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The importance of a knowledge of the relations between recurrent nerve and inferior thyroid artery, in order to minimise the incidence of injuries to the nerve during thyroidectomy, is stressed. These relations are analysed from the anatomo-surgical standpoint, with particular emphasis on the great variability to which they are subject. It is concluded by asserting the utility of prior location of the recurrent nerve, with an indication of some basic concepts that must always be borne in mind when performing thyroid surgery.

Two new familial cases of Peutz-Jeghers syndrome are reported. The cases present a number of original aspects with regard to anomalous transmission of the defect, the common finding of a single ileal polyp and associated malformations in the first of the two cases. The clinical aspects of the disease are discussed together with the histology of the polyps in relation to their possibility or otherwise of degenerating. Finally, the various surgical techniques indicated for the treatment of this rare condition are examined.

Six cases of popliteal entrapment syndrome are presented with emphasis on the diagnostic difficulties related to this disease in its initial functional phase. The utility of Doppler ultrasonography associated with dynamic angiography is underlined. Normally surgical treatment of the disease is problem-free. The important determining factor seems to be medial gemellus hypertrophy. In this case the procedure of choice is thought to be vascular reconstruction associated with the disinsertion of this muscle followed by its reimplantation in a lower and medial position on the semi-membranous tendon muscle in order to avoid any secondary arterial compression.

Over a 3-year period 21 patients underwent "in situ" saphenous vein by-pass graft for lower extremity arterial occlusive disease, all of them with critical ischemia for limb salvage. The proximal anastomosis was performed in all patients end to end to the first segment of the previously endarterectomized superficial femoral artery. The distal graft was taken to the popliteal artery below the knee in 8 cases, to the tibial-peroneal trunk in 4, to the posterior tibial artery in 3, to the peroneal artery in 3, to the anterior tibial artery in 2 and last a sequential posterior tibial-peroneal by-pass graft was performed. The perioperative mortality was nil. The immediate patency rate was 90.5%, while the cumulative patency rate at 36 months was 71.4% overall, 87.5% for the popliteal grafts and 61.1% for the infrapopliteal ones. If we consider that was successful for limb salvage in more than 80% and if the encouraging preliminary results of this technique will be confirmed at a longer follow-up, we believe that this technique could become the procedure of choice for limb salvage even in the high risk patients group.