Analysis of return to competition and repeat rupture for 298 anterior cruciate ligament reconstructions with patellar or hamstring tendon autograft in sportspeople.

Objectives: To establish the influence of the type of surgical technique, competitive level, type of sport and the time before returning to competition on the reinjury rate after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery.

Methods: The authors followed-up 540 competitive sportspeople who had undergone ACL surgery via patellar or hamstring tendon autograft (HTA) techniques in 2003 and 2004. The sportspeople (all of whom had competed at a regional or higher level) were asked to fill out a questionnaire during their fourth postoperative year.

[Oral propafenone in resistant auricular arrhythmia].

Paroxysmal episodes of atrial frequently cause severe functional disturbance because of their recurrent nature. Propafenone (Rythmol) is a very active anti-arrhythmic at the ventricular level which acts by decreasing the rate of atrio-ventricular and intra-ventricular conduction and by prolonging the refractory period of the right atrium and the accessory pathways. The authors conducted an open study of this drug in 20 cases with resistant, recurrent atrial fibrillation.

[Are calcium inhibitors useful in the treatment of effort angina pectoris].

Effort angina is the result of acute myocardial ischemia on exercise due to an imbalance between myocardial oxygen demand and supply. During exercise, ischemia is provoked by an increase in myocardial oxygen needs (tachycardia, increased blood pressure, etc.) which cannot be met by increased coronary blood flow.

[Isosorbide dinitrate in the treatment of threatening myocardial infarction (author's transl)].

Thirty patients with threatening myocardial infarction were treated with intravenous isosorbide trinitrate. Eight patients had increasingly severe angina, 6 had de novo crescendo angina, 3 had Prinzmetal angina and 13 had signs of impending extension of a previous infarct. In all cases the anginal attacks occurred spontaneously.

[Clinical, haemodynamic and biochemical effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition in chronic refractory cardiac failure (author's transl)].

Twenty patients with chronic congestive heart failure resistant to conventional treatment with digitalis, diuretics and vasodilators received captopril, an oral inhibitor of the angiotensin-converting enzyme, in daily doses of 200 mg and were followed up for 2 months or more. At 2 months, there was a significant reduction in functional symptoms (NYHA classification), bodyweight and left ventricular filling pressure, with an equally significant rise in cardiac output and sodium urinary excretion. There was no fall in systemic blood pressure, nor tachycardia.

[False aneurysm associated with mitral insufficiency due to rupture of the heart at the point of insertion of the anterior papillary muscle. A successfully operated case].

Although rupture of a mitral papillary muscle during myocardial infarction is well known, and post-infarction transmural ruptures causing false aneurysms occasionally reported, the association of rupture of the anterior papillary muscle and a underlying transmural parietal rupture giving rise to a false aneurysm is quite exceptional, and, to the best of our knowledge, has not previously been reported. Despite the serious nature of the disease, surgical cure of the aneurysm with mitral valve replacement was successful, due to the limitation of the anatomical disruption by early pericardial symphysis.

Echocardiographic diagnosis of mobile left ventricular tumour.

Echocardiography detected a mobile left ventricular tumour. The tracing showed a cluster of echoes in the left ventricular outflow tract corresponding to the location of the tumour as confirmed by cineangiograms. At operation, a thrombus was discovered, attached to a chorda tendineae.

[Bacterial endocarditis due to Staphylococcus epidermidis. Two cases (author's transl)].

Bacterial endocarditis due to Staphylococcus epermidis is rare and severe. In a first patient, a 58-year-old-man, it developed 40 days after the insertion of a double prosthesis (mitral and aortic). Cure was obtained by medical treatment using a combination of vancomycin and gentamicin, followed by pristinamycin and tobramycin.

Controlled evaluation of the antitussive activity of viminol p-hydroxybenzoate.

A double-blind cross-over trial was carried out to evaluate the antitussive activity of viminol p-hydroxybenzoate; the comparison was done with three preparations: a placebo and the drug at two doses, 70 and 140 mg respectively. The responses were scored hourly up to 4 hours after the administration of single doses in the morning to subjects with persistent cough. The highest dose of viminol showed a definite antitussive activity, whereas the lowest did not differ from the placebo.