Management of Vascular Trauma during the Paris Terrorist Attack of November 13, 2015.

BACKGROUND: On November 13, 2015, Paris and Saint-Denis were the targets of terrorist attacks. The Public Hospitals of Paris Organization and the Percy Armed Forces Instruction Hospitals were mobilized to face the mass casualty situation. The objective of this study is to analyze the management of the victims presenting with a nonthoracic vascular trauma (NTVT). METHODS: All the data relating to the victims of NTVT who required a specific vascular open or endovascular treatment were analyzed retrospectively. A 6-month follow-up was obtained for all the patients. RESULTS: Among the 351 wounded, 20 (5.7%) patients had an NTVT and were dispatched in 8 hospitals (11 men of average age 32). NTVTs were gunshots in 17 cases (85%) or due to a handmade bomb in 3 cases (15%). Twelve patients (60%) received cardiopulmonary resuscitation during prehospital care. NTVT affected the limbs (14 cases, 70%) and the abdomen or the small pelvis (6 cases, 30%). All the patients were operated in emergency. Arterial lesions were treated with greater saphenous vein bypasses, by ligation, and/or embolization. Eleven venous lesions were treated by direct repair or ligation. Associated lesions requiring a specific treatment were present in 19 patients (95%) and were primarily osseous, nervous, and abdomino-pelvic. Severe postoperative complications were observed in 9 patients (45%). Fourteen patients (70%) required blood transfusion (6.4 U of packed red blood cells on average, range 0-48). There were no deaths or amputation and all vascular reconstructions were patent at 6 months. CONCLUSIONS: The effectiveness of the prehospital emergency services and a multisite and multidisciplinary management made it possible to obtain satisfactory results for NTVT casualties. All the departments of vascular surgery must be prepared to receive many wounded victims in the event of terrorist attacks.

Endovascular treatment of brachiocephalic artery war-related injury.

INTRODUCTION: Injuries to the innominate artery are rare, but potentially fatal. Early diagnosis and treatment may avoid life-threatening complications. Endovascular surgery often has lower morbidity and mortality rates than conventional surgery. CLINICAL CASE: We reported the case of a 28-year-old Yemenite soldier who presented with a shrapnel-related chest puncture wound following a shell explosion in Djibouti causing a 5 mm pseudoaneurysm of the innominate artery without associated complications. After medical repatriation to France, the pseudoaneurysm was treated by endovascular exclusion using a covered stent. DISCUSSION: Endovascular treatment of supra-aortic trunk lesions is an alternative to surgery with fewer postoperative complications, but long-term follow-up is lacking.

Leiomyosarcoma of the superior vena cava.

Leiomyosarcoma of the superior vena cava is a very rare tumor and only a few cases have been reported, with various techniques of vascular reconstruction. We describe a new case of leiomyosarcoma of the superior vena cava in a 61-year-old woman with extension to the brachiocephalic arterial trunk. Resection and vascular reconstruction were performed using, respectively, polytetrafluoroethylene and polyethylene terephtalate vascular grafts.

[Negative pressure therapy and acute wounds]. / La thérapie par pression negative et les plaies aiguës.

Negative pressure therapy medical techniques constitute a revolution in wound care, notably with acute wounds.The latter, often surgical, are treated as an emergency

Surgical treatment of an aneurysm of a distal branch of the renal artery.

Aneurysms of the renal artery and its branches are rare, but are associated with significant morbimortality due to the absence of clinical symptoms and hemorrhagic risk in the event of rupture. We report the case of a patient with an aneurysm of a distal branch of the right renal artery that measured 25 mm in diameter. The diagnosis and localization were obtained using selective arteriography. Treatment consisted of resection of the aneurysmal sac associated with closure with a saphenous vein patch rather than an endovascular treatment in order to preserve the nephronic capital. Right renal parenchymatous vascularization was satisfactory on arterial echo-Doppler and angioscanner assessment at 1 year.

Mucormycosis: a rare complication of an amputation.

Mucormycosis is a rare but serious opportunistic fungal infection. Several clinical forms have been described, including cutaneous localization that is frequently associated with soft tissue trauma or burns. We report a case of cutaneous mucormycosis in a diabetic patient with severe occlusive arterial disease. The diagnosis was made early with mold growth on an amputation wound and the presence of nonseptate hyphae on direct microscopic examination, later identified on culture as Lichtheimia ramosa. Aggressive treatment, including the control of underlying diseases, systemic and local amphotericin B, and extensive surgical debridement permitted successful outcomes.

Usefulness of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography scan in the assessment of periprosthetic collections: report of 2 cases with opposite management.

Vascular prosthetic infection is a rare but serious complication of vascular surgery that requires rapid diagnosis and treatment. It is associated with high rates of amputation and death. The diagnosis is difficult when faced with a chronic nonspecific clinical presentation. We report 2 cases showing the diagnostic usefulness of positron emission tomography (PET). In 1 case, PET excluded with certainty the septic character of a periprosthetic collection fistulized with the skin by showing a periprosthetic fixation insufficient to diagnose an infection. In the other case, it confirmed the prosthetic infection in association with an evocative clinical picture by revealing a pathologic periprosthetic hyperfixation. PET scan therefore drew aside the diagnosis of prosthetic infection faced with a mild clinical and paraclinical presentation in the first case, and made it possible to pose it with certainty in the second case. This examination made it possible to save valuable time in 1 case and to elucidate the periprosthetic collection in the other case. Therefore, the rule of surgical explantation of any prosthesis with flow or periprosthetic collection is no more univocal.

In situ repair of a primary Brucella-infected abdominal aortic aneurysm: long-term follow-up.

Infected aortic aneurysms represent 0.85 to 1.3% of aortic aneurysms. Most often, the implicated bacteria species are Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus sp. and Streptococcus sp. Brucella-related infected aortic aneurysms are very rare. Most often, they result from endocarditis or from a local septic focus. Combined treatment by antibiotics and surgery is the standard for infectious aneurysms. In the absence of formal factual data, the surgical treatment is still discussed in the literature, especially since endovascular treatments have been in full expansion. We are reporting the case of a female patient presenting with a Brucella-related infra-renal abdominal aortic aneurysm, without primitive infectious source (area) or identified endocarditis. Surgical treatment with in situ prosthetic replacement and omentoplasty in association with adapted antibiotics allowed a favorable outcome with an excellent result after an 8-year follow up.

Vascular complications following total hip arthroplasty: a case study and a review of the literature.

Vascular complications after total hip arthroplasty (THA) are rare but represent a real risk. The diversity of clinical presentations can make diagnosis difficult. They could manifest as an immediate and acute hemorrhage or subsequent ischemia. We report the case of a patient who presented a thrombosis of the femoral artery associated with a sciatic palsy after THA for a coxa profunda. The diagnosis was actually made 3 years after surgery because of atypical symptoms. The mechanism involved was either a crash of the artery by a retractor on the anterior wall of the acetabulum, or a stretching of the artery. A review of the literature of vascular complications occurring after THA recalls the multiplicity of clinical presentations and the diagnostic difficulties. They could manifest as an immediate and acute hemorrhage or deferred ischemia, as in our case. Knowledge of these complications should help prevent them, and the diagnosis should be considered in atypical sequences after THA.

Multiple tuberculous aneurysms of the aorta.

Tuberculous aneurysms of the aorta are quite rare, but are exceptional when found in multiple locations. We report the case of multiple tuberculous aortic aneurysms of the thoracic and abdominal aorta in a 19-year-old female discovered when she consulted for thrombocytopenic purpura. The treatment for both locations included prolonged antituberculous therapy and surgical resection with cryopreserved aortic allograft patch for the reconstruction.

[Subintimal angioplasty and diabetic foot revascularisation]. / Revascularisation du pied diabétique.

Diabetic wounds foot are responsible for 5-10% minor or major amputation in France. In fact, amputation risk of lower limbs is 15-30% higher for diabetic patients. University of Texas classification (UT) is the reference for diabetic foot wound. It distinguish non ischemic and ischemic wound with more amputation. If ischaemia is combined, revascularization may be considered for salvage of the limb. Some revascularization techniques are well known: as surgical by-pass, angioplasty with or without stent, or hybrid procedures with the both. Subintimal angioplasty is a more recent endovascular technique, in assessment for old patients who are believed to be unsuitable candidates for conventional by-pass or angioplasty.

The impact of family structure transitions on youth achievement: evidence from the children of the NLSY79.

We investigated the sensitivity of measures of cognitive ability and socioemotional development to changes in parents' marital status using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979. We used several scores for each assessment, taken at different times relative to parents' marital transitions, which allowed us to trace the effects starting up to five years before a parent's change in marital status and continuing for up to six years afterward. It also allowed us to correct for the unobserved heterogeneity of the transition and nontransition samples by controlling for the child's fixed effect in estimating the time path of his or her response to the transition. We found that children from families with both biological parents scored significantly better on the BPI and the PIAT-math and PIAT-reading assessments than did children from nonintact families. However, much of the difference disappeared when we controlled for background variables. Furthermore, when we controlled for child fixed effects, we did not find significant longitudinal variation in these scores over long periods that encompass the marital transition. This finding suggests that most of the variation is due to cross-sectional differences and is not a result of marital transitions per se.