Treatment of stage II chronic arterial disease of the lower limbs with the serotonergic antagonist naftidrofuryl: results after 6 months of a controlled, multicenter study.

A study was carried out in patients with intermittent claudication (Fontaine's stage II). The atheromatous origin of the disease was confirmed and localized by angiography or Doppler. One hundred eight-three patients were selected initially (day -30) with a pain-free walking distance on a treadmill (at a speed of 3 km/h and a slope of 10%) ranging from 150 to 300 m.

[Aneurysm of the pancreaticoduodenal arteries and stenosis of the celiac trunk. Apropos of a case].

The authors describe the different imaging techniques and their interest. They discuss their etiology. The association with stenosis of the coeliac axis incites to think at a hemodynamic theory.

[Digestive hemorrhage caused by seromuscular erosion of the wall of a section of the small intestine at the level of an aortic prosthesis implanted 5 years earlier].

A new paraprosthetic enteric fistula case between the small bowel and the body of a Dacron aortobifemoral prosthesis is presented. That complication happened five years after the initial reconstruction and the fistula does not interest an anastomotic site. A process is rare (22 published cases); if symptomatology is often less important than complete fistulas, surgical therapy must be aggressive to be effective.

[Post-partum development of a mesenteric venous infarct and portal thrombosis in a young woman taking an oral contraceptive (author's transl)].

A 19-year-old girl developed a total venous infarct of the small intestine secondary to extensive portal thrombosis, on the 21st post-partum day. She had started to take an oral contraceptive on the 9th post-partum day, and the association of these two factors appears to have played a major role in the physiopathology of this accident. Diagnosis is difficult and often delayed in this affection, which can only be suspected as a function of the previous medical history.

Experimental study of sensitization to catecholamines after lumbar sympathectomy.

In a first time, the authors have shown a real supersensitivity to the action of catecholamines after lumbar sympathectomy in dog. Then, they have established a protocol which can be applied to the exploration of those phenomena in arteritic patients. Same doses of epinephrine and norepinephrine (which correspond to a slight hypercatecholamine blood level under stress) are injected intravenously, comparatively before and after lumbar sympathectomy.