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Schwannomas are most often benign tumors originating from the sheath of peripheral nerves. Most are asymptomatic and detected incidentally on a routine chest X-ray. Resection is generally recommended to confirm the diagnosis. In a 35-year-old patient we resected and removed an intrathoracic schwannoma of the 6th intercostal nerve thoracoscopically. The technique of resection and protected removal is described.

The operative treatment of the ulnar neuropathy at the elbow is controversial. We studied the course of 79 patients who had been operated for the first time, either by simple decompression (31 cases) or by submuscular anterior transposition (48 cases) of the ulnar nerve. Our results show that the simple decompression can be recommended in all patients without cubital (sub)luxation of the ulnar nerve. The submuscular anterior transposition should be preferred if a tendency of cubital (sub)luxation of the ulnar nerve has been found.

The increasing list of patients waiting for an organ transplantation shows clearly the shortage of donor organs at disposal. This shortage is particularly high in the field of kidney allotransplantation. As the nephrectomy in non-heart beating (NHB) donor is technically practicable in most of our hospitals, the aim of this contribution is to pass on further informations about the nephrectomy to those surgeons who are interested in the procedure. The first part of the paper explains the different facts of the end stage renal disease in Switzerland and of transplantation activity. We focus then on the conditions and preparations of the nephrectomy in NHB donor, the exact technique of the operation and the organ perfusion. As it is shown by different studies, the long-term results of NHB donor kidneys are good. The nephrectomy in NHB donor is an effective method to solve kidney shortage.

In the same measure as the age of population is growing, the importance of the problems rising by the renal transplantation in elder persons is increasing. At the University Hospital of Zurich 1313 kidney transplantations were performed between 1964 and 1990, 44 of them to patients who at the moment of operation were older than 60 years of age. The actuarial patient survival after 3 months reached 81%, after 1 year 74% and after 5 years 42%. The actuarial allograft survival after 3 months was 75%, after 1 year 67%, after 5 years 40%. The mortality was 131 per 1000, the mortality ratio compared to a standard population 6 times higher. The main causes of death were infections (52%) and cardiovascular diseases (28%). These results explain our opinion, that renal transplantation in elder patients should be indicated retentively.