[Surgery for vertigo].

Spontaneous recovery or central compensation makes surgical procedures rare in patients with vertigo. Surgery for vertigo proposed after pharmacological or physical therapy fails to eliminate Ménière's disease and some very rare cases of paroxystic positional vertigo. The main target in treating Ménière's disease is to promote vestibular compensation, which is possible only with a nonprogressive and stable deficit leading to readjustment of vestibular reflexes.

[Functional anatomy of the facial nerve].

Embryologic individualization of the facial nerve primordium occurs early and emphasizes trigeminofacial connections and variations in the transitional zone (TZ). In the brainstem, the specific nuclei of the facial nerve are located within five columns corresponding to the main functions. Three-quarters of the fibers are of the special visceral efferent group (SVE).

[Should there be a specific management for HIV infected-immigrants in France?].

Immigrants living in France account for one third of new cases of infection and are a target population for prevention. Care givers should adapt their management practice, taking into account this population's specificities which are not restricted to cultural differences but include major socioeconomic factors. In addition to training on alien rights and basic sociocultural knowledge, care-givers (especially clinicians) must spend more time with the patient (especially at the beginning of the relationship) and accept sharing the "medical power" with other people with a better knowledge of other aspects of the patients' life in addition to the medical one.

[Churg-Strauss syndrome].

Churg-Strauss syndrome is a systemic and pulmonary vasculitis, defined by its association with severe asthma and with hypereosinophilia of the blood and tissues. The systemic vasculitis is a small-vessel vasculitis frequently associated with purpura, mononeuritis multiplex, and, more rarely, with rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis or diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. Its prevalence of 7 to 13 per million population makes it one of the rarest of the systemic vasculitides.

[Sedation and analgesia assessment tools in ICU patients].

Sedative and analgesic treatment administered to critically ill patients need to be regularly assessed to ensure that predefinite goals are well achieved as the risk of complications of oversedation is minimized. In most of the cases, which are lightly sedation patients, the goal to reach is a calm, cooperative and painless patient, adapted to the ventilator. Recently, eight new bedside scoring systems to monitor sedation have been developed and mainly tested for reliability and validity.

[Longevity factors in total trapezometacarpal prostheses].

We report the long term outcome of the trapeziometacarpal prosthesis in a personal series of 13 cases with a follow-up ranging from 12 to 17 years. This ball and socket prosthesis with a metal on polyethylene pairing is cemented. Several modifications were performed along the years: such as increased range of motion, better fit between the metacarpal medullary canal and the proximal part of the stem and addition of a versatile, intermediate component in order to re-establish length of the first ray.

[Long-term results of the total trapezio-metacarpal prosthesis in osteoarthritis of the thumb].

The author reviewed 13 of 14 trapeziometacarpal prostheses inserted more than twelve years ago. All operated patients had non traumatic arthrosis. The long time results seem to be good in spite of a high level of loosening.

[Hemodynamic effects of clonidine on the fetus and newborn infant].

This study on clonidine action on fetal HR and on BP and HR in newborns during the first 3 days of life was carried out with 10 mother-child couples in comparison with 10 other couples randomly chosen among our patients; in these last couples the mother has not been treated with this oral anti-hypertensive agent during the last 6 months of the pregnancy. According to the results, clonidine doesn't seem to have any negative action on the fetus and newborn.

[Superior fibulo-tibial traumatic luxation with fracture of the tibia. Apropos of 2 cases and a general review of the literature].

Two cases of tibial fracture combined with dislocation of the superior tibio-fibular joint are analysed. This rare combination often passes unnoticed, with a risk of instability at the tibial fracture whether treated conservatively or by nailing, which was the method normally used by the authors in the majority of tibial fractures.