Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D C Dreyfuss.
In a series of six patients, a single-bar anterior external fixator was used to treat combined vascular and orthopedic injuries of the leg. This method of external fixation facilitated operative vascular exposure without sacrificing bony stability or alignment. It may be the preferred method of external fixation for these complex injuries.
Abdominal wall herniae following blunt trauma are rare. Two cases of acute traumatic rectus abdominis muscle and anterior rectus sheath hernia, an apparently unreported entity, are described. Early recognition of the injury by physical examination and sometimes ultrasonography or CT is important. Repair should be early except in selected cases.
Reports of an increased incidence of right-sided colonic cancers have coincided with an expanding knowledge of the carcinogenic potential of secondary bile acids which are increased after cholecystectomy, suggesting a possible relationship between cholecystectomy and the subsequent occurrence of proximal colonic cancer. The hospital records of 582 patients undergoing resection of colorectal cancers were reviewed. Fifty-four patients (9 per cent) had had prior cholecystectomies. The distribution of colonic cancers in these patients was identical to that in noncholecystectomized patients. To obtain a prospective view, 249 patients undergoing cholecystectomy between 1958 and 1960 were followed up to 1980. A cancer of the sigmoid colon or rectum occurred in four patients, three to 22 years after cholecystectomy. No patient was readmitted with a carcinoma of the proximal colon. These data fail to support a relationship between cholecystectomy and the subsequent development of a cancer of the cecum or ascending colon.