[Elastic ligation of hemorrhoids]. / Ligatures élastiques d'hémorroïdes.

Elastic ligation, a simple therapeutic treatment of hemorrhoids, consists of placing a small rubber ring at the base of the hemorrhoid. This breaks it down anatomically, by ischemic necrosis. It is most called for in cases of hemorrhoidal dropsical swelling, involving separate, often prolapsed, cluster. This treatment may be carried out in conjunction with sclerosant injections. Painful incidence cannot always be avoided, but cases of severe hemorrhage are rare. The results of this treatment are often spectacular, especially if it is used discriminately, and it often supplants surgery.

[Comparison between gastric radiology and fiber endoscopy (author's transl)]. / La radiologie gastrique confrontée avec la fibro-endoscopie. Enseignements et déductions pratiques

This paper summarizes the experience from 1969 to 1972 of a mixed team of radiologists and endoscopists at the Northern Marseilles University Hospital Centre. The patients were unselected and the team were not given all the information. After recalling the clinical and radiological conditions, together with the endoscopic conditions of the examination, the authors define the criteria which they chose to orient patients towards fiber endoscopy, i.e. either frankly abnormal radiology, or a radiological examination classed as normal in 563 cases, but which the team considered doubtful. They then report their results. Under these conditions, the results seem to be less unfavourable for radiology than would have been thought, for only 7% of the results were made by endoscopy alone (96 cases out of 1,500). In both benign and malignant ulcer, fiber endoscopy simply confirmed the radiological diagnosis and, in 54% of all the examinations, fiber endoscopy confirmed the normal character of radiology. However, in deciding whether carcinoma or benign ulcer, i.e. 11% of the cases of carcinoma and 14% of the cases of benign ulcer, radiology completely omitted the diagnosis of the lesion which might seem unacceptable. They conclude by asking radiologists to improve their technique of lesion detection and concentrate their examination on the smallest visible lesion in areas considered diffcult to explore radiologically. They are more and more circumspect about giving a full etiological diagnosis of lesions by radiology, especially in gastric ulceration where fiber endoscopy and direct biopsy seems more and more advisable.

Enzyme histochemical study of fat absorption in human duodenal mucosa.

In seven healthy subjects the activities of various intestinal enzymes were studied using a fasting control peroral biopsy and two other biopsies 15 minutes and 30 minutes after an intestinal infusion of emulsified corn oil. Specific histochemical methods permitted the comparison of the enzymatic activities of the absorptive cells at the top of the villi before and during fat absorption which was demonstrated with a Sudan black stain. FOUR OXYDATIVE ENZYMES WERE MODIFIED AFTER THE CORN OIL INFUSION: NADH2-tetrazolium reductase, NADPH2-tetrazolium reductase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, and lactate dehydrogenase. In six cases, the activity of NADH2-tetrazolium reductase was increased. Two of these subjects presented a simultaneous increase of NADPH2-tetrazolium reductase and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Two other subjects presented a decrease in lactate dehydrogenase activity.