[Hypopharyngeal Zenker's diverticulum about four cases]

The hypopharyngeal Zenker's diverticulum is a rare pathology [1%of oesophagien pathology]. It is up to a hernia of the oesophagus posterior wall throught the fibres of the pharynx inferior constrictor muscle. Many pathogenic hypotheses are put forword; it is generally benign but can cause serious complications. The treatment can be difficult. The best treatment seems to be diverticulectomy with cricopharyngeal myotomy. Endoscopic treatment can be a good therapeutic alternative. We report four cases of patients with DPO three women and one man; the mean age of patients was 67 years. All our patients suffered from dysphagia and loss of weight. The diagnostic, clinically suspected was cofirmed by radiological examinations. All our patients were operated. Surgery was satisfactory for three patients. One patient died

Clinical, biological and evolutional profile of beta-thalassemia in Kairouan. About 55 cases

The authors report a retrospective study concerning 35 cases of beta-thalassemia major, collected in the pediatric service of Ibn El Jazzar Hospital in Kairouan between January 1987 and June 2004. This disease represents 1.19% of hospitalisations. The middle age of diagnosis is of 22 months [3 months - 6 years] with a sex-ratio of 0.6. Clinical symptomatology is dominated by paleness [100% of cases] and splenomegaly [97% of cases]. All patients were treated by long-term chronic blood transfusions with chelation therapy. Eleven partial splenectomies were practiced in ten patients. Three patients died at an average age of 7 years. The prenatal diagnosis, using the amniocentesis, was performed in five cases