Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Fornari.
Twenty-four cases of supratentorial primary arachnoid cysts operated with different techniques are reviewed: both cyst shunting or extirpation may lead to a good early clinical result, but the former is less dangerous and more indicated in a particular group of patients; late results are better in the shunted patients. CT scan is almost always diagnostic and is mandatory postoperatively to assess the late results.
An immunological evaluation was performed before therapy and every four months during the first year of treatment with auranofin in 6 children with juvenile chronic arthritis. The immunological tests included: IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE and "natural" antibody serum levels, CH50 of the classical and alternative complement pathways, PWM-induced IgM production in vitro, and polymorphonuclear neutrophil functions. A reduction of the in vitro IgM synthesis and in the CH50 of the classical pathway of complement, and a normalization of impaired chemotaxis, occurred in patients who presented a clinically significant improvement during auranofin treatment.
Two groups of patients with transient ischaemic attack and minor stroke without detectable haemodynamic stenotic lesions were evaluated by neuropsychological tests and compared with a control group. The mean values of the scores adjusted for age and educational background demonstrated that the patients with transient ischaemic attack did not have a worse performance than normal subjects in any of the tests, the patients with minor stroke had a worse performance than normals, particularly in Rey's figure-copying test (P less than 0.025), and the latter test was not affected by educational background or age of the subjects. The results are discussed with reference to other case series, and the importance of age and cerebral damage in causing intellectual impairment evaluated by neurophysiological tests is stressed.
The clinical and neuroradiological findings and the surgical results in a series of 18 patients with meningiomas of the lateral ventricles, operated on over a 23-year period, are described. This experience is compared with previously reported series and the following conclusions are drawn: 1) these tumors have no characteristic symptomatology; 2) the preoperative diagnosis should be reached by means of both computerized tomography and carotid and vertebral angiography; 3) the safest surgical approach is through a sagittal paramedian parieto-occipital cortical incision; and 4) piecemeal removal is crucial for achieving total extirpation of the tumor with minimum damage of the surrounding brain tissue and for careful intraoperative hemostasis.
Spontaneous spinal epidural haematomas are rare and in only about 10% of the reported cases has the vascular sources of the bleeding been detected. A case of acute cerivcal epidural haematoma, arising fro a ruptured vascular malformation, successfully operated on, is presented. Clinical, neuroradiological, and pathological findings are described in detail. Significance of postoperative selective spinal angiography is discussed.
An aneurysmal bone cyst of the occipital bone, presenting as an intracranial space-occupying lesion, is reported. Clinical and neuroradiological findings are described in detail. The significance of angiographic and computerized tomographic findings is discussed.
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In the present work we have studied two consecutive series of patients who underwent a posterior abdominal rectopexy according to Wells or Ripstein. During the year of follow up no recurrences were observed. Functional results, evaluated according to a protocol, by history of the patient and manovolumetry, shoved an improvement of fecal continence in more than half of the incontinents in both series. However, constipation increased after Wells' rectopexy, while no major changes were observed after Ripstein's rectopexy. We conclude that the first surgical technique may offers worse functional results.
The relapses of the multinodular goitre, often linked with an insufficient surgical treatment of primitive lesions, make serious problems about the operating technique. The current guidance of surgeons is directed towards the complete thyroidectomy which profits, during the operating time, by the use of microscope to identify and to protect the recurrent nerves. This equipment has to be used by those equipped which know how to use it. In our work we report the results obtained with this technique and it's underlined how the complete thyroidectomy for the benign relapsing goitre could be considered curative towards those cases which present hidden microcarcinoma.
Mesotheliomas are mesenchymal neoplasms which originate in the lining membrane of various serous cavities: pleural, pericardial and peritoneal. Peritoneal mesotheliomas are extremely rare. They are usually seen to middle to old age, predominate in men. We report a case and show the most recent concepts about histology, pathology, diagnosis and medical-surgical therapy of these diseases.
Functional changes after the posterior abdominal rectopexy for the treatment of rectal prolapse are not fully understood. We studied the effects of Wells' or Ripstein's rectopexy on functional characteristics as related to anal sphincter function, rectal volume and sensory function in 21 patients with complete rectal prolapse. We have observed an improvement of continence over 70 per cent in both groups. However, an absent or a decreased call to stool, constipation and evacuation difficulties are the aftermath of Wells' rectopexy, while these complaints appear basically unaffected by Ripstein's technique. Sensory thresholds for sense of filling and urge were significantly raised after Wells' rectopexy even one year after operation, whereas after Ripstein's operation sense of filling was not significantly affected and while sense of urge was increased early postoperatively, it was not significantly changed at one year postoperative control. In conclusion, when fecal incontinence appears associated to a complete rectal prolapse has good chances to improve postoperatively. Preoperative evacuation difficulties seems to be unaffected by a posterior abdominal rectopexy, Wells or Ripstein, but an extensive dissection of the rectum with the division of the lateral stalks, as it is performed in Wells' operation, seems to be a procedure that can create a further burden of problems to the patient and it seems coupled to a manovolumetric elevation of rectal sensory thresholds.
Phlebography is a test known for a long time: although by this time it is supported and, in a way, substituted by some substantial and not surgical methods like the doppler test, doppler echography, plethysmography and the duplex scanner. This test makes it possible for us to achieve precise diagnosis rapidly and in an unequivocal way, especially in those cases in which the mentioned methods don't give final results. Nowadays phlebography has to be optimized and adapted to clinical request, in order to provide a through diagnostic result. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of this methodology using a group of selected patients for the test.
Edwards (or trisomy 18) syndrome, with a frequency of about 1 over 8000 births, is commonly characterized by a very short survival; those rare cases reported with ages of 12 months or more, always were demonstrated to be chromosomic mosaicisms. Two affected children with completely different outcomes are here described; the first with a classic short-life evolution, in opposition to the second with long survival, the last a good example of all those various biological, psychological and social support interventions in these circumstances, very rare to match with, for this appears to be a trisomy 18 without mosaicism.
This work shows the results obtained by the comparison between a period in which obstructive icterus was treated only surgically and a mixed period, based on endoscopic or endoscopic surgical treatment. In a period of 9 years (1979-87), 186 patients suffering from obstructive icterus were admitted into the 1st Division of General Surgery at Ospedale Maria Vittoria, Turin. In the first five years (1979-83) all the patients (78) were indistinctly operated after the usual diagnostic controls. In the following four years (1983-87) 62 out of 108 patients, considered as high-risk ones, underwent drainage by endoscopic way. In the high-risk patients, both neoplastic and not, morbidity rate, death rate and average stay in hospital were evidently lower after endoscopic or endoscopic-surgical treatment than after surgery alone. In conclusion, endoscopic pre-operating drainage in selected and/or high-risk patients greatly reduces perioperative complications and mortality.
Surgical correction of laparocele is still today a problem for the surgeon. Physiopathological aspects, preparation to surgery and most of all the indications to the use of synthetic prosthesis are reviewed. Easy application and lesser evidence of recurrency and complications suggest a wider field of indications of these procedures. Attention should be payed to the rules of a careful operative technique involving the use of foreign bodies.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.