Search

In view of the recent evolution of military conflicts, particularly in the Afghan theater, and the conditions in which wounded warriors are managed in the field prior to hospitalization, the authors examine the technical specificities of medical teams, based on studies of avoidable mortality. War surgery has become a separate specialty, following the disappearance in France of the general surgical specialty, of which it was the military coun-terpart. The authors stress the role of hemorrhaging and its treatment, based on three strategies: damage control resuscitation, blood transfusion, and early evacuation within the "golden hour ". The French Armed Forces Health Service, in a new strategic plan, is refocusing its activity on war traumatology, through better education and training of medical-surgical teams and by opening up its scholarship structures to the French civilian public health service sector.

Stomal varices developed in patients with cirrhosis and enterostomy can be source of important haemorrhages. It is a rare event but often recurrent and difficult enough to treat efficiently. In certain cases, consequences can be severe. We report the case of a 63-years-old patient with medical history of hepatic cirrhosis who underwent a radical cystoprostatectomy with urinary derivation type Bricker. Five years afterwards, he developed stomal varices very haemorrhagic treated efficiently by endoscopic way, without any recurrence 12 months later. This observation shows that stomal haemorrhages can be treated by endoscopic way., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Diverticular disease has become a very common condition in elder and more recently in younger patients in western countries that emerged at the turn of the 20th century and since then has become epidemic. An increasing incidence and an earlier onset of the disease lead us to update the current therapeutic indications, especially for surgery in elective condition. Whereas elective colectomy was performed for poorly documented suspicions of diverticulitis in the past, a positive diagnosis of diverticulitis on CT scan is needed. Therefore, indications for colectomy are restricted to patients with medical history of related endocarditis, diabetes mellitus, proven structural abnormalities of collagen, immune deficiency, after a second episode of diverticulitis requiring at least an hospitalisation or after a single complicated diverticulitis (abscess, fistula, stricture). A two-months delay between symptoms and surgery is suitable, and permits to perform preoperatively a colonoscopy in a safe condition to rule out concomitant adenoma or colonic cancer. There is no randomised trial of open versus laparoscopic colectomy in this specific indication. As the lesions of resected colon became more severe due to restricted indications, laparoscopic approach will require more surgical skill and conversion rate might increase. In selected cases, open surgery should be preferred.

The onset of secondary hemorrhagic complications with the development of pancreatic pseudocysts is rare but has a high mortality rate. Management of the hemorrhagic complications of pancreatic pseudocysts is surgical despite the contribution of arterial embolization. We report the observation of a 59-year-old patient who had presented an episode of acute pancreatitis 1 month before consulting for abdominal pain associated with an episode of melena. The CT showed a pancreatic pseudocyst complicated by an intracystic tear, a splenic artery aneurysm in the Wirsung canal, and rupture of the spleen. These three lesions were treated simultaneously with left splenopancreatectomy starting with the splenic vessels. The simultaneous onset of three hemorrhagic complications of a pseudocyst is exceptional and has never been described to our knowledge.

A 44-year-old woman had to undergo repeat laparoscopy, four hours after laparoscopic sigmoidectomy, because of persistent bleeding from the drain. The bleeding caused perioperative shock and necessitated transfusional support. The following day she developed dyspnea, revealing pulmonary oedema. As her respiratory status continued to deteriorate and the bleeding persisted, she was transferred to the intensive care unit on day 2, after corrective laparotomy. The echocardiogram ruled out cardiogenic pulmonary oedema. No inhalation had occurred during the three anaesthetic procedures, and onset several hours after transfusion argued against lesional pulmonary oedema secondary to packed red cell transfusion. Given the context of repeat surgery by laparoscopy because of active bleeding, a diagnosis of lesional pulmonary oedema complicating CO(2) embolism was made. She received symptomatic treatment and her respiratory status gradually improved. Four months later her clinical status was normal. The different causes of postoperative pulmonary oedema and the pathophysiologic mechanisms of pulmonary lesions induced by gas embolism are discussed.

On critically injured patient the decision to perform a damage control laparotomy is based on the volume of transfusion and shock. The aim of the surgery which is to obtain as fast as possible the best hemostasis to limit the peritoneal thermal loss and to perform as soon as possible physiologic restoration in the Intensive Care Unit.

Intralesional massive haemorrhage responsible for inferior vena cava syndrome is a very rare complication of hepatocellular carcinoma. A 36-year-old man with no past medical history was referred to hospital for abdominal pain with clinical and biological signs of internal bleeding. An abdominal CT scan showed a huge right liver mass, with regular margins and a fluid content, indicating a large intratumoral haemorrhage complicating hepatocellular carcinoma. Due to haemodynamic stability and the signs of inferior vena cava compression conservative management was chosen prior to surgical treatment of the tumour. Three months later, the huge liver mass remained unchanged but the inferior vena cava syndrome had decreased and the patient's condition improved. After evaluation of liver function and the extent of the tumour, a surgical procedure was performed via a subcostal incision with midline extension and sternotomy to control the intrapericardial inferior vena cava and perform a veno-venous bypass with the technique used for orthotopic liver transplantation. Then, right hepatectomy (segments V to VIII) was performed with an anterior approach. The postoperative course was uneventful. This two-step strategy allowed successful surgery for this rare complication of a hepatocellular carcinoma on a normal liver and could be recommended for the management of any unruptured intratumoral haemorrhages.

Aim of the Study: Damage control laparotomy is a new approach to the more severe abdominal traumas. It stems from a better understanding of the physiopathology of the haemorragic shock., Patients and Methods: A national retrospective study from 27 centers about 109 trauma patients who underwent a damage control procedure between January 1990 and December 2001, is analysed. Surgical procedures included 97 hepatic packing, 10 abdominal packing, 4 exclusive skin closure, 1 open laparotomy technique and 3 digestive stapplings., Results: The mortality rate is 42%. Eleven abdominal compartment syndromes have occurred with 7 decompressive laparomy (4 deaths)., Conclusion: This study is based on the largest series of damage control laparotomy published in France. Results in terms of mortality and morbidity are similar to those of published studies from the USA.

Reported is a retrospective study carried out from Aristide Le Dantec Hospital in patients who underwent pleuropulmonary surgery after tuberculosis complication, from June 1995 to June 1999. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anaesthesiology procedures and outcomes of tuberculosis pleuropulmonary complications surgery. Seventy nine patients were studied. Their mean age was 34.63 years, and the sex ratio was 3.14. They all underwent general anaesthesia procedures with barbituric, morphinics et myorelaxants drugs. The peroperative complications noted were distributed as follow: 50 cases of haemorrhage needing transfusion, 18 cases of hypotension associated to the anaesthesia. In the intensive care period, we have noticed 30 atelectasia cases associated to a spastic bronchopathy, 3 cases of pulmonary oedema and 1 case of pulmonary infarctus. In the postoperative period, 8 cases of hemodynamic instability occurred, including 5 cases of cardiovascular collapsus treated by filling, and 2 septic shocks cases. An infectious bronchopneumopathy was noticed on 11 patients with two cases of septicaemia. The mortality rate was 6.3% (5 cases of death). The pleuropulmonary surgery in tuberculosis complication is very haemorrhagic, and therefore require an adequate preoperative preparation.

Jean-Louis Petit (1674-1750) was first enthusiastic about anatomy, received a master's certificate in surgery in Paris in 1700, became a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1715, and was named director of the Royal Academy of Surgery by the king when it was created in 1731. He acquired great notoriety because of his skill and experience, thanks to his case reports of hemorrhage, lacrimal fistula, operation on the frenum, for his treatise on bone diseases and especially for his general treatise on surgical operations on which he worked 12 years and which was finished after his death by F.D. Lesne.

The decision to perform damage control laparotomy in a critically injured patients depends on the risk of life-threatening coagulopathy. The main decision criteria are: presence of concomitant injuries, patient history, shock, transfusion volume, hypothermia and acidosis. The aim of surgery is to achieve satisfactory hemostasis, limit peritoneal thermal loss, and perform physiological restoration as rapidly as possible in the intensive care unit. This includes gauze packing of major liver or retroperitoneal injuries and ligation of injured blood vessels. Injuries to the intestine and the urinary tract are sutures, stapled or drained. If the skin borders cannot be reapproximated because of excessive abdominal tension, a wall prosthesis should be used to avoid abdominal compartment syndrome. Reoperation is a dangerous procedure in the immediate postoperative period but must be proposed later for reexploration or damage repair.

Spontaneous retroperitoneal hemorrhage from the kidney was first described in 1700 by Bonet. Wunderlich gave his name to this rare syndrome in 1856. Up to now, 250 cases are reported. This disease entity is associated with an underlying pathology, which may be a benign tumor such an angiomyolipoma or a malignant tumor such renal cell carcinoma. We report two cases whose presenting features were those of this syndrome. We discuss the radiological characteristics including intravenous pyelography, renal angiography, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Preoperative diagnosis is corroborated by surgical exploration and radical nephrectomy. We conclude in recommending computerized tomography as the examination of choice.

We report a retrospective analysis of 100 renal transplantations, mainly from related living donors. The rate of vascular complications was 9%: one arterial hemorrhage due to partial suture failure; one lymphocele; two arterial thrombi, one in the inferior artery leading to fistulization by ureteral necrosis and death following septic rupture of the artery, and one in the renal artery requiring graft removal; and five arterial stenoses, one which regressed spontaneously, one treated by endoluminal angioplasy, one treated surgically, one controlled by medical treatment and one which could not be treated due to secondary hemodialysis after graft rejection. In this series of 100 transplantations, vascular complications were the cause of 16.5% of deaths and 12.5% of post-graft hemodialysis.

The management of severe hepatic trauma may represent a challenge in the presence of haemodynamic instability, coagulopathy, hypothermia or metabolic failure. Moreover, the choice of treatment should consider the prevention of complications. The omentum has many advantages including hemostasis, infection preventing, viability and adaptability to reconstruction as a space filler. We report the case of a 19 year-old patient who sustained a gunshot wound, involving the right elbow and forearm and the abdomen with burst of right kidney and a penetrating centro-hepatic injury (stage IV). Surgical treatment was successfully performed in two times, by gauze packing for temporary control of haemostasis and after 24 hours by omental packing to fill the dead space of hepatic lesion. The viable omentum was placed through the hepatic hole and fixed posteriorly to the skin. The postoperative period was uneventful, excluding the development of a biliary fistula which resolved after external drainage. We conclude that omental packing is a valid solution when dealing with penetrating liver injury.

The authors report the rare case of spontaneous rupture of the aortic isthmus in the absence of preexisting aortic aneurysm or dissection in a hypertensive woman presenting with chest pain and haemomediastinum. The history of trauma 30 years previously, could have been a predisposing factor. The diagnosis of this condition remains difficult and is often missed. The physiopathological, aetiological, clinical and diagnostic features are reviewed. Transoesophageal echocardiography showing an intraparietal haematoma confirmed the aortic origin of the haemomediastinum. Conventional angiography was of no value in the reported case because of the absence of rupture of continuity or of an intimal tear.

The authors describe the case of a female patient who presented with recurrent rectorrhagia of unexplained origin. The diagnosis was wirsungorrhagia complicating advanced calcifying chronic pancreatitis. Analysis of the surgical specimen led to fortuitis discovery of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.

Nephrectomy of a non-functioning renal transplant after renal transplantation is a delicate operation which the authors evaluate on the basis of a retrospective analysis of 62 patients. A review of the literature helps to more clearly define the indications, optimal time of the operation and the operative technique. A subcapsular approach, by simplifying the operation, constitutes an important factor in reducing the operative morbidity in the late forms. "Early" transplantectomies are often more serious because of the recently operated patient's fragile status and immunosuppression, responsible for frequent infectious complications. Transplantectomy should therefore not be delayed once the permanent loss of transplant function has been confirmed.

Spontaneous unilateral haemorrhage of the adrenal gland during the third trimester of pregnancy is a rare event. The diagnosis may be suspected on the basis of echographic or MRI explorations. There is no sign of endocrine dysfunction. The pregnancy may be conducted to term when the diagnosis is probable but echographic monitoring shows the absence of further development. Only one analogous observation based on MRI diagnosis was found in the literature.

Seventeen preoperative variables were collected in order to assess their prognostic value on survival in 82 cirrhotic patients who underwent a portosystemic shunt for ruptured esophageal varices. Univariate analysis showed that the presence of encephalopathy, bad nutritional status, elevated serum bilirubin, low serum albumin, the presence of ascites and Child-Turcotte's or Child-Pugh's C class were significantly associated with a reduction of long-term survival. Multivariate analysis according to the Cox model showed that only encephalopathy and nutritional status were independently associated with survival. Six survival curves were proposed to estimate the survival probability with these 2 preoperative data; encephalopathy had a predominant effect on survival during the first 5 years after surgery.

Documented data on etiopathogenicity and treatment of expulsive hemorrhage are reviewed and a case reported. Validity of a new therapeutic approach to this lesion was confirmed after treatment consisting mainly of posterior choriodialysis combined with a wide Z-shaped scleral incision.

Isolated vitrectomy was employed in half of 1,400 cases operated upon, the other patients receiving an intra-ocular injection of silicone fluid. Emphasis is placed on the simplification undergone by the materials employed, the progress represented by the addition of an autonomous infusion for each instrument complementary to the vitrectomy, and the need for all ophthalmic surgeons, particularly those in training, to become familiar with the use of the vitreotome.

The heavy toll of necrotizing acute pancreatitis led the authors to start developing a new method of treatment in experimental and clinical conditions in 1979. This was aimed on one hand at creating a large channel for the centrifugal drainage of pancreatic or peri-pancreatic foci, and on the other hand at maintaining this draining channel during the first 5 weeks of acute evolution of the acute necrotizing pancreatitis in order to allow the permanent evacuation of purulent or necrotic fragments. From 1979 to 1989, 106 patients were treated with this method, ie. 71 men and 35 women with an average age of 47.9 years. 73 (74%) of these patients had been referred by other hospitals, and 64 only had been initially operated at Saint-Antoine hospital. All patients presented with extensive peripancreatic necrosis. The average Ranson score was 4.8 (not taking the fluid sequestration during the first few hours into account). Visceral failure was observed in 76% of the patients before surgery. The necrosis of the pancreatic gland was focal in 6 cases, extensive in 47 cases and total or subtotal in 25 cases. Out of the 70 CT studies, 64 showed a Ranson grade of E. All patients received enteral feeding on a jejunal site postoperatively. The mortality rate was 16%. The stay of the surviving patients in the intensive care unit averaged 50 days. 29 patients (27%) were reoperated on for complications or insufficient drainage.

The authors report 11 cases of hemorrhage due to vascular ulcerations arising early or late in the course of acute pancreatitis. The seriousness of these hemorrhages, the difficulties of their therapy are pointed out. In all cases, bleeding should be controlled by surgery. Therefore, attention is drawn to the need for prompt laparotomy in all the shocked patients who failed to respond to conservative measures, for in such cases, a fatal outcome may rapidly occur. The respective advantages and inconveniences of the 2 main surgical treatments, ligation of bleeding vessels or pancreatectomy removing the source of bleeding, are discussed, basing on the presently reported cases and the data of the literature.

Analysis of the surgical criteria for reintervention in Abdominal Surgery led to the accentuation of a certain number of pictures of occlusion, general infectious syndromes, postoperative peritonitis, gastro-intestinal fistula and hemorrhagic syndrome. In all cases, the clinical examination can be misleading in particular in the case of peritonitis, and the history and non-surgical criteria must be strongly borne in mind.

Rupture of a carotid artery in an infected or irradiated environment is a tragic event that frequently causes immediate death. Plain ligature, when possible, for these patients in a state of shock, leads to cerebral ischemia in 65% of cases. This can be prevented, if one operates soon enough by an extra-anatomic by-pass, avoiding the infected or irradiated area, between the subclavian artery and the homolateral carotid artery. (Study of 2 cases). Such a procedure could be used preventively when the risk for the carotid is highest (particularly septic surgery followed by irradiation).

From 1976 till 1980, 30 patients were operated upon for acute necrotizing hemorrhagic pancreatitis (ANHP). All patients had severe signs of necrosis. Thirty-three operations were performed on these patients: 7 total pancreatectomies, 3 sub-total pancreatectomies, 1 Whipple procedure, 6 left pancreatectomies and 2 caudal-pancreatectomies. Furthermore, 9 patients had an extended sequestrectomy with drainage-lavage, 2 pseudo-cysts were drained into the pancreas and an extended sequestrectomy was performed through the opening in the posterior wall of the stomach; 3 more patients had a simple drainage-lavage of the pancreatic area performed. Twelve patients, among whom 11 with diffuse total ANHP, died after the procedure. The operative indications are discussed together with the possible advantage of using the CT-scan. The therapeutic approach of the biliary ANHP is demonstrated.

Hemorrhage from Wirsung's canal complicated chronic pancreatitis in 4 patients. Excision (2 cephalic and 1 corporeocaudal) in 3 cases provided successful results, the 4th patient dying from intraperitoneal rupture of the false cyst responsible for the hemorrhage, during recurrence of the latter after simple ligature. A literature review indicated pancreatic disease, mainly chronic, as the cause in 76.5% of the 64 cases documented. Diagnosis is difficult from clinical findings, and is dependent mainly on results of endoscopy and particularly retrograde catheterization of the papilla, while arteriography is essential for confirmation of the diagnosis and the site of the lesion, and for assisting choice of therapy. When a chronic pancreatitis exists, the only logical attitude is selective excision, mortality being minimal (5%). Embolization could be a valid method for ensuring hemostasis temporarily to allow delayed radical surgery.

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured 74 times in 50 patients with spontaneous meningeal hemorrhage using a method involving the inhalation of Xenon-133. The procedure is non-invasive, reproductible, and provides reliable results. Correlation was found between the clinical state and the CBF, but very low mean values for CBF, and ischemic foci associated with these values, were detected in cases where this could not be predicted from the clinical findings. No correlation existed between vasospasm seen on angiography and the ischemic foci revealed by the isotopic method. The age of patients had an influence on CBF values but not on the clinical course. Mean CBF levels during the first two weeks of the disease were significantly higher in patients in whom the course was uncomplicated, whatever their clinical condition (excluding coma) at the time of CBF measurement. A figure of 60 ml/100 g/min for gray substance blood flow appeared to be a threshold value, below which there was a greater risk of complications. Inversely, the outcome was favorable in all cases with a cortical blood flow superior to 70 ml. These findings suggest that cerebral blood flow measurement provides prognostic information which could be of marked assistance when deciding on appropriate therapy in such cases.

The authors thoroughly checked 71 reinterventions in abdominal surgery. They again found the importance of the factor of infection, respiratory, complications and oligoanuria. The overall percentage of deaths was 58 p. 100, age and associated defects made the prognosis worse.