Rhodotorula glutinis meningitis: a case report and review of literature.

Rhodotorula is ubiquitous saprophytic yeast belonging to phylum Basidiomycota. These encapsulated basidiomycetes are being increasingly recognised as important emerging human pathogens. There are scanty reports of meningitis caused by Rhodurorula spp in HIV infected patients. We present one such case of meningitis by Rhodutorula glutinis in HIV-infected patient. The patient also had a past history of abdominal tuberculosis. The diagnosis of Rhodotorula was confirmed by Gram staining and culture of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Contamination was ruled out by repeated culturing of CSF from the same patient. Therapy with Amphotericin B showed good results. Patient was discharged from the hospital. However, in the seventh month of follow-up patient was readmitted with complaints of fever, breathlessness, altered sensorium, vomiting and succumbed to his illness. This time the CSF cultures remained negative for Rhodotorula, acid fast bacilli and other pyogenic organisms. Our last 11-year retrospective analysis of 8197 specimens received for mycological work-up showed that this is the first report of R. glutinis isolation from our institute.

IS CLEAN DISSECTION OF CALOT'S TRIANGLE NECESSARY IN CHOLECYSTECTOMIES?

In this study when patients were followed up for post-operative symptoms, it was seen that the incidence of narrowing of lumen of the common bile duct was more in cases where the operation was done by retrograde cholecystectomy with clean dissection of Calot's triangle. Though this was a coincidental finding, it raises a doubt whether the narrowing is a result of impairment of blood supply to the common bile duct, which may result from clean dissection and display of Calot's triangle area. The above dissection removes the fascial layer over the common bile duct and is likely to result in damage to end-arteries piercing through it to the common bile duct. This conjecture requires further study in a larger series.

PREVENTION OF POST-OPERATIVE WOUND INFECTION IN ABDOMINAL OPERATIONS.

One hundred patients undergoing abdominal surgery were included in this prospective study. The role of local application of Betadine, use of synthetic sutures, and use of low pressure subcutaneous suction drainage were evaluated in preventing post-operative wound infection. The infection rate was 15 per cent with Betadine, 15.4 per cent with prolene, 20 per cent with subcutaneous suction drainage and 30.8 per cent in the control group.

CHOLECYSTECTOMY : FUNDUS TO PORTA APPROACH.

Cholecystectomy is a commonly performed operation but there is still controversy whether dissection of the gall bladder should proceed from the fundus to the cystic duct or in the opposite direction. In usual practice the fundus-first method is adopted whenever difficulty is encountered in visualizing the anatomy of the cystic duct and Calot's triangle. Although haemorrhage is a little greater than with the duct-first method the risk of damage to the common bile duct or right hepatic artery is minimized. This article describes a brief experience with thirty randomized patients in whom cholecystectomies were performed with planned fundus-first approach.

Tolbutamide kinetics in cigarette smokers in the Indian population.

A single oral dose of 500 mg tolbutamide was administered to 9 chronic cigarette smokers and 8 healthy matched control volunteers. Plasma tolbutamide half-life (t1/2 B) was shortened in cigarette smokers as compared to the nonsmokers, but the difference was not statistically significant (p greater than 0.05). However, the area under the plasma concentration (AUC O----x) and peak concentration (Cmax) were reduced significantly in smokers. Concern over enhanced metabolism of several drugs is probably warranted in cigarette smokers.