[Assessment of transfusion requirements: a way to in improve perioperative management of blood products?]. / Evaluation du besoin transfusionnel un moyen d'améliorer la gestion des produits sanguins durant la période périopératoire?

Autogenic blood transfusion is indispensable in emergency surgery situations involving severe blood loss. It may also be required in some non-emergency surgical and obstetrical situations. The use of blood-sparing techniques as an alternative to autogenic blood transfusions blood loss can be especially beneficial in tropical settings where the risk of viral transmission is high. The combined use of blood-sparing and autogenic transfusion techniques requires preoperative assessment of transfusion requirements. The expected amount of preoperative blood loss must be determined and compared with the acceptable amount of blood loss for the patient in function of transfusion threshold. Various techniques to reduce the need for autogenic blood transfusion can be used depending on locally available resources. Blood-sparing techniques include treatment to increase the patient's baseline hemoglobin rates, use of cell saving systems for autologous blood transfusion, and/or perioperative transfusion of recuperated blood. In this article these techniques are illustrated in two practical clinical cases.

[Natural selection and medical triage: everyday realities]. / Selection naturelle et triage medical: la realite au quotidien.

Most emergency care facilities in tropical areas are inefficient, underequipped, and quickly overwhelmed by the ever-growing attendance. As a result, mortality is higher than in developed countries. To speak in terms of natural selection would be tantamount to a fatalistic admission of powerlessness to deal with the situation. In Africa, the gross imbalance between supply and demand makes it necessary to make hard choices in order to make the most effective use of available staff and equipment. The objective of medical triage is to allocate scarce facilities to those patients with the greatest chance of survival. However it is difficult to define precise rules for making such choices since they are strongly dependent on available resources, type of pathology, and level of medical skill. Prognostic indicators are ill-suited to emergency situation since they require not only clinical data but also and above all, in most cases, laboratory data which is not always available or justifiable. Experience is probably the best guarantee for reliable triage, which is philosophically difficult to accept but often unavoidable in everyday practice.

[General surgery and closed mitral commissurotomy: when necessity makes the rules]. / Chirurgien généraliste et commissurotomie mitrale à coeur fermé: ou quand la nécessité fait loi.

Since emergency transfer of patients from Africa to European cardiovascular facilities is difficult, surgeons at the Principal Hospital in Dakar, Senegal, have reevaluated closed mitral commissurotomy. The purpose of this study was to ascertain patient selection criteria, optimal operative conditions, immediate and middle-term outcome, and cost of closed mitral commissurotomy. From June 1995 to March 1998, closed mitral commissurotomy was carried out on 21 patients (13 women and 8 men). Inclusion criteria were symptomatic mitral stenosis with a mitral surface less than 1.5 square centimeters. Exclusion criteria were associated valve disease, Wilkins score higher than 8, severe pulmonary artery hypertension, and evidence of mitral thrombus. One patient died on the fourth postoperative day and one patient developed transient hemiparesis. Twenty patients showed significant functional improvement. Mean mitral surface increased from 0.87 to 1.8 square centimeters. Follow-up at one-year confirmed stable results. Only one patient developed grade 3 mitral insufficiency but it was well tolerated and did not require valve replacement. The cost of the procedure was 1,000,000 F CFA in second category and 820,000 F CFA in third category. The findings of this study show that closed mitral commissurotomy can be performed without circulatory assistance equipment in African facilities such as the Principal Hospital in Dakar, that immediate and middle-term results are excellent, and that African surgeons should continue to learn the technique.