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Biomedical subjects

R Amgwerd

Publications and source records attributed to R Amgwerd.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Imipenem (N-F-thienamycin) versus netilmicin plus clindamycin. A controlled and randomized comparison in intra-abdominal infections.

In a randomized study the clinical and bacteriologic effectiveness of imipenem was compared with the classical combination of netilmicin with clindamycin in patients who had surgery for an intraperitoneal infection, localized or generalized, with positive bacteriologic findings of the specimen taken at surgery. Excluded were all patients who received other antibiotics before surgery, or who died within 3 days after antibiotic therapy was started. Imipenem was given at a dose of 500 mg t.i.d., clindamycin 600 mg t.i.d., and netilmicin according to serum levels. The diagnoses ranged from postoperative peritonitis, gallbladder empyema, perforated gastroduodenal ulcer, small bowel perforation with and without obstruction, and perforated appendicitis to perforation of the colon. The bacteriologic work-up included examination of the primary specimen (aerobic and anaerobic), the urine, feces, and serologic testing for Candida albicans once or twice a week and after the course of antibiotic therapy. In addition, pH measurements of abscesses and drainage fluids were performed. Ninety-three patients entered the study. Forty-seven patients were treated with imipenem (test group), and 46 patients were treated with the combination therapy (control group). The two groups did not show significant differences in age, sex, diagnostic groups, risk factors, primary bacteriology, and duration of therapy (mean: 6.7 days). Thirty-eight patients (80.9%) treated with imipenem were cured, six patients (12.8%) were improved, and there were three (6.4%) failures. The respective numbers for the control group were 31 (67.4%), 10 (21.7%), and 5 (10.9%). The mean duration of hospitalization was 19 days for the test group and 24.5 days for the control group. There were four wound infections in the test group and 11 wound infections in the control group. Imipenem is at least as effective in the adjuvant therapy of intra-abdominal infections as the combination of netilmicin with clindamycin.

Adolescent

[When is a simultaneous operation of Meckel's diverticulum indicated: (always--never--or only in special circumstances?)].

Meckel's diverticulum causes in complications 4-16%. These appear, however, only in adolescents. Thus the simultaneous removal of a diverticulum without symptoms is only justified in adolescents. One should renounce to a search and removal in adults. In case of appendectomy indicated by suspected appendicitis with the appendix found to be normal and absent exudation in the abdomen, the search for a Meckel's diverticulum is superfluous. One should also renounce to a search and removal if there is a septic abdominal disease, because a removal in peritonitis is more complicated than the risk of complications a not-removed diverticulum will cause.

Appendectomy

Swiss adjuvant trial (OSAKO 06/74) with chlorambucil, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil plus BCG in node-negative breast cancer patients: nine-year results.

Between 1974 and 1977, a total of 254 patients with stages T1-3a, N0-1, and M0 operable breast cancer (node negative and node positive, stratified) were randomized to either modified radical mastectomy alone or the same surgery and adjuvant chlorambucil, methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil (LMF) plus BCG. After a median follow-up of 9 years (January 1985), we concluded that LMF plus BCG significantly increased relapse-free survival (RFS) in 240 fully evaluated patients, especially postmenopausal women. This gain in RFS ceased to transform into a gain in overall survival (OAS) after 7 years of median follow-up for the whole patient group. In the 122 node-negative patients studied, LMF plus BCG produced a marked increase in RFS up to the fifth year and in OAS up to 8 years after initial surgery, thus prolonging significantly the median disease-free interval compared with surgical control patients. This trend favoring LMF plus BCG-treated patients continues. Although median time to first relapse and to generalized disease were increased in relapsing patients by LMF plus BCG, the subsequent intervals from local relapse to distant disease and from distant metastases to death were equal for both treatment regimens. Subjective and objective acute toxicity from LMF plus BCG was mild. At 9 years of median follow-up, fewer second tumors were noted in the node-negative group receiving LMF plus BCG than in surgical controls.

Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols

[Mezlocillin in the antibiotic therapy of severe bacterial infections in visceral surgery].

Fifty-six patients suffering from severe and very severe bacterial infections received additional antibacterial treatment with mezlocillin following abdominal or chest surgery. There were 18 intestinal-peritoneal infections, 15 pleuropulmonary infections, seven patients with sepsis, six localized abscesses and ten patients receiving perioperative application. In 36 patients treatment had to be initiated before the pathogens had been identified. Twenty patients received mezlocillin alone and 37 in combination with an aminoglycoside. The clinical course and laboratory data were recorded while the patients were receiving antibiotic therapy. In 43 of the 56 patients, most of whom were suffering from mixed infections caused by anaerobes and aerobes or from fecal infections, a cure without complications could be achieved. In six patients a generalized infection was reduced to a local one which could be cured. Eight patients died, six of their surgical primary disease and two of septic complications. Apart from four instances of phlebitis at the site of the infusion, no side-effects resulted from our antibiotic therapy.

Abdomen