[Postoperative pneumonia: nosocomial, predictable, iatrogenic, preventable or not?]. / Pneumonie postopératoire: nosocomiale, iatrogène, prévisible, évitable ou non?

We report the case of a 52-year-old man, ASA 3-4, malnourished, heavy smoker and drinker at the stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cirrhosis. The postoperative course of a cervical cancer surgery was complicated by a pneumonia with fatal outcome in the intensive care unit. Taking into account the patient's history and surgical requirements, this nosocomial infection did not appear easily preventable. The multiple risk factors and the few preventive measures usable were analyzed. In this context, the media and legal trend to make the doctors responsible for the nosocomial infections should be revised.

Preoperative nutritional evaluation of elderly patients: the Mini Nutritional Assessment as a practical tool.

BACKGROUND AND GOAL: Age and malnutrition are each surgical risk factors. Because the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) has been specifically designed for assessing the nutritional status of elderly patients, it can be used for preoperative nutritional evaluation. Therefore, the MNA was included in the preoperative clinical evaluation of patients over 60 years of age to describe their nutritional status. METHODS: Every patient over 60 years of age, scheduled for elective surgery, was seen in anaesthesiology consultation and was submitted to the MNA. The MNA is a clinical score consisting of four additive items: 'Anthropometric assessment' based on BMI, mid-arm and calf circumferences, weight loss; global evaluation; dietetic assessment, and subjective assessment - these last three items being obtained through a specific questionnaire. It requires no biological marker. Awarding to the obtained score, the MNA stratifies patients in the following categories: well-nourished (24

[Multitruncular block at the elbow for a major hand trauma for prehospital care]. / Blocs tronculaires au pli du coude en urgence préhospitalière.

Upper limb peripheral nerve blocks offer many advantages but they are not widely used in prehospital care. We report the case of a multitroncular block at the elbow made by the emergency department team out of the hospital after a major hand trauma. A successful axillary brachial plexus block was done two hours later, without any problem. This case report allows us to discuss about different analgesia techniques useful in prehospital care.

[Orbital haemorrhage after medial canthus episclera (sub-Tenon's) anaesthesia]. / Hématome rétrobulbaire après anesthésie épisclérale au canthus médial.

Medial canthus episclera (sub-Tenon's) anaesthesia is a technique proposed as a suitable alternative to the more classical peribulbar block because of the greater reliability and more constancy in effectiveness. We report two cases of retrobulbar haematoma after sub-Tenon's anaesthesia, one with central retina artery compression needed anterior room punction. Sub-Tenon's anaesthesia, like peribulbar anaesthesia, can give also retrobulbar haemorrhage if the insertion of the needle is not limited to the anterior orbit.

[Prehospital analgesia with femoral nerve block following lower extremity injury. A 107 cases survey]. / Bloc fémoral en analgésie préhospitalière pour traumatisme du membre inférieur. Enquête de pratique observationnelle sur 107 cas.

OBJECTIVE: Femoral Nerve Block (FNB) has been proposed for femoral fracture analgesia in a prehospital setting. METHODS: Descriptive case-series survey. All suspected femoral fractures that were managed by our extrahospital service and had a femoral block were prospectively included. The physician was free to choose any block technique (paravascular femoral block [BFPV], nerve stimulation femoral block [BFNS], or fascia iliaca block [BFI]), as well as local anesthetic mixture and volume. Pain was assessed using a simplified verbal scale (0-4) before (T0), 10minutes after block (T1), and at hospital arrival (T2). Demographic values, actual trauma diagnosis, the technique used, the local anesthetic mixture and volume, incidents and complications were recorded. RESULTS: One hundred and seven blocks were included. Eighty-six percent of the blocks were performed by an anesthesiologist, although they represent 50% of the prehospital physician staff. Pain on the simplified verbal scale (EVS) decreased from T0 to both T1 and T2 for the whole population and also in each technique subgroup (eight BFPV, 36 BFNS, and 63 BFI). Two BFI blocks required a re-injection to be successful. Ten blocks failed (eight BFI, and two BFNS). Among those 10 failed blocks, two were first wrongly quoted as successful and two successful BFNS blocks appeared inadequate with regard to the trauma location outside the femoral dermatoma. No complication was observed. CONCLUSION: Prehospital FNB appeared to be efficacious in routine practice. Teaching FNB to non-anesthesiologist physicians is challenging.

[Sciatic nerve block in prehospital care]. / Bloc sciatique en médecine préhospitalière.

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the analgesic efficiency of the sciatic nerve block in prehospital care at the time of some severe legs or feet traumas. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective, monocentric study upon a period of time 1998-2008. RESULTS: Twenty-three sciatic nerve blocks have been colligated, five by upper way and heighten by lateral popliteal lower way among which fourteen without neurostimulator. The pain decrease evaluated by the EVS at T0 (before block), T1 (10 min after block) and T2 (arriving in emergency department), has been significative, whatever the measure time interval (T0-T1, T0-T2, T1-T2), the ways used and the local anaesthetics given. The analgesia installation was faster when approaching the sciatic nerve block by the upper way and when using a neurostimulator. Only one analgesic failure was observed while doing a lateral popliteal way without neurostimulator. Any complication was reported. CONCLUSION: The sciatic nerve block done in prehospital shows a significant analgesic efficiency which would worth a deeper evaluation and a thought on its introduction in the ED physician's therapeutic gear.

[Paraumbilical block for strangulated umbilical hernia in emergency]. / Bloc paraombilical pour l'anesthésie de la hernie ombilicale étranglée en urgence.

The authors describe a strangulated umbilical hernia surgery performed in emergency with a paraumbilical block associated with a local infiltration. For this patient, 3-4 ASA status, in occlusion, with iterative vomiting and coagulation disorders, general or spinal anaesthesia were high-risk technics. Paraumbilical block, sometimes used for anaesthesia or/and analgesia for programmed umbilical hernia surgery, allowed surgery with good conditions and procured prolonged postoperative analgesia. This block, easy to perform, is an interesting alternative in emergency for general or spinal anaesthesia in high-risk patients.

[Multifocal tubercular osteitis in a female patient infected with the human immunodeficiency virus]. / Osteítis tuberculosa multifocal en una paciente infectada por el virus de la inmunodeficiencia humana.

We discuss the case of a 22-year-old female, carrying of antibodies to against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), who developed several tumors on different bone localizations, which corresponded to plurifocal bone tuberculosis. We reviewed multifocal bone tuberculosis reports in the literature. The exceptionally of this case in underlined and the relationship between this atypical clinical presentation and immunodeficiency in discussed.

[Control of arterial hypertension: analysis of visit and time factors]. / El control de la hipertensión arterial: análisis de los factores visitas y tiempo.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the frequency of attendance and the time elapsed between the diagnosis of Arterial Hypertension (AHT) and the control of Arterial Pressure (AP); and to analyse the different ways of presenting the level of control of AHT. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Teaching Health Centre. PATIENTS: 103 hypertense patients diagnosed since 1986: 44 men (42.7%) and 59 women (57.3%), with an average age of 52.6 +/- 1. Their initial AP was 164.4 +/- 17.1/102.1 +/- 7.4 mmHg. The criterion of AHT control was Diastolic Arterial Pressure (DAP) < 90 mmHg. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: AP at the end of the first year was 150.1 +/- 20.6/90.7 +/- 9.6 mmHg (p < 0.001 in comparison with the initial AP). The average attendances for AHT and per patient in the first year was 8.7 +/- 5 (1-26). Patients with more severe forms of AHT and/or with associated risk factors visited more often (p < 0.05). During the first year 76 patients (73.7%) presented on at least one attendance a controlled DAP. At the end of the first year 46 patients (44.6%) were under control. The average time per patient until AP was controlled was 28.6 +/- 31.6 weeks (1-168). Males and under-65s took more time to control their AP (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There are gender and age differences in the time required to bring AP under control. Frequency of attendance is related to the severity of AHT and the presence of other pathologies and risk factors. The level of control of AHT, expressed in different ways, is not constant.

[Analysis of direct costs of controlling arterial hypertension]. / Análisis de los costes directos del control de la hipertensión arterial.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the number of attendances and the direct cost of pharmaceutical prescription arising from a year-long monitoring of hypertense patients. SETTING: Health Centre. DESIGN: A prospective observation study. PATIENTS: 220 hypertense patients, undergoing arterial pressure (AP) monitoring, were chosen by means of systematic random sampling. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The variables of age, gender, cardiovascular risk factors, AP, monitoring level (criterion AP < 160-90 mmHg), attendances and treatment used were analysed. The pharmaceutical cost was calculated in line with the dosages and according to the 1990 Vademecum. The monitoring level was 43.6%. The total number of attendances per patient were 12.8 +/- 6.43 and those for hypertension, 7.9 +/- 3.5. Diabetics attended more for hypertension (8.8 vs 7.5, p < 0.05). Pharmaceutical treatment was prescribed for 183 people (83.2%). The number of drugs was correlated with the severity of the hypertension and the number of attendances. Overall drug cost was 429,571 pesetas per month. Average monthly cost per patient was 2,348.69 +/- 2,318.92 pesetas (range 90.5-12,856.5). Angiotensin enzyme conversion inhibitors (AECI) made for the greatest monthly mean cost per patient (4,352.9 pesetas) and diuretics, the least (322.2 pesetas). CONCLUSION: Frequency of attendance is related to the presence of diabetes and the number of drugs prescribed. The introduction of AECI and Calcium antagonists into first-line treatment represents an important increase in the cost of controlling Hypertension.