[Spiritual surgery: an investigation]. / Cirurgia espiritual: uma investigação.

BACKGROUND: A very popular modality with the media is psychic surgery which has received little scientific evaluation though. Such phenomena always raise the issues of fakery and deceit. Research has been scarce. METHODS: We report an investigation on one of the most famous psychic surgeons in Brazil, João Teixeira de Farias. 30 surgical interventions with cutting were studied, 6 patients undergoing history-taking, physical examination and analysis of the materials supposedly extracted from them. RESULTS: We were struck by the fact that the surgeon really incisions skin or ocular epithelium in addition to scraping the cornea without identified anaesthetics or antiseptics being used. Just one woman complained of pain as she had her breast incised. Longer follow up of patients failed to notice any infection in the surgical sites. Histopathology found the specimens to be compatible with their site of origin and, apart from a 210g. lipoma, were healthy tissues without discernible pathology. CONCLUSIONS: The surgerical procedures are real but we couldn't evaluate the efficacy. It didn't appear to have any specific effect. Our findings are undoubtedly more of an exploratory kind than conclusive ones. Further studies are clearly necessary to cast light on this unorthodox treatment.

[Paracoccidioidomycosis of the central nervous system: case report]. / Paracoccidioidomicose do sistema nervoso central: relato de caso.

The involvement of the central nervous system in paracoccidioidomycosis is more frequent than previously thought. The first reference to the possibility that Paracoccidioides brasiliensis could affect the central nervous system was by Pereira & Jacobs in 1919. Since then, a great number of other studies has showed this form of clinical behavior and, in some of them, the frequency has ranged 27.27%. We report a clinical case of a 34-year-old white Brazilian woman admitted because of bacterial pneumonia. In the sixth day of admission, the patient developed cerebellar symptomatology with nausea, vomiting, dysmetria and gait disturbance. Central nervous system computer tomographic scanning disclosed a hypodense lesion in the right cerebellar hemisphere. The patient was submitted to surgery with total excision of the lesion. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of neuroparacoccidioidomycosis. Coadjuvant treatment with sulfamethoxazole-trimetoprim was introduced. The patient had a good outcome and was discharge 30 days after surgery.

Cirurgia espiritual: uma investigaçäo / Spiritual surgery: an investigation

OBJETIVO: Uma modalidade de tratamento que capta muito a atençao da mídia é a cirurgia espiritual, que, entretanto, tem sido pouco estudada cientificamente. Uma questao que se impoe é sobre a veracidade ou nao de tais fenômenos, porém pesquisas nesse sentido sao escassas. MÉTODO: Apresentamos o relato de uma investigaçao sobre um dos mais famosos cirurgioes espirituais do Brasil, o Sr. Joao Teixeira de Farias. Foram acompanhadas por volta de 30 "cirurgias", sendo que em seis dos pacientes foram realizados a anamnese, o exame físico e coletados os tecidos extraídos para exames anatomo-patológicos. RESULTADOS: O "cirurgiao" verdadeiramente incisa a pele ou o epitélio ocular, além de realizar raspados corneanos sem nenhuma técnica anestésica ou antisséptica identificável. Apesar disso, apenas um paciente queixou-se de dor moderada quando teve a mama incisada. Os pacientes foram examinados até três dias depois da cirurgia sem nenhum sinal de infecçao, bem como os relatos posteriores dos pacientes nao continham informaçoes de infecçao. O exame histopatológico evidenciou que os tecidos extraídos eram compatíveis com o local de origem e, com exceçao de um lipoma de 210 gramas, eram tecidos normais, sem particularidades patológicas. Foi realizada revisao da literatura e discussao do efeito placebo. CONCLUSOES: As cirurgias sao reais, mas, apesar de nao ter sido possível avaliar a eficácia do procedimento, aparentemente nao teriam efeito específico na cura dos pacientes. Sem dúvida, nossos achados sao mais exploratórios que conclusivos. Sao necessários posteriores estudos para lançar luz sobre esse heterodoxo tratamento