[When is the invasive diagnosis necessary in congenital cardiopathies?].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Baccarani.
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The history of antenatal diagnosis of congenital cardiac defects using ultrasound is briefly reviewed. A series of 277 pregnancies were prospectively examined; 203 were normal and 19 diagnosis of congenital heart disease were made. A correct diagnosis of the anomaly was made in 14 cases and the diagnosis was partially correct in 4 cases. There was 1 false-positive.
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The frequency of operations on the knee, particularly on the antero-medial aspect, involving damage or section of sensory nerves, prompted the authors to carry out an accurate research on the innervation of this region. This revealed many variations of the normal anatomy which have been classified and illustrated in detail.
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A case of a 12 year old girl who presented tetralogy of Fallot (T. o F.) associated with Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Drainage (TAPVD) is described. This association is extremely rare, only four autopsied cases being reported in literature. TAPVD is associated with complex cyanotic congenital heart diseases in about one third of cases; asplenia or polysplenia are generally present. Double outlet right ventricle (DORV) is the commonest trunco-conal malformation associated with TAPVD; extremely rare is T. o F. Pulmonary outflow tract obstruction can avoid the haemodynamic consequences due to obstruction on the venous channel, or progression to pulmonary hypertension. The association of the two malformations can masquerade the clinical and Xray picture of TAPVD and make difficult the diagnosis during cardiac catheterization.
The introduction of christiansen's prosthesis for the head of the femur has altered the balance between the two alternative surgical solutions for subcapital fractures of the neck of the femur (osteosynthesis and endoprosthesis). The writers report their results on the first forty-five patients treated surgically with the new prosthesis, illustrating its functional advantages as compared with the "single block" endoprosthesis. The risk of wear and tear of the acetabulum is practically abolished.
The authors review eighty cases of pertrochanteric and subtrochanteric fractures of the femur treated surgically with the vitallium Jewett nail-plate between May 1975 and November 1977. They draw attention to the possibility offered by this fixation device of starting weight bearing at an early stage, a factor that is unanimously regarded as essential for rapid recovery in the elderly fracture patient. In fact, fifty-six patients commenced independent walking with some support within two weeks of operation. The fairly low incidence of complications (six in eighty operations), and the relative simplicity of the surgical technique, support the Jewett nail-plate as a suitable device for rigid fixation of trochanteric fractures of the neck of the femur.
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Infectious endocarditis involving intracardiac prosthesis continues to be a common and dangerous complication of cardiac surgery, but the incidence and severity of the disease are probably underestimated in this country. 14 cases of prosthetic endocarditis observed in a 5 years period are reported in this paper. 7 were early cases and 7 late cases. Etiology, clinical course, and pathological lesions, were similar in the two groups, while mortality was higher in the first group (100%) than in the second (85%). Delay in the diagnosis, negative blood cultures in a third of all cases, and doubts in indications for surgery, were the main reasons for a higher mortality than usual. Only one patient was reoperated on, unsuccessfully, but no patient who had not improved after two weeks of correct antibiotic treatment, survived; such cases, especially if diagnosis has been late and/or blood cultures negative, should be reoperated on without delay. The greatest efforts should be made in the prevention of the disease and, in particular, pre-operative and late post-operative prophylaxis should become more rigid and systematic.
A case of the Holt-Oram syndrome is described, that is, the association of a skeletal anomaly of the superior limbs, with a constant involvment of the thumbs, and an ostium secundum defect with a prolonged P-R interval. The case presented has the peculiarity of being sporadic, while from the literature a familiarity is almost constant via an autosomic dominant hereditary transmission. The more common syndromes were an alteration of the superior limbs is associated with a congenital cardiopathy are schematically underlined. Finally, the embriological reasons of this not rare association are briefly discussed.
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In a case of fetal heart failure caused by endocardial fibroelastosis, prenatal echocardiography clearly demonstrated a thickened endocardium. We therefore suggest that an abnormal endocardium may be detected in utero by ultrasound, thus representing an important clue in the differential diagnosis of fetal nonimmune hydrops and in the evaluation of pregnancies at risk for endocardial fibroelastosis.
The authors report the results of 18 hemiarthroplasties of the shoulder performed between 1990 and 1994 using the Neer II monoblock prosthesis, emphasizing the technical and surgical problems encountered. The patients treated numbered 13 for traumatic pathology (acute fractures: 7; sequelae of fracture of the proximal epiphysis of the humerus: 6), and 5 for degenerative lesions (arthrosis: 3; rheumatoid arthritis: 2). An evaluation of the results was based on the Constant method and isokinetic testing. Results based on follow-up obtained after 2 to 6 years were satisfactory in 83% of the cases.
It is the purpose of this study to verify whether or not there is a correlation between some parameters for cartilaginous injury (width, depth, and type of injury), analyzed separately, and the medium to long-term prognosis of the same. Thus, the parameters were analyzed, correlating them individually with the results obtained when a self-evaluation form was used, and the Lysholm-Gillquist score system. The small number of patients (because of the strict criteria for inclusion) does not allow for a statistically valid analysis of the results obtained. At any rate, the following considerations may be made: the depth parameter for the injury may be a valid element alone in determining a medium- to long-term prognosis; this agrees with what is reported in the literature. The parameter for width of the injury, based on our results, does not appear to be a sufficient element to determine a correlation with future prognosis. As for the type of lesion parameter, this could be correlated with the prognosis. Studies conducted in this sense with higher numbers of patients could determine the type of injury with the worst prognosis.