fractures, their main fracture lines and displacements and the current indications for treatment. The physio-pathology of fractures of the trapezium was investigated by personal experiments conducted in the laboratory on 26 wrists and showed 3 main mechanisms: a fall on the hand with the wrist extended and radially deviated (Manon) and direct commissural trauma combined with various degrees of shearing described by Monsche.

[Aneurysmal cyst of the clavicle : an uncommon lesion and a difficult diagnosis (author's transl)].

The authors describe a case of anevrysmal cyst of the clavicle seen in a five-year-old girl. Both clinical and radiological diagnosis proved impossible. Complementary investigations did not settle the question.