Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome in Children: Experience With Four Cases of Acute Ischaemia and Review of the Literature.

OBJECTIVE: Popliteal artery entrapment syndrome (PAES) is an uncommon anatomical anomaly, frequently described in adults. The most common symptom is claudication. Acute limb ischaemia (ALI) in children is rare, but it may evolve and lead to limb loss or lifelong complications. Clinical and surgical experience of PAES in children is reported. Data from the literature are analysed in order to assess the severity of this disease and to identify the factors characterising the diagnosis and the outcome of treatment in paediatric patients. METHODS: Four children (aged 7-16 years) were referred with ALI due to PAES. Among the 439 articles reporting cases of PAES, 55 patients under 18 years of age were the focus. The PAES cases were classified according to the Love and Whelan classification modified by Rich. RESULTS: Data from 79 children (106 limbs, 27 bilateral PAES) were collected and analysed. Type I PAES was present in 41 (39%), Type II in 23 (22%), Type III in 24 (23%), Type IV in 12 (11%), and Type V in two (2%) limbs. A functional PAES was present in one patient bilaterally. In two cases, the type of PAES was not reported. Claudication occurred in 68 cases (64%), and ALI in 19 (18%). In 60 cases (57%), revascularisation with or without myotomy was required; myotomy alone was performed in 41 cases (39%). CONCLUSIONS: Symptomatic PAES in children should be considered a severe condition requiring urgent investigation in order to avoid any delays in the treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment are essential to prevent serious complications. The long-term outcomes of surgical treatment with the correction of the anatomical anomaly and vascular reconstruction are satisfactory with a low complication rate.

[Repeated plasty of the esophagus in children with the application of transplant from the ileum].

The authors give topographic-anatomical substantiation of a possibility to employ the ileum for esophageal replacement and describe a technique of forming such transplant. Their clinical experience includes 9 operated children. Earlier they had endured from 1 to 4 attempts of esophageal replacements by different traditional methods. In all children operated upon good results were obtained. It allows the ileum to be included in the arsenal of possible methods of esophageal replacement and considering it as an alternate variant in nonstandard situations.

[Organ-preserving interventions in combined therapy of children and adolescents with osteosarcoma].

An analyzed cohort consists of 50 pediatric patients with osteosarcoma receiving combined therapy in N. N. Petrov Research Institute for Oncology (1999-2010). Thirty nine of them had localized disease, 11 patients had distant metastases. The treatment scheme included neoadjuvant therapy with cisplatin and doxorubicin, surgical treatment and adjuvant therapy depended on initial response and could include cisplatin, doxorubicin, high-dose methotrexate, ifosfamide, etoposide. Four-year overall and relapse-free survival in children with localized disease was 74.3% and 69.2% accordingly. In 62% of patients were performed organ-preserving surgical interventions, in 22 patients was performed endoprosthetics, in 4 patients the defect was replaced by a bone autograft on a vascular bundle. The effectiveness of initial treatment and secondary endoprosthetics were analyzed. Six patients with lung metastases received normotermic lung chemoperfusion, 4 of them are alive and disease-free for 8 to 24 months.

[Lower limb stump reconstruction with a functional calcaneo-plantar unit free flap. A series of 16 cases]. / Reconstruction de moignon de membre inférieur par transfert libre de l'unité fonctionnelle calcanéo-plantaire. A propos d'une série de 16 cas.

The main objective of surgery, once amputation is inevitable, is to preserve a functional stump. This report describes the immediate reconstruction of 16 leg stumps in children by transfer of a functional calcaneo-plantar unit. Of these, 3 were thigh and 13 were lower leg reconstructions. Amputation was performed for tumor in 4 cases, and was due to accidents in the remaining twelve. The main technical features of flap preparation are preservation of the calcaneum branch and attachment of the heel skin to the greater tuberosity of the calcaneum. One case resulted in failure due to vascular thrombosis. The other 15 cases resulted in bone consolidation after an average of 45 days, sensitive protection by 70 days, and very good trophic and protective results. The provision of good distal pressure area encourages overall development of the child. There was no morbidity at the donor site, and because there is no major muscle mass in the distal fragment, the overall risk is very low compared to that of total proximal leg replantation. The transfer of functional calcaneo-plantar tissue as a single unit is the best strategy for one-step restoration of good distal support area for the stump. All surgeons liable to perform leg amputations should be aware of this technical approach.

[Current problems of vascular surgery in childhood]. / Aktual'nye voprosy angiokhirurgii detskogo vozrasta.

Under analysis are remote results of treatment of 751 children with congenital and acquired diseases of the vessels. Grounds are given for treatment of these diseases in the light of the classical syndromes of disturbed hemodynamics. The investigation of developmental and individual peculiarities of these syndromes is thought to be necessary. The leading role of microsurgical methods of treatment of such diseases of the vessels in children is stressed.

[Current problems in the reconstructive surgery of the locomotor apparatus in children]. / Aktual'nye voprosy rekonstruktivnoi khirurgii oporno-dvigatel'nogo apparata u detei.

The authors analyze results of treatment of 778 children with malignant and benign tumors of the bones, pseudoarthroses, amputations of lower extremities and fingers, injuries of the tendons, vessels and contused-lacerated wounds of distal phalanges of fingers. The possibility to use a precision technique for the reconstructive operations of the vessels in children is shown.

[Surgical treatment of extrahepatic portal hypertension in children]. / Khirurgicheskoe lechenie vnepechenochnoi portalnoi gipertenzii u detei.

In the period from 1985 to 1992 sixty-three patients aged from 7 months to 15 years were treated for the portal hypertension syndrome, 60 had the extrahepatie form. Forty-five various operations for portosystemic shunting were carried out: formation of proximal splenorenal anastomosis in 31, distal splenorenal anastomosis in 4, mesentericocaval anastomosis in 6, gastrocaval anastomisis in 2, and an atypical vascular shunt in 2 cases. Nonshunting operations were performed on 8 patients. Since 1986 39 sessions of endoscopic sclerotherapy were conducted, 16 of them were carried out in cases with esophagogastric bleeding.

[Endoscopic sclerotherapy in the combined treatment of portal hypertension in children]. / Endoskopicheskaia skleroterapiia v kompleksnom lechenii portal'noi gipertenzii u detei.

The authors have performed 28 sessions of endoscopic sclerotherapy of dilated esophagus veins in children. The 70% ethyl alcohol was used. Six sessions were carried out in patients with gastroesophageal hemorrhage. In 22 patients the sclerotherapy was carried on according to plan. The fiber gastroscope with a standard injector was used. A conclusion is made of expediency of using endoscopic sclerotherapy in complex treatment of portal hypertension in children.

[Autologous transfusion of UV-irradiated blood in the complex treatment of children with dysplasia of deep veins of the extremities]. / Autotransfuziia obluchennoi ul'travioletom krovi v kompleksnom lechenii detei s displaziei glubokikh ven konechnostei.

Under examination there were 12 patients aged from 5 till 14 years. An investigation of hemostatic potential of blood in the diseased extremity and peripheral blood was performed. A mosaic character of blood coagulative alterations in this category of patients was detected. Autotransfusion of UV-irradiated blood is a pathogenetically grounded and accessible method of correction of hemocoagulation and may be included in the complex treatment of patients with dysplasia of the profound veins of lower extremities.

[Vascular microsurgery during esophagoplasty in children]. / Mikrososudistaia khirurgiia pri ézofagoplastike u detei.

Clinico-experimental data on using the microvascular technique in plastic operations on the esophagus are described. Experiments in puppies have revealed specific features of the surgical technique, the morphology of intestinal grafts and their taking under conditions of growing organism. The microvascular technique was used in 3 patients. In 2 patients additional nutrition of the grafts was performed, in 1 patient free transplantation of small intestine grafts to the cervical and thoracic parts of the esophagus was fulfilled. Results were good.

[Effect of the crystallization conditions of tetracycline base on the properties of the powders and drug forms obtained. The dependence of the degree of dispersion of tetracycline base on the crystallization conditions]. / Vliianie uslovi kristallizatsii tetratsiklina osnovaniia na svoistva poluchaemykh poroshkov i lekarstvennykh form. Zavisimost' dispersnosti poroshkov tetratsiklina osnovaniia ot uslovii kristallizatsii.

Characteristics of the powder dispersity of tetracycline base samples prepared by directed crystallization with variation of the process conditions were determined by the sedimentation method. It was found that the speed of the solution agitation had the maximum effect on the level and nature of the dispersity. The rate of the solution temperature and pH changing during the crystallization process had also a significant effect at low agitation speed.