[Ventricular staphylococcal infections. Treatment with vancomycin by continuous venous infusion]. / Infections ventriculaires à staphylocoque. Traitement par la vancomycine en perfusion veineuse continue.

Thirteen cases of meningeal and/or ventricular infection and 1 case of septicaemia, all caused by staphylococci, were treated with continuous intravenous infusions of vancomycin. Repeated measurements of vancomycin plasma and CSF levels by microbiological assay or by high performance liquid chromatography showed that the antibiotic entered the CSF after 48 hours of treatment and that its concentrations in CSF remained stable at 1 to 4 micrograms/ml (mean: 2 micrograms/ml) throughout the 3 weeks' treatment period. After treatment was discontinued, vancomycin became undetectable in CSF within less than 24 hours. All the children were cured.

[Staphylococcus, the most frequent agent of serious complications of acute sinusitis in children. 5 cases]. / Le staphylocoque, agent le plus fréquent des complications graves des sinusites aiguës de l'enfant. Cinq observations.

The high incidence of staphylococcal infection in severe forms of orbital cellulitis is reviewed with 4 case reports of children with complications of acute sinusitis due to staphylococcal infection. Three cases of thrombosis of the sinus cavernosus due to ethmoidal extension were observed, complicated in one case by fatal purulent meningitis. In one case, the sinusitis was a mixed staphylococcal and anerobic infection with orbital cellulitis and subcutaneous gas gangrene. No organism was isolated in the fifth child who had exophtalmos due to retroorbital cellulitis, but a rapid recovery was obtained with anti staphylococcal antibiotics after failure of inappropriate antibiotics. In conclusion, all periorbital cellulitis complicating sinusitis should be prescribed active anti staphylococcal antibiotics. In addition low dose anti coagulant therapy and prophylactic treatment against cerebral aedema are recommanded because of the risk of extension of the infection by thrombophlebitis of the sinus cavernosus and of intracranial propagation of the periorbital aedema.

[Left ventricular performance in chronic hemodialysis patients studied during intense exercise and during a dextran infusion test (author's transl)]. / Courbes de fonction du ventricule gauche chez les patients hémodialysés chroniques: étude au cours d'un effort intense et au cours d'une perfusion de dextran.

In 14 chronic hemodialysis patients with recent circulatory pulmonary congestion or pulmonary edema, left ventricular failure was suspected. Left ventricular function was studied by a sitting exercise test and a dextran infusion test. According to the left ventricular function curves the left ventricular function was not altered in chronic hemodialysis patients compared to normal subjects. It is possible that on average the left ventricular performances is higher in chronic hemodialysis patients than in normal subjects. These results indicate that circulatory pulmonary congestion and pulmonary edema are not reliable signs of left ventricular failure in chronic hemodialysis patients.