Unilateral persistent fetal vasculature coexisting with anterior segment dysgenesia. / Vasculatura fetal persistente unilateral asociada a disgenesia del segmento anterior.

CASE REPORT: A case is presented of a 4 week-old female neonate with Peters anomaly (PA) and unilateral persistent foetal vasculature (PFV) referred to our centre due to esotropia. At 12 weeks of age, a penetrating keratoplasty and vitrectomy were performed without major complications in the immediate post-operative period. The patient is currently under an intensive treatment for amblyopia and secondary glaucoma. DISCUSSION: Surgical treatment of PFV is controversial, with prevention of amblyopia, phthisis, and glaucoma being the main reasons for it. Patients with unilateral PFV and type II PA could be good candidates for this combined surgical procedure.

Essure® and chronic pelvic pain: a population-based cohort.

The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of chronic pelvic pain in women after placement of Essure® microinserts. This was a case series study at the hysteroscopy unit in a teaching hospital. We included 4,274 patients undergoing permanent sterilisation with Essure® microinserts from January 2005 to December 2011. Essure devices were removed in all patients reporting pelvic pain after insertion. All data were collected from the hysteroscopy unit database with later review of medical records in cases of chronic pelvic pain and a telephone survey after microinsert removal. Main outcome measures were: grade of procedure difficulty perceived by the surgeon; tolerance described by the patient after placement; the need for analgesics during or immediately after the procedure; side-effects; average time between device placement and the onset of symptoms; time between device placement and removal; technique for device removal and any symptoms thereafter. A total of seven women (0.16%) presented with chronic pelvic pain requiring microinsert removal, with four classifying the pain perceived during the procedure as medium-high. Six patients did not require analgesics after the procedure and a vasovagal syndrome requiring intravenous analgesia and monitoring occurred in only one case. Six women reported pain immediately after the procedure, with a mean time between placement and removal of 29.4 months. In all cases, the symptoms disappeared after Essure removal. We conclude that the development of chronic pelvic pain is very uncommon after placement of Essure microinserts. Removal of these devices usually improves the pain.

Tricuspid valve injury after heart transplantation due to endomyocardial biopsy: an analysis of 3550 biopsies.

INTRODUCTION: Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is the most commonly valvular dysfunction found after heart transplantation (HTx). It may be related to endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) performed for allograft rejection surveillance. OBJECTIVE: This investigation evaluated the presence of tricuspid valve tissue fragments obtained during routine EMB performed after HTx and its possible effect on short-term and long-term hemodynamic status. METHOD: This single-center review included prospectively collected and retrospectively analyzed data. From 1985 to 2010, 417 patients underwent 3550 EMB after HTx. All myocardial specimens were reviewed to identify the presence of tricuspid valve tissue by 2 observers initially and in doubtful cases by a third observer. The echocardiographic and hemodynamic parameters were only considered for valvular functional damage analysis in cases of tricuspid tissue inadvertently removed during EMB. RESULTS: The 417 HTx patients to 3550 EMB, including 17,550 myocardial specimens. Tricuspid valve tissue was observed in 12 (2.9%) patients corresponding to 0.07% of the removed fragments. The echocardiographic and hemodynamic parameters of these patients before versus after the biopsy showed increased TR in 2 cases (2/12; 16.7%) quantified as moderate without progression in the long term. Only the right atrial pressure showed a significant increase (P = .0420) after tricuspid injury; however, the worsening of the functional class was not significant enough in any of the subjects. Thus, surgical intervention was not required. CONCLUSIONS: Histological evidence of chordal tissue in EMB specimens is a real-world problem of relatively low frequency. Traumatic tricuspid valve injury due to EMB rarely leads to severe valvular regurgitation; only a minority of patients develop significant clinical symptoms. Hemodynamic and echocardiographic alterations are also less often observed in most patients.

Tratamiento de la taquicardia supraventricular fetal precoz complicada con hidrops / Treatment of early fetal supraventricular tachycardia with hydrops

Describimos un caso de taquicardia supraventricular (TPSV) fetal asociado a hidrops grave y polihidramnios diagnosticado en la semana 23. Tras fracasar el tratamiento instaurado con digoxina v.o., se produjo la cardioversión con flecainida v.o. administrada a la madre y la progresiva resolución del hidrops y el polihidramnios. En la semana 34 nació un varón que, tras 6 meses de seguimiento, se encuentra sano sin tratamiento. Al no poder monitorizar en nuestro laboratorio los valores plasmáticos de flecainida se vigiló la posible aparición de toxicidad con electrocardiogramas seriados. Diversas publicaciones recomiendan la flecainida como fármaco de primera elección en caso de TPSV fetal asociada a hidrops. (AU)