RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: A study was made in the Clinical Provincial Hospital for Surgical Teaching Saturnino Lora in Santiago de Cuba. A group of 23 patients over 50 years of age attended this centre and were treated for the onset of myasthenia gravis between January 1983 and December 1997. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: To determine some of the clinical and evolutive characteristics of the disease such as: sex, age of onset, initial symptoms of the illness, clinical forms and also the different types of treatment used, evolution and mortality. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: There was a clear predominance of men, the commonest age of onset was from sixty to seventy, the predominant clinical forms were generalized (mild or moderate), and the initial symptoms were ocular. The most commonly used treatment was by anticholinesterases and steroids. There is significant variability in the evolution of these patients. The larger group improved. However, there was high mortality, mainly in older men.
Assuntos
Corticosteroides/uso terapêutico , Inibidores da Colinesterase/uso terapêutico , Miastenia Gravis/mortalidade , Distribuição por Idade , Idade de Início , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Progressão da Doença , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Miastenia Gravis/diagnóstico , Miastenia Gravis/tratamento farmacológico , Estudos Retrospectivos , Distribuição por Sexo , Taxa de Sobrevida , Resultado do TratamentoRESUMO
INTRODUCTION: We present the experience of the Hospital Provincial Clinico Quirúrgico Saturnino Lora, Santiago de Cuba, in the clinical study of brain death. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We studied 27 cases admitted to hospital between 1994 and 1995. In 74.07% of these cases organ extraction was carried out. The most commonly affected age group was between 20 and 29 years old, which made up more than half of the total number of cases, with a predominance (81.5%) of males. RESULTS: Cranio-encephalic injury was the commonest cause, in particular severe cerebral contusion and primary brain stem contusion. The patients had brain death lasting between one and five hours and one for 38 hours. Respiratory sepsis was the most frequent associated pathology. Computerized axial tomography and straight X-rays were the imaging techniques most commonly used in the diagnosis of brain death. Severe cerebral oedema was the most frequent anatomopathological finding and was seen in all cases in which necropsy was done, followed by herniation of the cingulum in 23 cases (88.4%) and cerebral necropsy in 20. CONCLUSIONS: These anatomopathological results show the severe damage suffered by cerebral structures.