[The palliative patient as an emergency patient: A model for decision making in life-threatening situations using 4 case reports].

Background: Increasingly more patients reaching our hospitals as an emergency are chronically ill or are in advanced stages of infaust, e.g., malignant, diseases.

Migratory responses of polymorphonuclear leukocytes to kinin peptides.

The present study examines the influence of kinins on the migratory capacity of human polymorphonuclear leukocytes under in vitro conditions using the Boyden chamber technique. By means of checkerboard analysis the migration of neutrophils induced by bradykinin could be characterized as true chemotaxis. The stimulation of human neutrophils with bradykinin, with the nonpeptide B(2) receptor agonist FR190997 as well as with des-Arg(9)-bradykinin and des-Arg(10)-kallidin results in a concentration-dependent migration.

[Distal pancreatic resection--indications, techniques and complications].

Aim: Description of the indications, surgical technique and postoperative complications of distal pancreatic resection.

Methods: We analyzed the prospectively documented perioperative data of 41 patients undergoing distal pancreatectomy between 1994 and 2001. Indications for resection were chronic pancreatitis (n = 21), malignant or benign tumors (n = 19) and others (n = 1).