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Music therapy for premature babies in neonatal units: current approaches and practices. The practice of music therapy for premature newborns may question or divide the professionals working in neonate care. True, this care practice isn't well known, especially in France. The effective job of a music therapist, not yet state recognized, might be confusing for some: musician, activity leader in musical mediation, or even worst occult speaker bearer of bad news? Music therapy is far from those few pictures. In this article, we aim to present, through a largely qualitative approach, the current practices of music therapy, in three separate fields: neurology, physiology and behaviors, and psycho sociology. Differences between the use of live or recorded music, adjusted or not to the infant reactions, are analyzed. The advantages of a music therapy delivered by a professional music therapist are proved, especially in the field of neurodevelopment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of the neuropeptide kisspeptin and of its role in the regulation of reproduction have been a breakthrough in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms mastering this physiological function. Several pharmacological and genetic approaches using animal models have shown that kisspeptin directly stimulates GnRH and consequently gonadotrophins secretion. The two main kisspeptin populations are located in the preoptic area and arcuate nucleus. These populations are the target of the positive and negative feedback of sexual hormones. Due to its central role in the stimulation of GnRH secretion, the effect of kisspeptin has been the focus of clinical studies evaluating its capacity to treat some reproductive pathologies. Promising results have been obtained for in vitro fertilization therapy and for the treatment of hypothalamic amenorrhea. Preliminary studies were also performed in patients affected by the polycystic ovary syndrome and by hypofertility due to type II diabetes. All together, these results show that the modulation of the kisspeptin system is a promising therapeutic opportunity. In the future, thanks to the creation of synthetic molecules capable to palliate some limitation of the endogenous molecules, clinical research based on the modulation of the kisspeptin system will certainly gain momentum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peritoneal carcinomatosis is often considered a point of no return in the management of digestive tumors. The natural history of digestive carcinomatosis shows that the spontaneous evolution of this disease is dark with an average survival of about six months, regardless of the primitive site. The precise knowledge of the anatomy of the peritoneum and a better understanding of its physiopathology have made it possible to modify somewhat the prognosis of this pathology by considering it not as a true metastasis, but as a loco-regional disease that can be treated as such. This approach led to the development, especially under the leadership of Paul H. Sugarbaker at the Washington Cancer Institute, of cytoreductive surgery with intraperitoneal chemohyperthermy techniques that made this disease treatable in selected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical compression dates back to centuries and is still a matter of many questions. A major one is "how this treatment works", which remains unclear. Numerous are physiological changes under compression at various levels of macro- and microcirculations. Pressure exerted by medical devices is variable from patient to patient and consequently dose-effect link is hard to interpret. Nonetheless, three major effects of compression therapy can be highlighted: the calf muscle-pump increase, the cutaneous fluid drainage and the decrease of transmural pressure in vein walls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]