Functional outcomes of adjustable continence therapy (ACT™) balloons in women aged >80 years and suffering from stress urinary incontinence caused by intrinsic sphincter deficiency.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the functional outcomes of adjustable continence therapy (ACT™) balloons in elderly women suffering from stress urinary incontinence (SUI) caused by intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD). MATERIAL AND METHODS: A monocentric retrospective study included all non-neurological women aged >80 years who suffered from SUI due to ISD and undergoing ACT™ balloon placement between 2000 and 2013. Early post-operative complications were reported according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Continence was assessed subjectively by the patients. RESULTS: A total of 52 female patients were included, median age 83 years (IQR 81-85). Among them, 35 (67.3 %) had already undergone previous surgery for SUI. Balloon implantations were achieved under local anaesthesia for 33 (63.5 %) patients. Clavien grade I-II early post-operative complications occurred in five (9.6 %) patients. Median follow-up was 10.5 months (IQR 3-24.25). Eleven patients (21.1 %) were lost to follow-up. At last follow-up, seven patients (13.5 %) declared themselves fully continent after the first implantation, 13 patients (25 %) had an >80 % improvement rate (10 patients after first implantation, two after second implantation and one after third implantation). Four patients (7.7 %) found the procedure unsuccessful even after several consecutive implantations. Ten patients (19.2 %) reported a partial result and were still having successive balloon inflations. Explantation occurred in 22 patients, caused by infection, erosion or balloon migration. In intention-to-treat analysis, the failure rate was 42.3 %. CONCLUSION: Although the success rate of ACT™ balloons in women aged >80 years is lower than that reported for younger women, it remains satisfactory because these patients would not otherwise have benefited from another surgical treatment.

Hypothermic or normothermic abdominal regional perfusion in high-risk donors with extended warm ischemia times: impact on outcomes?

Donation after circulatory determination of death (DCD) has the potential to increase the applicability of transplantation as a treatment for end-stage organ disease; its use is limited, however, by the warm ischemic damage suffered by potential grafts. Abdominal regional perfusion (ARP) has been employed in this setting to not only curtail the deleterious effects of cardiac arrest by re-establishing oxygenated flow but also test and even improve the viability of the kidneys and liver prior to transplantation. In the present review article, we discuss experimental and clinical studies that have been published to date on the use of ARP in DCD, differentiating between its application under hypothermic and normothermic conditions. In addition to describing results that have been achieved thus far, we describe the major obstacles limiting the broader implementation of ARP in this context as well as potential means for improving the effectiveness of this modality in the future.

The use of extracorporeal membranous oxygenation in donors after cardiac death.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The purpose of the present review is to describe the methods using an extracorporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO) circuit in donors after cardiac death and to evaluate their impact on the outcome of renal transplantation. RECENT FINDINGS: ECMO can be used either in hypothermic conditions for total body cooling or in normothermic conditions and limited to the abdomen in a first phase, before subsequent in-situ cooling. In both cases, oxygen is added to the perfusion, as compared with the usual and simple cold in-situ perfusion. There is a strong experimental rationale to use ECMO in normothermic conditions. The clinical studies in renal transplantation are still few, retrospective with small cohorts (level 3 or 4, according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine). However, they all reach consistent conclusions with better kidney transplant outcome, both in uncontrolled (type I and II) and controlled (type III) donors, according to the Maastricht classification. SUMMARY: The use of ECMO in donors after cardio-circulatory death should be encouraged and further developed. Experimental work is in progress to better define the optimal conditions of the technique, which will help to limit or even repair the injuries, induced by warm ischaemia.

Osteoporosis treatment in postmenopausal women after peripheral fractures: impact of information to general practitioners.

UNLABELLED: A low-impact fracture in a postmenopausal woman should prompt investigations for osteoporosis followed, if needed, by appropriate treatment. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the impact of information alerting general practitioners to the need for osteoporosis treatment in postmenopausal women with a recent history of peripheral fracture. METHODS: We conducted a prospective 7-month follow-up study of 78 postmenopausal women, with a mean age of 81.5 years, admitted to the emergency department for peripheral fractures. Three months after the fracture, we sent a letter to the general practitioner of each patient emphasizing the probable contribution of osteoporosis to the fracture and the need for osteoporosis treatment. Six months after the fracture, we interviewed the patients by telephone, and one month later we mailed a questionnaire to those physicians who had not followed the treatment recommendation. RESULTS: At emergency room admission, 9 patients were receiving treatment for osteoporosis (hormone replacement therapy in one patient and calcium and vitamin D supplementation in eight patients). Admission to a ward was required in 66 (85%) patients. No treatment for osteoporosis was given at discharge. Six months after discharge, seven patients reported recent initiation of calcium and vitamin D supplementation, and none reported other osteoporosis treatments. The response rate to the physician questionnaire mailed 7 months after discharge was 54% (n=28); responses showed treatment of 11 additional patients, by calcium and vitamin D supplementation in six cases and by bisphosphonates with or without calcium and vitamin D supplementation in five cases. Treatment initiation rates were similar in patients younger and older than 80 years. CONCLUSIONS: Despite information of general practitioners about the need for osteoporosis treatment, such treatment was initiated in only 30.5% of patients. General practitioners may be reluctant to initiate osteoporosis treatment in patients who are very old or have multiple comorbidities.

Analysis of perfusates during hypothermic machine perfusion by NMR spectroscopy: a potential tool for predicting kidney graft outcome.

BACKGROUND: Machine perfusion use has been reported to promote graft outcome in case of donation after cardiac death. Our objective was to evaluate the potential for nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to predict graft outcome by analyzing perfusates during machine perfusion time. METHOD: We used a renal autotransplantation model mimicking deceased after cardiac death donors with pigs. Organs were subjected to 60 min of warm ischemia before the hypothermic machine preservation during 22 hr. We studied the correlation between creatinemia after transplantation and the NMR data from perfusates. RESULTS: A metabonomic analysis allowed us to highlight the evolution of several metabolites during perfusion: the concentration of lactate, choline, or amino acids such as valine, glycine, or glutamate increased with time, whereas there was a diminution of total glutathione during this period. The changes in these biomarkers were less severe in the group with the better outcome. Statistical analysis revealed a strong association between the level of those metabolites during machine perfusion and function recovery (Spearman rank ≥0.89; P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Multivariate analysis of lesion biomarkers during kidney perfusion using NMR data could be an interesting tool to assess graft quality, particularly because analyses times (2 hr total) are compatible with clinical application.