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Permanent seed brachytherapy as a monotherapy is an appropriate treatment in patients with low risk localized prostate cancer such as intraprostatic cancer, T1-2 stage, PSA less than 10 ng/mL, low tumour volume, well differentiated cancer (Gleason score less than 7), gland size less than 50 mL, no micturition symptoms that could decompensate after implantation. A brachytherapy program needs a specialized multidisciplinary team with the collaboration of urologists, radiotherapists (authorized person to manipulate radioactive elements), and physicists. The 10-year oncologic and morbidity results have been published in the literature and are comparable to those of other standard treatments of localized prostate cancer such as radical prostatectomy and external beam radiation therapy.

The authors present a series of 30 patients treated by pericavernoplasty involving insertion of a prosthetic venous tourniquet. At 1 year, 60% of the patients obtained a good result. The preoperative selection criteria were: impossibility of penetration without manual assistance, normal arterial Doppler and hormone assays, high erection induction and maintenance flow rates, failure of simple medical treatments and perineal rehabilitation. The current problem concerns the objective evaluation of the compliance of erectile tissues. A possible approach in the future could be cavernous biopsy, which would allow the proposal of either venous surgery or the immediate insertion of a prosthesis.

Based on a series of 209 cases, the authors investigate the aetiological factors responsible for vesical instability in adult females. Fifty five p. cent of patients suffered from incontinence due to isolated urgency. These patients presented a history of neurological disturbances in 21 cases, total hysterectomy in 22 cases and surgery for incontinence in 54 cases. Sixty p. cent of cases presented with genital prolapse. There were 7 cases of urinary tract infection, 2 cases of renal stones and 2 bladder tumours. Urodynamic studies revealed 60 dysuric syndromes. The responsibility of urinary tract infection or genital prolapse in the development of vesical instability is questionable. Nevertheless, the frequency of genital prolapse in the present series argues in favour of deficiency of the perineal musculature which decreases the capacity for inhibition of the detrusor. Lastly, 40% of patients did not have any neurological causes or any vesical or adjacent pathology. These cases were described as idiopathic vesical instability for which the aetiopathogenesis remains unknown.

We report 49 tumors of the upper urinary tract treated between 1980 and 1988. Intravenous pyelography with direct opacification technics gave the diagnosis in 83.7% of patients. Ultrasonography and computed tomography were only reliable for tumors of renal pelvis. Urinary cytology gave good results only in high grade invasive transitional cell carcinoma. Nephro-ureterectomy is always recommended.

Between 1985 and 1988, 10 female patients between the ages of 35 and 76 years, suffering from dysuria after surgical correction of urinary stress incontinence (7 sub-urethral bands, 3 colposuspensions) were observed. The abnormality of the course of the urethra compressed anteriorly against the symphysis pubis, observed on clinical examination and on intravenous pyelography as well as urodynamic investigations allowed this dysuria to be attributed to a cervico-urethral obstruction resulting from over correction during the initial surgical operation. The 10 patients were treated by urethro-cervicolysis (9 out of 10) associated with repeated colposuspension in 3 cases. The overall results were disappointing as although 8 of the 10 patients were improved at 3 month, only 4 out of 9 were still improved at 6 months. These poor results raise the question of the value of combining urethro-cervicolysis with colposuspension and possible VY plasty of the bladder neck.

287 urethral strictures were treated between 1974 and 1984. Two-stage urethroplasty provided 47.6% of good results at 5 years, although there was a possibility of very delayed recurrences. Endoscopic urethrotomy only gave 26% of good results at 5 years, while 30% of good results were obtained after dilatation with Olbert's sound. Endourethral techniques do not compete with two-stage urethroplasty, provided they are performed repeatedly.

Twenty-six patients have been operated by pericavernoplasty with a band of synthetic material. After 1 year, 61.6% had a good result. Venous leaking is certainly a disease of the corpora cavernosa.

The method of treating urethral strictures described in this article is inspired from the technique for percutaneous angioplasty, using an inflatable catheter. It provides good immediate results in 80% of cases, regardless of the localization of the stricture and the previous treatment.

The authors report thirty nine cases of primary vesicorenal reflux in adults, involving sixty nine ureters. The series includes two women for every three men, with an onset normally in the twenties (the average age was 28 years and 6 months). In 86.6% of the patients, the disorder was revealed by urinary infections, and the case history extended back over an average of eight years. The urinary infection had a severe impact on the renal parenchyma, so that 54% of the patients presented with bilateral parenchymal lesions. Isotopic cystography appears to provide a more sensitive diagnostic tool than conventional radiological cystography, and the radiation effects are far less pronounced, so that the examination can be repeated more frequently in search of intermittent refluxes in patients with pyelonephritic lesions. The surgical management is by uretero-vesical reimplantation. The authors presently prefer Cohen's technique, which gives 88% good results. On the other hand, after surgical élimination of the urinary infection, the pyelonephritic lesions or renal insufficiency are irreversible, but they remain stable.

In this article, the authors study the real obstetrical and neonatal effects of urinary infection in pregnant women. Basing themselves on 225 cases of gravidic urinary infection, the authors discuss asymptomatic bacteriuria, the need of early diagnosis in risk patients, and the use of regular post-treatment monitoring, in view of the fact that, even when well-treated, this complaint is apt to recur.

In connection with a prospective study of 200 expectant mothers, the authors discuss the disorders of the lower urinary tract in the course, and at the end, of pregnancy, which are reversible in the vast majority of cases. They also describe the physiopathological mechanisms of lasting sequelae and the precautions to be taken at the time of childbirth in women identified as high-risk vesico-urethral cases.