Haploidentical Bone Marrow Transplantation with Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide Plus Thiotepa Improves Donor Engraftment in Patients with Sickle Cell Anemia: Results of an International Learning Collaborative.

Curative therapy for individuals with severe sickle cell disease (SCD) who lack an HLA-identical sibling donor has been frustratingly elusive. In with the goal of improving engraftment while minimizing transplantation-related morbidity, a multi-institutional learning collaborative was developed in the context of a Phase II clinical trial of nonmyeloablative, related HLA-haploidentical (haplo) bone marrow transplantation (BMT) with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide. All eligible participants had hemoglobin SS, and 89% (16 of 18) had an identifiable donor.

Elective popliteal aneurysms: does venous availability has an impact on indications?

Aim: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the patency and limb salvage rates after prosthetics or venous bypasses for asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic popliteal aneurysms, in order to determine if small uncomplicated aneurysms (caliber <300%) should be operated or periodically controlled when a venous conduit is not available.

Methods: During a 18 years period, 100 popliteal aneurysms, including 85 asymptomatic and 15 associated with intermittent claudication, were operated on: group I consisted of 80 venous bypasses, and group II consisted of 20 prosthetic bypasses.

Results: Demographics and risks factors were similar in both groups.

Indications and benefits of simultaneous endoluminal balloon angioplasty and open surgery during elective lower limb revascularization.

Combined balloon angioplasty and conventional revascularization are occasionally performed but some points are still controversial: which patients are eligible for this associated procedure?; should the procedures be performed simultaneously or successively?; and in case of simultaneous procedure, which one should be performed first? To answer these questions, the notes of 64 patients consecutively submitted to this procedure at the Henri Mondor hospital were reviewed. Arterial dilatation was performed on the iliac artery, superficial femoral artery, popliteal artery or tibioperoneal trunk in 31, 26, four and four patients, respectively. Reasons for simultaneous procedures were multiple occlusive lesions in 67% of patients and inflow improvement in 14%.

Influence of diabetes on revascularisation procedures of the aorta and lower limb arteries: early results.

Object: to evaluate the influence of diabetes mellitus on the therapeutic indications and the one-month results in patients with occlusive disease of the aorta and/or lower limbs arteries.

Material: a retrospective study of fully computerised data of 1003 patients (753 men, 250 women) admitted consecutively to our vascular surgery unit over a 5-year period (1992-1996). Of the total, 169 were diabetics (group I) and 834 were non-diabetics (group II).

Severe injuries resulting from operations for thoracic outlet syndrome: can they be avoided?

Surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) is claimed to have a low risk of severe complications. To re-evaluate this, a questionnaire was sent out to the French vascular surgical community. There were 66 replies.

Adenocarcinoma of retinal pigment epithelium.

This report describes a 41-year-old man with an intraocular tumour misinterpreted clinically as choroidal melanoma. The fluorescein angiographic features were not fully characteristic of uveal malignancy, and indeed histopathology revealed the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of the retinal pigment epithelium. It is suggested that, in cases with the fundus and angiographic findings described here, the rare possibility of adenocarcinoma of retinal pigment epithelium should be kept in mind.