[A clinical case of demyelinating disease with basilar impression].

The authors report a clinical case of a 48-year-old female patient admitted to the Neurological Division following acute symptoms characterised by generalised asthenia, motory disorders (incoordination, equilibrium or gait deficit) accompanied by diplopia. Instrumental (medullary and encephalic NMR) and laboratory tests revealed a malformation of the atlo-occpital hinge with basilar impression and areas of corticosubcortical demyelinisation signifying multiple sclerosis. The liquor test was also positive for the presence of oligoclonal bands of IgG with a Link index of 0.

A guideline nomogram to control intraoperative haemodilution in cardiac surgery.

Intraoperative blood collection prior to cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is a common procedure in cardiac surgery. Its aims are to obtain fresh whole blood to be infused after CPB, to use autologous blood in the prime or to avoid too high levels of haematocrit (HCT) during CPB. Calculations to determine the amount of blood to be collected are generally based on theoretical assumptions.

[The laparoscopic treatment of splenic rupture, a case report].

The case report refers to a splenic traumatic rupture treated conservatively by diagnostic and interventional laparoscopy. The peculiarities of the method are discussed and related to the various problems of the situation: direct observation, washing and the use of fibrin glue are the key of the success.

[Laparoscopic cholecystectomy and percutaneous echo-guided cholecystostomy. Their applications in acute cholecystitis].

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is nowadays proposed as elective treatment in acute cholecystitis; the advantages obtained with this method are comparable with those of laparoscopic cholecystectomy outside inflammatory complications. Moreover in emergency we have the advantage of better diagnostic definition and less surgical trauma. When acute cholecystitis affects high risk patients from the anesthesiologic view percutaneous US-assisted cholecystostomy is considered more valuable than the medical conservative treatment.

[Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta in elderly patients].

Aneurysms of the abdominal aorta are often diagnosed in the over-75s. Although for many Authors the presence of risk factors such as cardiopathies, cerebrovascular problems, renal or respiratory insufficiency, which are clearly more frequent in elderly patients, represent a contraindication to the intervention of choice, personal experience has shown that surgery remains the best solution. In fact, in a group of patients operated on for aneurysm of the abdominal aorta in a heart, no significant differences in age-related mortality were observed.