The history of intensive care in gastroenterology is briefly discussed. The insertion of intensive care units in the hospital scene is also examined and illustrative examples of emergency cases treated in recent years at the Rome United Hospitals gastroenterology division are presented. It is felt that centres tailored to hospital dimensions should be formed, though their cost is likely to prove a bar to their early institution. Intensive care can, it is urged, be furnished by specialist departments, provided they manage to find a new dimension in keeping with the more difficult tasks involved.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed1977

[Liver damage due to alcohol and acute alcoholic hepatitis].

In 15 patients suffering from slight forms of alcohol-induced liver damage, the clinical picture was so varied that correct diagnosis was only possible on the basis of all anamnestic, clinical, biochemical and histological data. From the histopathological viewpoint, the forms presented as simple hepatic steatosis or acute inflammatory lesion (alcoholic hepatitis). Clinical and histological signs are reversible if the patient stops drinking, whereas if he continues to consume alcohol the prognosis is much more serious. This is why it is important to make correct diagnosis even in slight forms of acute alcoholic hepatopathy.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed1977

[Bone lesions of the foot in diabetic disease].

Arthropathy is increasingly reported in diabetes. In a personal series of 300 subjects with undoubted diabetes mellitus (mean age: 67 yr), five cases of arthropathy (1.6%) were noted. The pathogenesis of this association is discussed, particularly in the light of the concomitance of neuropathy in 4-5 cases. The main clinical signs included: swelling, redness, mal perforans, and pied cubique diabetique. The incubation period of arthropathic lesions is also examined. The medical and surgical treatment of diabetic arthropathy is described.

Aged↗

PubMed1974