25 years experience of the surgical treatment of phaeochromocytoma.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the outcome of the surgical treatment of patients who had adrenalectomy for phaeochromocytoma. DESIGN: Retrospective clinical study. SETTINGS: University hospital, Germany. SUBJECTS: 87 consecutive patients with phaeochromocytoma who were operated on. INTERVENTIONS: 29 flank and 58 transabdominal adrenalectomies between 1974 and 2000. RESULTS: The mean tumour diameter was 5 cm (range 2-13), and the mean weight 91 g (range 7-550). The postoperative hospital stay was 11 days. The flank incision entailed the shortest operating time (95 minutes). Two of the phaeochromocytomas were malignant. There were two wound infections but no deaths. With a correct selection of patients, a flank incision is safe. Endoscopic retroperitoneal adrenalectomies should be preferred.     

Anatomic considerations of pin placement in the proximal tibia and its relationship to the peroneal nerve.

Peroneal nerve impalement is a recognized complication of percutaneous placement of wires, which is gaining increased usage with the application of the techniques of Ilizarov, Monticelli, and Spinelli. Dissections of the peroneal nerve in the proximal tibia were performed in ten anatomic specimens (20 legs) to define (1) its relationship to palpable landmarks, (2) distribution of major branches to the musculature, and (3) safe zones of placement of percutaneous wires in the proximal tibia. The anterior recurrent tibial nerve was frequently in an area of risk where it courses proximally in the anterior compartment. A safe zone is located anterior to the palpable portion of the fibular head and up to 2 cm distal to the tip of the fibular head.     

A multicenter evaluation of safety of early extubation in liver transplant recipients.

Small single-institutional studies performed prior to the introduction of organ allocation using the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) suggest that early airway extubation of liver transplant recipients is a safe practice. We designed a multicenter study to examine adverse events associated with early extubation in patients selected for liver transplantation using MELD score. A total of 7 institutions extubated all patients meeting study criteria and reported adverse events that occurred within 72 hours following surgery. Adverse events were uncommon: occurring in only 7.7% of 391 patients studied. Most adverse events were pulmonary or surgically related. Pulmonary complications were usually minor, requiring only an increase in ambient oxygen concentration. The majority of surgical adverse events required additional surgery. Analysis of a limited set of perioperative variables suggest that blood transfusions and technical factors were associated with an increased risk of adverse events. In conclusion, while early extubation appears to be safe under specified circumstances, there are performance differences between institutions that remain to be explained.     

Localization of Putative Receptors for Tetanus Toxin and Botulinum Neurotoxin Type A in Rat Central Nervous System

Clostridial neurotoxins (tetanus and botulinum toxins) are potent blockers of neurotransmitter release. These toxins act specifically on the nervous system by interacting with still non-identified protein receptors together with gangliosides. Whereas many biochemical data are available on their binding properties to neuronal membranes in vitro , there is poor morphological evidence of their binding to mammalian central nervous system. In the present study, the binding of tetanus and botulinum neurotoxin type A to rat brain sections is reported. Both toxins bound to nerve terminals with a broad distribution in brain. Tetanus toxin additionally bound to nerve fibres. The staining patterns were clearly shown to be due to the interaction of the heavy chains, which contain the binding moiety, with the tissue. In an attempt to investigate the nature of the acceptors present in the tissue, some sections were pre-incubated with periodic acid. This treatment resulted in the additional binding of botulinum neurotoxin type A to nerve fibres. Since the extended staining of nerve terminals was not modified by this pretreatment, it is suggested that protein receptors of clostridial neurotoxins are located at the nerve terminals, which may be common constituents of the synapses.     

Comparative studies of the activity of disaccharidases in the mucosa of the small intestines in dystrophic, formerly hypotrophic-born young children and of patients with flat mucosa of various etiology

The disaccharidase activities of the mucous membrane of the small intestine were determined in formerly hypotrophic children who showing a dystrophy with a morphological normal mucosa (n = 36), patients with a flat mucosa caused by enteral protein intolerances of different genesis (n = 27), patients with a morphologically and functionally normal mucosa (n = 51). In about half of the former small-for-date children were shown activities lower than the simple standard deviation of the normal value, for lactase n = 17, for sucrase n = 14, for maltase n = 12. Some children showed pathologically reduced activities even below the double standard deviation for the normal value: lactase n = 8, sucrase n = 5, maltase n = 3.     

Frequency of rpoB mutations inside and outside the cluster I region in rifampin-resistant clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates

The prevalence of recently described mutation V176F, located in the beginning of the rpoB gene and associated with rifampin resistance and the wild-type cluster I sequence, was determined by analyzing the distribution of rpoB mutations among 80 rifampin (RIF)-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains isolated in Germany during 1997. The most frequent rpoB mutations were changes in codon 456 (52 isolates, 65%), followed by changes in codon 441 (13 isolates, 16%) and codon 451 (11 isolates, 14%). The V176F mutation was detected in one isolate of the study population and in 5 of 18 RIF-resistant strains with no cluster I mutation from six previously published studies. In three isolates, a mixture of resistant and susceptible subpopulations (heteroresistance) prohibited the detection of rpoB mutations in the initial analysis; however, in these isolates, cluster I mutations could be verified after a passage on RIF-containing medium. IS6110 DNA fingerprinting of 76 strains revealed eight clusters comprising 27 strains with identical restriction fragment length polymorphism patterns that mainly also show identical rpoB mutations and identical or similar drug resistance patterns. In conclusion, our results indicate that the V176F mutation should be included in molecular tests for prediction of RIF resistance in M. tuberculosis. We further demonstrated that heteroresistance caused by a mixture of mycobacterial subpopulations with different susceptibilities to RIF may influence the sensitivity of molecular tests for detection of resistance.     

Self-monitoring in patients with schizophrenia

BACKGROUND: The present study investigated whether a failure of self-monitoring contributes to core syndromes of schizophrenia. METHOD: Three groups of patients with a DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 27), with either prominent paranoid hallucinatory or disorganization syndrome, or without these symptoms, and a matched healthy control group (n = 23) drew circles on a writing pad connected to a PC monitor. Subjects were instructed to continuously monitor the relationship between their hand movements and their visual consequences. They were asked to detect gain changes in the mapping. Self-monitoring ability and the ability to automatically correct movements were assessed. RESULTS: Patients with either paranoid-hallucinatory syndrome or formal thought disorder were selectively impaired in their ability to detect a mismatch between a self-generated movement and its consequences, but not impaired in their ability to automatically compensate for the gain change. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the claim that a failure of self-monitoring may underlie the core symptoms of schizophrenia.