Non-invasive Assessment of Coronary Flow Velocity Reserve: A New Method Using Transthoracic Doppler Echocardiography

Coronary flow reserve (CFR) has been used toassess coronary microcirculation and epicardial coro-nary stenoses[1— 3 ] . CFR is defined as the ratio ofcoronary flow under maximal coronary vasodilatationto coronary flow under resting conditions[4 ] .Whenthe cross- sectional area of epicardial coronary arteriesis constant,coronary flow velocity (CFV) ratios areequal to volume flow ratios.The most common method used clinically formeasuring CFVR is intracoronary Doppler flow(ICD) analysis re…     

Outpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a reality.

BACKGROUND: The author reports on his personal experience with outpatient laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC), focusing on the main guidelines for preoperative and postoperative care and operating technique. METHODS: From January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2000, 71 laparoscopic cholecystectomies were performed on outpatients. The patients remained in the outpatient surgery center for 36 hours. In 4 cases, the operation was converted into laparotomy. Twenty patients remained in the hospital and were discharged 5 to 7 days later. Twelve were rehospitalized due to pathologies that could not be treated at home. RESULTS: In all 71 cases, a complete remission of the symptoms occurred, and none of the patients died either during the operation or during the postoperative period. Eighty percent of patients were treated in outpatient surgery centers. CONCLUSIONS: With clear guidelines, LC is a major surgical operation that can be performed in outpatient surgery centers without death or other major complications and with very good remission of symptoms.