Prospects of prostanoid therapy. Preliminary results.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy of treatment with prostaglandins (Iloprost and Alprostadil) in patients with peripheral arterial disease in whom a surgical act or a redo operation is not proposable and to set the role of these drugs in the therapy of arterial diseases. METHODS: We analyzed the results of 96 treatments in patients with peripheral arterial diseases of different etiology, treated in the Day Hospital in the Division of Vascular Surgery from the 1/1/1993 to the 30/6/1998. The efficacy of the treatment has been evaluated on the basis of the clinical picture (healing or reduction of ulcers, reduction of rest-pain, improvement of the ability to walk). RESULTS: We had positive results in 60% of the patients who completed the treatment, a good outcome for patients with particularly severe arterial disease. Interruptions induced by the occurrence of uncontrolled side-effects are a few (6.25%). Better results have been found in a special category of disease (arterial diseases not associated with diabetes, not very advanced clinical picture, female gender). Iloprost proved to be superior to Alprostadil. CONCLUSIONS: Prostaglandins today represent an effective therapeutic solution to be considered. Further studies need to be done to find a category of patients who can have the best benefit from this kind of drug.

[Deep venous thrombosis in a patient with superficial thrombophlebitis. Apropos of 2 cases]. / Trombosi venosa profonda in paziente con tromboflebite superficiale. A proposito di due casi.

Deep vein thrombosis in patient with superficial thrombophlebitis of the leg. Description of two cases. Two clinical cases already observed at our Department of Vascular Surgery, regarding patients with superficial thrombophlebitis (STF) associated with a deep venous thrombosis (DVT) are presented. The diagnosis of DVT was achieved exclusively on the basis of the duplex scanner because the two patients were completely asymptomatic. The chance that symptoms and clinical signs of STF cover a DVT is a possibility that should always be considered. For this reason every STF should be further investigated with duplex scanner in order to exclude that the deep venous circulation get involved at the same time. The DVT in these cases is generally due to the spreading of the thrombosis process from the perforating branches. The chance of a multiple onset of thrombosis in the superficial and deep circulation represents anyway an hypothesis worth of studying.

Questions about the uncertain presence of muscle spindles in the human external anal sphincter.

The verification of the uncertain presence of muscle spindles in the external anal sphincter is important in the comprehension of the pathophysiology of continence. The authors failed to demonstrate these proprioceptive structures in 10 human sphincters examined with different histological techniques, whereas they found some typical muscle spindles in the puborectalis muscles. The possible interpretations of the different results on the subject in the literature together with their functional implications are discussed.