Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H D Reines.
Autotransfusion is an accepted adjunct to the treatment of massive bleeding associated with intra-abdominal trauma. We describe a case of massive air embolism during autotransfusion for a gunshot wound to the vena cava. Treatment required thoracotomy and direct aspiration of air. The patient recovered without sequelae.
Monitoring has now developed to the extent that it is widely accepted if used properly and that it benefits patients at great risk. We must accept the place that monitoring now occupies, as aptly put by the late Myron Laver, "What we once considered appropriate for the academic environment has now become mundane and almost a mandatory maneuver if we are to navigate the ill through their complex physiological and biochemical perturbations. We are no longer limited to the recording of heart sounds and electrical activity." We now have the capabilities of monitoring physiologic parameters that can affect the course of the surgical patient. When applied with logic based on physical and historic information, invasive and noninvasive hemodynamic-pulmonary monitoring can be extremely helpful to the practicing plastic surgeon.
Twenty-five patients with sepsis were studied retrospectively to examine the effects of methylprednisolone on plasma thromboxane B2 levels. Although the plasma iTxB2 level was elevated in patients dying from sepsis, the use of glucocorticoids did not reduce plasma iTxB2. Aspirin, a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor, did reduce the plasma iTxB2 value in four patients. It does not appear that glucocorticosteroids significantly affect the conversion of arachidonic acid to thromboxane in septic patients.
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Learning style analysis is being used at many educational levels to individualize the instructional process. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) in particular has been employed to determine the learning preferences of medical students and physicians in family practice, internal medicine, and anesthesiology. This investigation was undertaken to discover whether there exists a characteristic learning profile for surgery as a specialty. The Kolb LSI was administered to 39 surgical personnel. Kolb's Converger was the preferred learning style type of the study group (46%). Accommodator (26%) and Assimilator (20%) were next, followed by Diverger (8%). These results suggest that there is an identifiable surgical learning style that can provide a referential basis for teaching and counseling during residency training.
The role of arachidonic acid metabolites in oleic acid-induced lung injury in anesthetized dogs was investigated. Oleic acid was administered as a bolus injection into the pulmonary artery in the following dose sequence: 0.05, 0.10, and 0.20 ml/kg at 30, 60, and 120 min, respectively, after either indomethacin (10 mg/kg iv) or vehicle. A control group (n = 3) received normal saline instead of oleic acid. Measurements of hemodynamic parameters, mean systemic (MAP), pulmonary capillary wedge, and pulmonary artery pressures (PAP), cardiac output, arterial blood gases, extravascular lung waters (EVLW) by thermaldye double indicator dilution techniques and plasma immunoreactive thromboxane B2 ( iTxB2 ), by radioimmunoassay were obtained at zero time (baseline) and 20 min following each oleic acid injection. A new noninvasive technique was employed to measure pulmonary capillary protein leak by the scintigraphic analysis of intravenously administered technetium-99m radiolabeled human serum albumin ( 99mTc -HSA) in the cardiac and lung regions. Oleic acid injection caused a significant dose related fall in MAP (P less than 0.0002), arterial pO2 (P less than 0.0001), and cardiac output (P less than 0.001), and increases in EVLW (P less than 0.003) and plasma iTxB2 (P less than 0.02) in the vehicle pretreated animals, while mean PAP remained unchanged. In contrast, in the indomethacin pretreated dogs, MAP, EVLW, cardiac output, and plasma iTxB2 levels did not change from baseline values and there was an increase in mean PAP. Pulmonary vascular resistance was significantly elevated (P less than 0.05) in both groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The potential role of thromboxane (TxA2), a platelet aggregator and vasoconstrictor, and prostacyclin (PGI2) a platelet anti-aggregator and vasodilator, in endotoxic and septic shock was investigated. Early endotoxic shock in the rat is associated with marked elevations of plasma TxB2 (the stable metabolite of TxA2) and lesser increases in plasma 6-keto-PGF1 alpha (the stable metabolite of PGI2). Selective inhibition of TxA2 synthesis by several different chemical classes of Tx synthetase inhibitors was beneficial in endotoxic shock. In contrast, shock induced by acute intra-abdominal sepsis in the rat was characterized by high levels of plasma 6-keto-PGF1 alpha, which exceeded plasma TxA2 six- to eight fold at most time intervals studied. Tx synthetase inhibitors were not protective in this model of acute sepsis, but treatment with fatty acid cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors, an antibiotic (gentamicin), or reduction in arachidonic acid metabolism by essential fatty acid (EFA) deficiency significantly prolonged survival time. An important aspect of the latter study is that decreased arachidonic acid metabolism was an effective adjunct to antibiotic therapy. Conjoint administration of gentamicin in EFA-deficient rats or with indomethacin synergistically improved long-term survival, a result that was not evident with single treatment interventions. In addition to experimental studies, plasma TxB2 levels were measured during clinical sepsis. These studies demonstrated that plasma TxB2 levels were elevated tenfold in patients dying of septic shock compared with septic survivors or nonseptic controls. These composite experimental and clinical observations suggest that arachidonic acid metabolites play a role in the pathogenesis of endotoxic and septic shock.
Biliary cystadenomas and cystadenocarcinomas are among the rare neoplasms of the biliary ductal system. This article presents 3 adult patients in whom such large multiloculated biliary tumors were diagnosed. The characteristic features noted on ultrasonography, computed tomography, and angiography of the liver are illustrated and the literature is reviewed.
Reported are two cases of thigh compartment syndrome following application of a pneumatic antishock trouser suit. Both patients developed compartment syndromes after prolonged antishock suit use in the absence of any apparent leg trauma. We recommend that suit compartment pressures be no more than required to restore adequate blood pressure. The duration of application should be no longer than is clinically necessary. Patients with prolonged application (greater than 120 minutes) should be closely monitored for the development of compartment syndromes.
Acute renal failure (ARF) was induced in two groups of unilaterally nephrectomized dogs by occluding the renal artery, vein, and ureter of the remaining kidney for 2 hours. The control group (Group I), had no therapy; in the experimental group (Group II), isovolemic hemodilution was carried out using 6% hydroxy ethyl starch (HES) as diluent. The hematocrit in the experimental animals was lowered from 41.62 +/- 3.6% to 23.75 +/- 5.2% after renal occlusion. The mean arterial pressure and the mean pulmonary arterial pressure were unchanged in either group. Cardiac output increased following hemodilution from 1.66 +/- 0.35 to 2.70 +/- 0.50 L/min while it remained unchanged in Group I. Control animals developed ARF characterized by progressive rise in serum creatinine concentration and death. Only 1/7 Group I animals was alive on day 7 compared to 7/7 of Group II (p less than 0.01). ARF that developed initially in Group II began to resolve after day 4. There was a progressive and significant fall in serum creatinine concentration from 6.48 +/- 0.67 mg/dl on day 4 to 4.08 +/- 0.83 mg/dl on day 7 (p less than 0.001). Immediate isovolemic hemodilution with HES can reverse ARF induced by ischemia.
Thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs) were read from 31 patients with multisystem trauma after emergency stabilization to determine radiation dosage from diagnostic studies. Exposures did not greatly exceed permissible dose limits for the general population.
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Central venous plasma concentrations of thromboxane B2 (TXB2) the stable metabolite of the vasoconstrictor platelet aggregator thromboxane A2, were measured in 12 patients with septic shock. In 8 patients dying with septic shock the concentration of plasma TXB2 (912 +/- 250 pg/ml) was ten times higher than that in 4 survivors of septic shock (92 +/- 25 pg/ml) and 6 controls (91 +/- 18 pg/ml). Prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin time were significantly prolonged in nonsurvivors compared with survivors. Similarly, the alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient was significantly raised in nonsurvivors (233 +/- 39 mm Hg) compared with survivors (112 +/- 47 mm Hg). This study demonstrates that the metabolism of arachidonic acid to thromboxanes is increased in patients dying of septic shock and this raises the possibility that thromboxanes may be involved in the disseminated intravascular coagulation and respiratory distress syndrome associated with severe sepsis.
Percutaneous thin needle aspiration biopsy (TNAB) of solid abdominal masses is an established technique. Combining the techniques of TNAB with those of percutaneous biliary and renal drainage can result in successful nonoperative management of abdominal abscesses. Twenty consecutive patients were referred for this procedure. TNAB alone was performed in 4 patients. TNAB followed by percutaneous drainage was accomplished in 16 patients. Of the 4 patients who had TNAB alone, it was curative in 2, and 2 were elected to have surgical drainage. Of the 16 patients who underwent percutaneous drainage, it was curative in 14. One patient was discovered at surgery to have a necrotic malignant tumor. A second patient required surgery.
In a prospective, randomized study, the effectiveness of chest physiotherapy (CPT) was evaluated in preventing postoperative atelectasis in children after heart surgery. Postoperative clinical variables and chest x-ray findings of atelectasis were compared in two groups: 19 patients receiving CPT and 25 patients not receiving CPT (NCPT). Chest physiotherapy was associated with significantly more frequent (p less than 0.01) and more severe (p less than 0.01) atelectasis than NCPT. Atelectasis was not significantly associated with temperature elevation, age, or presence of preoperative left-to-right shunt.
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Over the past 12 years, 25 patients with liver abscess have been treated at the Medical University of South Carolina. Their clinical course was compared with a previous series of 22 patients from this institution reported in 1968. Our findings were discussed in the light of clinical aspects of liver abscess reported in the surgical literature over the past four decades. These comparisons show a diminishing role of amebic infection and appendicitis as etiologic factors in the development of liver abscess. Immunologic deficiencies are emerging as an important etiologic category. Over the past decade, anaerobic organisms have demonstrated a more obvious role in this infection. The clinical presentation of these patients in recent years has been characterized by an increasingly chronic pattern rather than the frequent septic presentation of the preantibiotic era. Over the past two decades, the mortality of liver abscess has diminished markedly in spite of few changes in operative approach. This is partly due to earlier, accurate diagnosis with the use of liver scanning. Hopefully, this trend will continue with the more frequent use of new diagnostic techniques, such as computerized axial tomography, and with improvement of pre- and postoperative care.