[Fulminant liver failure caused by antitubercular drugs. Report of a clinical case]. / Insufficienza epatica fulminante da farmaci antitubercolari. Descrizione di un caso clinico.

The incidence of tuberculosis has grown seriously in the last ten years and so have the risks due to drug toxicity of Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Pyrazinamide, Rifampicin. One of the questions is whether a careful monitoring of liver function during anti-tubercular chemotherapy could be useful, given that once severe organ toxicity initiates the survival rate remains under 10% if organ transplant is not available. International literature shows a clear prevalence of this event in Asiatic populations which are now well represented in Italy owing to incoming migrations. A case of fulminant hepatitis in a young Chinese man under treatment for TBC arrived at our ICU with a drug-induced acute hepatitis is reported.

[Hormonal changes during surgical stress. Comparison of isoflurane anesthesia, neuroleptanalgesia, propofol]. / Modificazioni ormonali in corso di stress chirurgico. Confronto fra anestesia isofluranica, NLA, propofol.

Our purpose is to verify if different techniques of general anaesthesia can modify the patient's hormonal response to surgical stress. For this extent 35 patients, undergoing Cottle's septoplasty, were randomly divided into three groups, treated using different anaesthesiological techniques (forane, NLA and propofol). No variation was noted between the three groups regarding cortisol increments, while the patients, in whom forane was used for anaesthesia maintenance, manifested less significant variations in prolactin levels. This may be indicative of good forane protection for surgical stress.