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Endometriosis is a benign pathology that affects 3% of the general population and about 10% of women of reproductive age. Three anatomoclinical entities are described: peritoneal, ovarian (endometrioma) and deep endometriosis characterized by the infiltration of anatomical structures or organs beyond the peritoneum. Laparoscopic surgery should be performed, as this is associated with a reduction in postoperative complications, length of hospitalization and convalescence. Several surgical techniques allow the removal of deep endometriosis with colorectal involvement: rectal shaving, anterior discoid resection, segmental resection. Deep endometriosis surgery with colorectal involvement is a source of postoperative complications: anastomotic fistula, rectovaginal fistula, intestinal occlusion, digestive haemorrhage, urinary fistula, deep pelvic abscess. Involvement of the urinary tract by endometriosis affects approximately 1% of patients with endometriosis., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: During year 2013, 5943 tests for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) detection were performed in Bordeaux hospital, France. This seemed disproportionate, with regard to the low prevalence of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). Our purpose was to evaluate the relevance of these requests., Methods: Requests for detection of ANCA during 2013 were recorded, with their results. A sample of 501 requests was secondarily established. Relevance of requests was assessed independently by two reviewers. During year 2014, we developed strategies of information, in order to reduce the number of requests and increase their relevance., Results: Only 17.8 % of the 5943 requests for detection of ANCA resulted in a positive test using indirect immunofluorescence (including 10.6 % of the requests with titles above 1/50). Using Luminex©, 9.7 % of the test of detection against antimyeloperoxidase or antiproteinase 3 antibodies were positive. Within the sample of 501 patients, only 28.7 % of the requests were relevant. A percentage of 40.2 of them weren't justified by a clinical affection typically associated with AAV. Exactly 15.9 of the requests were performed during systematic autoimmune screening. None of these requests could lead to the diagnosis of AAV. Combination of information procedures and use of a request form enabled a 19 % decrease of the number of requests. The percentage of requests without clinical justification also reduced from 40.2 % to 17.1 %. The reduction of the number of requests led to a 46,865 € saving., Conclusion: The majority of the requests for detection of ANCA was not relevant and could not lead to the diagnosis of AAV. Simple solutions enabled a partial but significant improvement of their relevance., (Copyright © 2017 Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.)

The authors report one case of bowel prolapse through uterus following induced abortion. The eviscerated bowel was completely gangrenous, devoided from its mesentery and entrapped in the uterus wall. The treatment was a bowel resection and ileo-ileum anastomosis; the uterus was evacuated of retained products of conception and then sutured. The patient recovered uneventfully; fertility prognosis is expected to be poor because of abortion sequelae. If the abortion law still remains in Ivory Coast, more effort should be directed at reducing the incidence of unwanted pregnancy. This could be best archived by a better information on contraception and better health education programs., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Currently, only a few licensed vaccines against intestinal infections are available. Existing vaccines have shown good efficacy when used by travelers in industrialized countries. However, these vaccines have lower efficacy in endemic areas with high prevalence of enteric pathogens. Current vaccines are too expensive to be efficiently distributed in endemic countries. Immune correlates of protection are not well defined for current licensed vaccines. A better understanding of protection mechanisms at the intestinal mucosal surfaces should allow the development of more efficient vaccines. Gut physiology and microbial composition play an important role in both physical integrity and immunological status of the gastro-intestinal tract. These parameters can partially explain the disparities observed in current vaccines efficiency. Several next-generation vaccines combined or not with adjuvant able to promote a strong mucosal response in the intestine, are under preclinical and clinical investigations., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Digestive abnormalities contribute significantly to the morbidity in cystic fibrosis as well as to the mortality, through their relations with the pulmonary part of the disease. Physiopathological consequences of the CFTR misfunction at different levels of the digestive tract (biliary and pancreatic secretions, digestion-absorption mechanisms) are not well understood. Even if pancreatic insufficiency is the most evident and critical problem, it is not the only one. That is the reason why pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy does not resolve all the digestive symptoms. Research is needed for a better understanding of digestive abnormalities in cystic fibrosis and their treatment., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

More than half of all people with cancer are treated with radiation therapy. Over the last decade the technical advances, both in therapy beam precision and imaging, have greatly improved the therapeutic ratio and accuracy of modern radiotherapy. However, damaging healthy tissues near the tumor leads to radiation induced injury that develops immediately and continue to progress long after exposure to radiation. Recently dramatic advances have been made in understanding the determinant of tissue response to radiation exposure.

Our digestive tract has an autonomous functioning but also has a bidirectional relation with our brain known as brain-gut interactions. This communication is mediated by the autonomous nervous system, i.e., the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, with a mixed afferent and efferent component, and the circumventricular organs located outside the blood-brain barrier. The vagus nerve, known as the principal component of the parasympathetic nervous system, is a mixed nerve composed of 90% afferent fibers, which has physiological roles due to its putative vegetative functions. The vagus nerve has also anti-inflammatory properties both through the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (through its afferents) and the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway (through its efferents). The sympathetic nervous system has a classical antagonist effect on the parasympathetic nervous system at the origin of an equilibrated sympathovagal balance in normal conditions. The brain is able to integrate inputs coming from the digestive tract inside a central autonomic network organized around the hypothalamus, limbic system and cerebral cortex (insula, prefrontal, cingulate) and in return to modify the autonomic nervous system and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis in the frame of physiological loops. A dysfunction of these brain-gut interactions, favoured by stress, is most likely involved in the pathophysiology of digestive diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome or even inflammatory bowel diseases. A better knowledge of these brain-gut interactions has therapeutic implications in the domain of pharmacology, neurophysiology, behavioural and cognitive management., (Copyright (c) 2010 Société nationale française de médecine interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.)

Peri-operative smoking history is an important risk factor, which is often under-appreciated by surgeons. In the first place, tobacco use predisposes patients to specific pathologies, which may require surgical intervention. Secondarily, smoking has been shown to increase surgical risks of mortality, morbidity and length of hospital stay. Of particular importance in general surgery is the increased risk of anastomotic leak with fistula formation, of deep infections, and of abdominal wall complications (infection and ventral hernia). If the patient can stop smoking prior to surgery, there is a concomitant decrease in post-operative complications. Surgeons should be familiar with the pharmacologic and behavioral interventions, which may help the patient with smoking cessation and should not hesitate to defer elective surgery for four to eight weeks so that the patient may have the full benefit of smoking cessation.

Optimised Home Parenteral Nutrition is still, after 35 years of progress, the << gold standard >> of benign but chronic Intestinal Failure. A better recognition of chronic Intestinal Failure, in its multiple facets, is warranted for a better approach of associated treatment to Home Parenteral Nutrition, i.e., intestinal trophic factors (growth hormone, Glucagon Like Peptide-2), rehabilitative surgery (reestablishment of colonic continuity, reverse jejunal segment in severe short gut type II) and/or reconstructive surgery (intestinal transplantation for end stage intestinal failure patients). Boundaries of permanent, judged irreversible, intestinal failure will be certainly modified in the following years by combining the various and effective therapies which optimise management by ameliorating absorption of the remnant short gut. The work done on short bowel syndrome in the past 20 years should be done in the next years for chronic-intestinal - pseudo-obstruction patients presenting with intestinal failure on a large European scale because chronic-intestinal - pseudo-obstruction is a group of heterogeneous but rare intestinal diseases. Intestinal transplantation is now a mature therapy with formal indication especially in case of Home Parenteral Nutrition failure (mainly Home Parenteral Nutrition-associated severe liver disease) where combined Liver-intestine transplantation is indicated before end-stage liver failure occurs. For high-risk patients, "preemptive" indication for intestinal transplantation alone will be discussed before home parenteral nutrition complications occur. No doubt that, for improving overall outcome in intestinal failure patients, reference centres should have in expert hands the whole spectrum of medicosurgical therapies for intestinal failure.

Introduction: Celiac disease (CD) may be complicated by an enteropathy associated T-cell lymphoma (EATL), but lymphomatous dissemination outside the gastrointestinal tract is uncommon especially to the peripheral nervous sytem., Observation: We report a 54-year-old CD patient with EATL revealed by subacute polyradiculopathy., Discussion: Peripheral neuropathies associated with CD are generally not polyradiculopathies, but sensorimotor neuropathies. Peripheral neurological complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma are more frequent with B-lymphoma and a neurological presentation of EATL is very rare., Conclusion: This case illustrates the usefulness of searching for EATL in CD patients with polyradiculopathy.

Small and large bowels are dose-limiting structures for acute and late toxicity of abdominopelvic radiotherapy. Minor or moderate toxicities are underestimated. Major toxicities may occur years from treatment. Current optimal radiotherapy planning may predict precisely toxicities and new technologies for treatment delivery may prevent and/or reduce the frequency and severity of radiation enteropathy.

The authors report the case of a woman operated by transperitoneal laparoscopic left nephrectomy for destroyed kidney. At the third postoperative week, she developed small bowel obstruction requiring reoperation by laparotomy. This complication was due to a transmesocolic internal hernia of the small intestine via a breach created during access to the renal pedicle by the peritoneal incision at the duodenojejunal flexure that was not closed. Four other cases of transmesocolic internal hernia have been reported in the literature following left laparoscopic nephrectomy. An accidental breach of the left mesocolon was considered to be responsible. This rare complication appears to be facilitated by creation of a mesocolic breach and by positioning the patient in the lateral supine position. These breaches must be closed.

Leiden Factor V mutation, associated with resistance to activated protein C, is a prothrombotic state found in 20% of the patients with a first episode of deep-vein thrombosis. We report the case of a 30-Year-old woman with a history of intermittent abdominal pain who developed small bowel infarction requiring extensive small bowel resection. Biological search for prothrombotic disorder showed resistance to activated protein C due to homozygosity for the factor V Leiden mutation. Long-term anticoagulant therapy was initiated. Unexplained abdominal pain may be due to venous mesenteric ischemia, which can be associated with factor V Leiden mutation.

Unlabelled: Congenital disorders of glycosylation type I (GDG-I) is a class of genetic multisystem disorders characterised by defective glycosylation of glycoproteins. The characteristics and mechanisms of failure to thrive and intestinal diseases present in CDG-I are anectodal., Patients and Methods: The aim of this study was to analyse 7 CDG-I (4 CDG-Ia, 2 CDG-Ib and 1 CDG-Ix) with important digestive symptoms and failure to thrive in order to characterise the mechanisms implied., Results: Four children had no skin abnormality or dysmorphia (1 CDG-Ia, 2 CDG-Ib, 1 CDG-Ix). An encephalopathy with cerebellar hypoplasia was present only in the 4 CDG-Ia. Failure to thrive and diarrhea were present during the first month of life in 6 and appeared at 5 years in one CDG-Ia associated to mild or severe hepatopathy in all patients. One CDG-Ia, 1 CDG-Ib, 1 CDG-Ix had an exsudative enteropathy. A positive steatorrhea was present in 3 patients. Five patients had an abnormal small bowel biopsy. Abnormalities were variable: moderate inflammation of the chorion without villous atrophy in 2, intra-enterocyte fat accumulation without villous atrophy in 2, and partial villous atrophy with lymphangectasia in 1. In 2 CDG-Ia the intestinal biopsy was normal. Enteral nutrition in 4 and parenteral nutrition in 2 were effective in 4 patients and 1 patient with an exsudative enteropathy respond to a free fat diet (CDG-Ix)., Conclusion: The digestive symptoms with failure to thrive is a common feature of CDG-I and could be the first symptoms. The diagnostic should be suspected if no other cause is found. Mechanisms of the intestinal symptoms appear to be multiple such as inflammation, abnormal enterocyte lipid transport or intestinal permeability related to the abnormal glycosylation of intestinal mucosa glycoproteins.

An elderly patient with subacute small bowel obstruction due to an enterolith that evolved within a small bowel diverticulum is reported. Presence of small bowel diverticulum is not rare. But small bowel obstruction secondary to an enterolith formed within a small bowel diverticulum is a rare complication. Enterolith ileus closely resembles gallstone ileus in its clinical presentation. Diagnosis can be established only by documenting the absence of aerobilia and the presence of small bowel abnormality causing stasis, like small bowel diverticulosis.

Villous atrophy may have various etiologies. The diagnosis of villous atrophy relies on an intestinal biopsy which necessitates a perfect histological technique to assert the villous atrophy and its degree. The most frequent etiology is coeliac disease. Villous atrophy regresses with gluten free diet. The failure of a strict gluten free diet implies to exclude a refractory sprue thought to be the earliest form of enteropathy associated T cell lymphoma. The other etiologies of villous atrophy are unusual and could be observed in alpha chain disease, inflammatory and infectious diseases, immune disorders, and primitive ileal villous atrophy. Other etiologies characterize villous atrophy in children as cow milk allergy and epithelial abnormalities.

Background: Postoperative recurrences of Crohn's disease (CD) has been widely investigated in previous studies. Nevertheless, the risk factors for CD recurrence in patients presenting with intestinal stenosis are not clearly identified., Patients and Method: Thirty consecutive patients out of a cohort of 134 patients with CD presented with an intestinal stenosis diagnosed between 1995 and 1999. Epidemiological, clinical, and therapeutic data were carefully recorded. A univariate analysis followed by stepwise descending discriminant analysis was performed., Results: Sixteen patients (53%) underwent surgery, six received steroid therapy, eight were given antibiotics, and seven took immunosuppressive drugs. The mean follow-up after medical or surgical management was 2.8 years. Thirteen patients (43%) had CD relapse during the follow-up. Considering the univariate analysis, the existence of a previous appendectomy and the persistence of tobacco consumption were significantly associated with the risk of CD relapse during the follow-up. The stepwise descending discriminant analysis identified three independant factors: tobacco consumption (p = 0.007), previous appendicectomy (p = 0.04) and duration of the follow-up (p = 0.02)., Conclusion: The CD relapse after the management of small bowel stenosis occurred in 43% of the patients within a mean follow-up of 2.8 years. The significant factors associated with the risk of CD relapse were tobacco consumption, previous appendectomy and duration of the follow-up.

Digestive disturbances are frequent in adults with cystic fibrosis. They can lead to malnutrition which in turn is deleterious to the prognosis. We summarise the information on epidemiology, pathogenicity, signs, diagnostic criteria and treatments of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, gastro-oesophageal reflux and denutrition (which are all frequent) but also of constipation, rectal prolapse, distal intestinal obstruction syndrome, and liver diseases. The main recommendations are the following: 1--know how to treat pancreatic insufficiency with enzyme replacement and vitamins; 2--know how to treat aggressively any gastro-esophageal reflux; 3--diagnose and treat denutrition as early as possible; 4--know the distal intestinal obstruction syndrome to avoid abusive and dangerous surgery; 5--know that the most severe hepatic diseases can be treated by liver transplantation.

Study Objective: Hepatic portal venous gas is a radiological symptom associated with a poor prognosis (75% to 90% mortality). The aim of this retrospective study was to report 7 cases observed over a 2-year period., Patients and Method: From June 1997 to November 1999, hepatic portal venous gas was diagnosed in 6 patients by CT scan and in one patient by echosonography. It was not detected in any case by plain abdominal X-rays. Three patients had small bowel obstruction with necrosis, three had extensive superior mesenteric infarction and one had preperforative necrosis of the colon., Results: One patient with extensive intestinal infarction and a metastatic head and neck cancer was not operated. Two patients were operated, but the extensive mesenteric infarction was not amenable to surgical management. Three of the 7 patients died, while the other four patients survived after resection of the necrotic small intestine (n = 3) and left colectomy extended to the transverse colon (n = 1)., Conclusion: Hepatic portal venous gas was associated with intestinal necrosis in the seven cases of this series. The severity of portal venous gas is only correlated with the severity of the disease causing portal venous gas.

We present a case of hereditary angioedema with cutaneous and intestinal manifestations mimicking a small bowel tumor on computed tomography, and in which unnecessary surgery was avoided by follow-up computed tomography. We discuss the pathophysiology, clinical and radiological manifestations of the disease, as well as its computed tomographic appearance.

Background: Intestinal stenosis following necrotizing enterocolitis (NE) occurred both in surgically-treated neonates after perforation, distal to an enterostomy and in medically-treated patients developing symptoms of obstruction. It has been proposed to detect stenosis by contrast enema before refeeding in those medically-treated patients. The aim of this study was to compare delay, clinical and pathological characteristics of surgical and medical patients, both after occlusion and prospective contrast studies., Patients and Methods: Fifteen patients out of 50 with NE observed from 1984 to 1994 developed one or several intestinal stenosis. Diagnosis of NE was based on usual clinical signs, X-ray pneumatosis (43 to 50) and/or perforation in 16 cases. Among these 16 surgical patients, 12 survived the initial perforation. Among the 34 medical patients, 11 were seen before 1989 and did not have contrast studies before refeeding; 23 seen after 1989 had a contrast enema before., Results: One or several stenosis occurred in four out of 12 surgical patients, four out of 11 medical patients without prospective contrast studies (one of them died from sepsis) and seven out of the 23 of the prospective group. On the whole, 26 stenosis occurred in 15 neonates: ten to the right colon, five to the transverse and 11 to the left colon. One ileal stenosis followed enterostomy. Delay of stenosis development was comparable in the three groups (between 3 weeks and 3 months). Pathologic examination showed similar lesions in the three groups (fibrosis 15, edema nine to 15 and chronic inflammation 12 to 15)., Conclusion: Among 46 neonates who survived the initial period, 15 developed stenosis, a 30% proportion similar in patients operated on for perforation or in medically-treated patients whose diagnosis was made after occlusion or after contrast enema as well. These results suggest that systematic stenosis detection by contrast enema may avoid complications and permit programmed one-stage surgery.

Unlabelled: From 1978 to 1992, 55 patients (48 women: 87%) with a mean age of 62 years (35-89) underwent 70 operations for radiation injury of the small bowel. Primary pathology treated with radiotherapy was gynecologic cancer (40: 72%), digestive malignancy (9: 16%), male genital cancer (4: 7%), carcinoma of the bladder (2: 3%). External radiation was performed alone (47: 85.5%) or associated with intracavitary radium or cesium (8: 14.5%), mean radiation dose was 50 Gy for 35 patients and not specified for 20 but greater than 45 Gy for all patients. Fifteen patients had associated chemotherapy. Latent period between radiation injury and first symptoms was 39 months (1-16 years) and 72 months (3-26 years) between radiation and surgical treatment. There were 28 solitary lesions (mean length: 148.5 cm) with 5 associated colonic injuries, 27 multiple lesions of the small bowel (mean length: 187.5 cm) with 21 associated colonic injuries. Twenty-one lesions of the abdominal wall and 13 lesions of the urinary tract were also associated. Nineteen patients had pre-operative total parenteral nutritional assistance. Surgical treatment was performed for chronic obstruction in 46 patients, for fistulae in 5 or for an acute complication in 4 (perforating peritonitis: 3, occlusion: 1). Operations performed were: small bowel resection (32), associated with bypass (2); internal by-pass (15); dissection of adhesions and/or stomy (7)., Results: Operative mortality was 2 (6.2%). Morbidity occurred in 16 (29%) with 3 anastomotic fistulae. Functional results were good for 36 patients (24 resections, 7 by-pass), poor for 2 (1 resection). Failure leading to a second operation occurred in 15 (5 resections, 8 by-pass)., Comments: 1) pre-operative nutritional assistance improves operative results; 2) intestinal resection is preferable to internal by-pass whenever it can be performed without extreme risk or unacceptable sequelae.

A rare manifestation of digestive tract distension involving all the cavities was observed in a patient who had journeyed at high altitude. There was no organic obstruction suggesting that the increase in organ volume was related to decreased atmospheric pressure according to Maiotte's law. Distension may have been favoured by the diminished abdominal muscle tone, resulting in a lack of adaptation. Dilatation was predominant in the large organs, particularly the stomach and the colon.

Cholecystectomy was the first digestive tract operation to be performed laparoscopically. By far the most frequent laparoscopic operation in France (80,000/year) for many surgeons, at least during the first few years after its introduction, it was a training operation which generate a higher rate of complications than conventional surgery, at least. Today laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the accepted reference technique for simple or complicated gall stone disease as the incidence of complications is now as low as, or lower than open surgery. Excepting puncture accidents (trocars) and pneumoperitonium, the most frequent complications are by far related to the biliary tract: wounds, stenosis, section. Most of these complications are avoidable with a simple rigorous technique. Other complications (haemorrhage, infection) were also analyzed to determine the circumstances and means to prevent them.

In a French retrospective survey including 103,852 laparoscopic procedure, and 390,000 port-insertion, trocar injuries rate have been evaluated. Mortality is 0.07 per thousand, quite exclusively in relation with vascular injuries (especially from aorta and iliac vessels) with a rate of 0.4 per thousand. All intra-abdominal viscera and vessels must be injured by the first blind trocar insertion. Open laparoscopy is systematically proposed to prevent these accidents.

Dysphagia or odynophagia occurs in an estimated 21% of patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection. A causal agent can be identified in 60-90% of the cases and generally can be successfully eradicated. Oesophageal candidosis, the predominant disorder, usually responds to nitrate derivatives and amphotericine B after a 10 to 15 day cure. Ulcerations of the oesophagus is the second major cause of dysphagia in these patients and result from cytomegalovirus and herpes simplex infections or unknown causes. Epstein-Barr virus infection has been suggested but is rarely demonstrated in clinical situations. Similar to other localizations in HIV-infected patients, Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin malignant lymphomas are the predominant tumours in the bowel. Infections are essentially revealed by sometimes very severe diarrhoea. Infective agents include Cryptosporidium parvum, microsporidiosae, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, Isospora belli, Clostridium difficile, Salmonellae and non-tuberculous mycobacteria among others. When the search for an infective agent is negative, the diarrhoea is usually considered to be the expression of HIV infection itself. The clinical approach to HIV-related diarrhoea can be based on decision making management scheme according to the results of stool cultures or on complete exploration protocols. Whatever the diagnostic procedure, symptomatic treatment is of major importance because of the severe nutritional impact of HIV-related diarrhoea.

Background: Ileal ulcers can be seen several years after surgery for neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis. They may be due to chronic bacterial colonisation of the intestine., Case Report: A 12 year-old boy admitted suffering from chronic severe anemia (hemoglobin 6.5 g/dl), hypochromic and microcytic. Digestive bleeding was negative and the patient was successfully given iron for 6 months. Anemia was found again several months after cessation of treatment. Rectosigmoidoscopy showed several ulcers with inflammatory mucosa, near anastomosis secondary to an extensive bowel resection due to necrotizing enterocolitis. Ulcers of the distal small bowel persisted despite mesalazine and iron therapy and required resection of the intestine on both sides of the anastomosis. A few months later, recurrence of both ulcers and anemia led to the search for bacterial overgrowth which was confirmed by breath hydrogen testing. The patient was then given metronidazole plus amoxicillin by alternate courses and is well one year later., Conclusions: Chronic bacterial colonization can be responsible for ileal ulcers several years after intestinal resection, requiring a prolonged controlled follow-up.

Endometriosis is rarely located on the small bowel. A case of small bowel perforation resulting from a stenosis due to endometriosis is reported. Pre-operative diagnosis of this type of lesion is most difficult in genetically active women since the clinical picture is a mixture of gynaecological and digestive disturbances. The treatment is surgical resection.

A retrospective series of 24 intestinomesenteric lesions after blunt abdominal trauma were investigated to determine the distribution of the lesions as a function of the type of accident and to establish diagnostic and therapeutic patterns based on observed post-operative results. The chi squared test was used for statistical analysis. There were 20 men and 4 women, mean age 39 +/- 15 years (range 17-74). Trauma was caused by a traffic accident in 16 cases (67%) including 12 victims under 40 (p < 0.01) and 14 drivers (87.5%) (12 wore a safety belt). Haemodynamic instability or generalized abdominal defense. Pneumoperitoneum was seen on only one of the 21 (5%) admission X-rays. Abdominal echography was often ordered (16 times). The mean interval between trauma and surgical intervention was 39 hours. Injury involved the mesentery (n = 15), the small intestine (n = 14), the colon (n = 7) and the colic mesenteriolum (n = 4). Lesions of the colon were observed more often in automobile accidents (p < 0.05). Injury to other abdominal organs was also observed in 12 patients: liver (n = 6), spleen (n = 5) and pancreas (n = 5). The thorax was involved in 14 patients including 11 under 40 (p < 0.01). Nine intestinal resections/anastomoses, 9 enterroaphies (including 4 colic injuries) and 1 Hartman were performed. Two patients died (8.3%) and follow-up was complicated in 14 (including the 2 deaths). Wearing the safety belt did not affect the greater number of intestinomesenteric lesions. In subjects wearing a safety belt, there were more injuries of the thorax but less neurological involvement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Gastro-intestinal disorders were described during long lasting exercise. However, no systematic evaluation was done before the study of the French Medical Society of Triathlon, which realized an epidemiologic analysis during the French triathlon championship in 1989. The aims of this study were to evaluate the prevalence and the nature of different gastro-intestinal symptoms, to precise the severity and the consequences of these disorders, and to evaluate the self-medication. This study concern 25,640 competitors of the 101 meetings of the French triathlon championship 1989 (75 category A, 19 category B and 7 category C). Two thousand two hundred and seventy four competitors had gastric symptoms like nausea, epigastgric pain or vomiting (8.9%); 2,046 competitors had intestinal troubles like diarrhea or abdominal pain (8%). These results confirm the suffering of the gastro-intestinal tract during a long lasting exercise like a triathlon. These disorders are well known, so self-medication was used for gastric symptoms (0.7%) or intestinal disturbances (18.2%).

Myomectomy was performed by laparoscopy in 102 patients, according to a precise technique using the monopolar hook for the uterine incision and intraperitoneal sutures. Myomes were mostly removed through the suprapubic puncture site after fragmentation or by colpotomy. A laparotomy during the laparoscopic procedures was necessary in 2 cases. No complications were observed. A second-look laparoscopy or a cesarean section was performed in 24 cases. Post-operative adhesions were noted in 3 cases. In our experience, operative laparoscopy has several advantages over laparotomy and the risks of complications is low in selected cases.

The authors report two cases of leiomyosarcoma of the small intestine revealed by lower and isolated digestive bleeding. In both cases, only the pelvic examinations by means of ultrasonography and/or CT scan have shown a mass which corresponded to the small intestine tumor. The authors underlined the necessity of US and/or CT scan pelvic when faced with a lower digestive bleeding whose etiology cannot be determined by the endoscopic or radiologic intestinal examinations.

Internal abdominal hernias develop when one or more viscera extrude through an intraperitoneal orifice but remain within the peritoneal cavity. The orific may be normal (Winslow's foramen) or paranormal (peritoneal fossae: paraduodenal, ileocecal, inter- and mesosigmoidal, paracolic, supravesical, of the large ligament of uterus). All these hernias possess a sac and are true hernias. The orifice may also be abnormal: pathologic origin if formed in a mesentery or an omentum (trans-mesenteric, trans-mesocoloic, trans-omental, by colo-omental disinsertion) or in the form of an anomalous orific if it occurs in a congenital anomaly of a ligament (falciform ligament of liver) or a mesentery (mesentery of Meckel's diverticulum): all these hernias lack a sac and are "internal prolapses or procidentia". Of the 14 cases presently reported, 6 were hernias through a paranormal orifice: 2 left and 2 right paraduodenal, 1 intra-mesosigmoidal and 1 retrocecal; 6 were hernias through a pathologic orifice: 2 trans-mesenteric, 1 in the posterior cavity through a colo-omental dissinsertion hole and 3 trans-omental, and 2 were hernias through an anomalous orifice from absence of the falciform ligament of liver. Incidence of these hernias reported in the literature is between 0.2 and 0.9% of autopsies and 0.2 and 2% of parietal hernias, findings in our series being 0.098% (14 of 14,199 cases) of laparotomies and 0.32% (14 of 4,374 cases) of parietal hernias. Of 1,871 cases described in the occidental or near occidental literature (in French, English, Italian or German), 160 (8.55%) were hernias through Winslow's foramen, 1035 (55.31%) through a para-normal orifice and 676 (36.1) through an abnormal orifice (pathologic and anomalous). The sex ratio showed a male prevalence (3:2), age distribution demonstrating the onset of internal hernias at all ages with a preference for the 5th decade and a mean age of 46 years. Symptomatology was totally non specific, subacute to acute occlusive symptoms or even signs of already installed necrotizing-peritonitis being detected in 80 to 90% of cases. In 10 to 15% of patients the hernia was an unexpected finding during laparotomy for another affection, an almost typical feature of the largest para-normal hernias, the paraduodenal hernias. Preoperative diagnosis is practically impossible, and in many cases cannot be made because of time restriction, but it is sometimes possible with the largest hernias after a longer sub-occlusive period by radiologic, arteriographic and scan imaging. However, the primary task of the surgeon is not so much to establish the diagnosis as to assess the need for urgent operation. Hernias provoking large displacements of viscera can even make intraoperative diagnosis difficult with subsequent errors, and surgeons must recognize all possible types of these hernias, especially those passing through a para-normal orifice, and must be able to pinpoint the fixed guiding points. They must also work in as large an operative field as possible and should therefore always start by a median infra-supra-umbilical laparotomy to allow its maximum extension. Reduction of herniated viscera can be simple, by gentle traction, or difficult requiring dilatation of the hernial orifice and/or opening of the sac.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Diabetic autonomic neuropathy is rarely symptomatic but very frequent at a subclinical stage. Symptoms may be gastrointestinal, urinary, genital or cardiac. Sudoral, vasomotor or pupillary symptoms may also occur. Standardized cardiovascular tests are used to investigate parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous control. Because of their easy feasibility and good reproducibility they might be performed in the largest part of the diabetic population. These tests also strongly suggest that cardiac autonomic neuropathy is of poor prognosis, even when it is subclinical. Most treatments are symptomatic, but optimized diabetes control and administration of aldose reductase inhibitors are rational therapeutic measures, although their long-term effectiveness remains to be demonstrated.

HIV enteropathy is defined, according to authors, by intestinal histological anomalies presumed to be induced by HIV and/or the chronic diarrhea of AIDS progressing in the absence of any detectable intestinal infectious pathogen. HIV can certainly infect the mononuclear cells of the chorion of the intestinal mucosa, and probably certain colonocytes. The links between infection of these cells and HIV enteropathy remain very poorly understood. Certain authors attribute a preponderant role to possible abnormalities of enterocyte renewal induced by HIV, and others to intestinal mucosal inflammation induced by the infection and activation of lymphocytes of the mucosal chorion. Multifactorial, anatomical and functional, involvement of the mucosal barrier of the entire intestine is no doubt closest to the truth.

A prospective study was made of 80 patients with a history of gynecological malignancy, and who had received radiotherapy 2 to 5 years previously in the same centre, with the aim of determining the incidence of lesions of the small intestine after pelvic radiotherapy. Various moderate gastrointestinal symptoms were seen in 33 patients and incapacitating diarrhea in 2. Thirty-seven patients underwent gastrointestinal investigations. The great majority had a good nutritional status and normal laboratory results. Fecal losses on a normal oral diet and alpha-1-antitrypsin clearance were most often normal (3 cases of steatorrhea, 8 of creatorrhea). Small bowel barium studies revealed minor abnormalities of folds in 5 cases. There was no correlation between clinical symptomatology and the existence of laboratory and radiological abnormalities. This study shows the usual good tolerance of pelvic radiotherapy by the small intestine, at least in the mid-term. Routine investigations seeking sub-clinical intestinal lesions do not appear to be justified in patients who have undergone pelvic radiotherapy.

Case report of a 65-year-old man, operated on for small bowel infarction. Only the initial 40 cm of the jejunum, and the last 10 cm of the ileum were vital and could be kept. The ileo-caecal valve and the colon were not resected. Two stomas were carried out: a left-sided jejunostomy, and a right-sided ileostomy. Enteral nutrition was attempted, but jejunal outflow increased. It was therefore decided to attempt re-instillation of jejunal juices directly to the ileum using two 33 CH endotracheal tubes connected with soft chest drain tubing. A bag was placed over the jejunal tube to collect any leakage. Semi-elemental enteral nutrition could then be successfully carried out, and parenteral feeding stopped. With this simple appliance, the patient was able to lead as normal a life as possible. After 42 days of such feeding, the patient had only lost 2 kg in body weight, and intestinal continuity was re-established.