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Biomedical subjects

V Artigas

Publications and source records attributed to V Artigas.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1989

Gastric emptying and bezoars.

Bezoars are conglomerates of undigested material in the stomach, which appear as a late complication of gastric surgery and are presumably related to secondary motility changes. We studied the gastric emptying of a technetium-99m-(Tc 99m) labelled solid meal in 10 patients who presented with a bezoar 1 to 20 years after vagotomy and pyloroplasty, vagotomy and antrectomy, vagotomy and gastrojejunostomy, or hemigastrectomy. The results were compared with the emptying data of operated patients without bezoars. The gastric retention of Tc 99m-labelled solids at 45, 75, and 105 minutes was 85 +/- 15 percent (mean +/- SD), 79 +/- 17 percent, and 65 +/- 24 percent, respectively. No differences were found when results were compared with those of operated patients without bezoars. We concluded that factors other than the gastric digestive phase are the main contributors to bezoar formation.

Aged↗
PubMed1989

The influence of age on early surgical treatment of acute cholecystitis.

This study was undertaken to assess the influence of age on the early surgical treatment of acute cholecystitis. One hundred consecutive patients who had early operations for acute cholecystitis were divided into two groups according to age. Group 1 consisted of 41 patients who were younger than 60 years of age, and group 2 was made up of 59 patients who were more than 60 years of age. Shock, leukocytosis, hyperglycemia and uremia were more common in those patients in group 2 (p less than 0.05). The over-all diagnostic effectiveness was 94 per cent. The mortality rate was 4.1 per cent (n = 4). There were no significant differences in morbidity and mortality between both groups. In conclusion, advanced age is not a contraindication for early surgical treatment of acute cholecystitis.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1986

Meckel's diverticulum: value of ectopic tissue.

Cases of symptomatic Meckel's diverticulum treated surgically on an emergency basis during the last decade are reviewed. A series of 18 patients were divided into two groups depending on the presence or absence of ectopic tissue in the diverticulum. Group 1 consisted of five patients (28 percent) without ectopic tissue, and Group 2 consisted of 13 patients (72 percent) with ectopic tissue (8 gastric ectopia, 2 pancreatic ectopia, and 3 both gastric and pancreatic ectopia). Previous clinical records related to Meckel's diverticulum were found for 54 percent of the patients in Group 2 and for none of those in Group 1. The most common acute manifestations were intestinal occlusion (seven patients), digestive hemorrhage (five patients), and peritonitis (three patients). The postoperative course was 7 days in Group 1 and 15 days in Group 2 regardless of the surgical technique used. We conclude that the presence of ectopic tissue in patients with Meckel's diverticulum seems to be the main risk for occurrence of an acute nonmechanical complication. This complication appears more frequently and with more severity in young patients.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Splenic abscess.

We present 7 cases of splenic abscess collected in our hospital from 1980 to 1988 as well as a review of 227 cases of the world literature. The signs and symptoms are nonspecific in all of them, fever being the most constant. Computed tomography scan followed by sonography were demonstrated to be the best methods of diagnosis. The treatment carried out on all of our patients was splenectomy followed by antibiotic coverage. Two of them died 15 days after the operation due to persistence of the septic state. In our review of the literature, we observe a rise in the population at risk for splenic abscess due to an increase in the use of immunosuppressive agents, to the higher survival of leukemic patients, and to the great incidence of drug abuse among others. Nevertheless, the advances in the use of sonography and computed tomography scan have made possible a more accurate diagnosis, therefore making possible an earlier treatment and a better prognosis. We believe that the treatment of choice is splenectomy with conservative treatment used only in specific cases where surgery represents a high risk for the patient.

Abscess↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Perineal necrotizing infection.

Perineal necrotizing infection is a severe disease that ever since its first description by Fournier in 1883 has been referred to by many names prompted by its protean nature in terms of location and suspected etiology. We treated nine patients with PNI. The infection began as a perineal abscess of long evolution (7 days +/- 2 SD) in eight patients. The ninth patient had had an inguinal herniorrhaphy 3 days before. The cultures of the exudates and tissues always yielded aerobic and anaerobic mixed flora of colorectal origin, except in one instance, in which S. aureus and hemolytic streptococcus A were identified. The treatment was medical support and wide surgical debridement of the infected tissues. In six patients a left transverse colostomy was performed. Only one patient died, of septic shock. On the basis of the results in our series and on a review of the literature, it is our opinion that PNI is a mixed bacterial infection that despite its origin, clinical appearance and microbiologic findings, is highly uniform in terms of clinical course and treatment. Therapy is based on radical surgical debridement with excision of all necrotic tissue. The current plethora of terms seems impractical and confusing. We propose a rather comprehensive term perineal necrotizing infection for the sake of clarity.

Adult↗