Rupture of a splenic artery aneurysm into the pancreatic duct. Case report.

A 71-year-old woman was admitted to a local hospital with abdominal pain and repeated haematemeses and melaena. Plain X-ray of the abdomen showed a cystic mass with a calcified wall behind the stomach. No bleeding point in the stomach or duodenum was found at gastroscopy. Over a period of 28 days she had five episodes of gastrointestinal haemorrhage with no drop in blood pressure. She was transferred to the regional hospital 26 days after admission. Angiography showed a splenic artery aneurysm 5 x 10 cm, which at operation was found to have ruptured into the pancreatic duct. The aneurysm, the tail of the pancreas and the spleen were removed, and she made an uneventful recovery.

Inhibition of enterotoxin from Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae by gangliosides from human milk.

Inhibitory activity of enterotoxin from Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae was associated with the ganglioside fraction of human milk. Both the milk fat and skim milk contained gangliosides that inhibited the toxins. The most purified milk fraction contained three glycolipid components, of which two migrated close to ganglioside GM1 on thin-layer chromatography plates. A component with a slightly different mobility from GM1 appeared to be associated with the inhibitory activity. Milk ganglioside fraction, derived from 2 ml of human milk, contained 1 to 4 micrograms of lipid-bound sialic acid and completely inhibited 0.1 micrograms of cholera toxin in rabbit intestinal loop experiments. It is suggested that human milk gangliosides, although present only in trace amounts, may be important in protecting infants against enterotoxin-induced diarrhea.

Torsion deformities after traction treatment of femoral fractures in children.

The torsion of both femurs was investigated in 55 patients who had been treated 5-13 years earlier at the age of 1-16 years for femoral shaft fractures. By comparing the anteversion angle of the contralateral hips, determined by the Rippstein method, torsion deformities exceeding 10 degrees were found in the fractured femur of 10 patients. The maximum deformity found was + 27 degrees. None of the patients had complaints due to the torsion deformity. Deformities appeared more frequently in patients treated with adhesive overhead traction of the fractured leg than in patients treated with wire traction with the limb on an oblique frame. However, the difference was not highly significant (0.05 less than P less than 0.10). There was not correlation between age at the time of injury and torsion abnormalities and no correlation between the length of the observation period and the residual deformity, indicating growth correction. Examination of the rotational mobility of the hips was found to be a suitable screening test in the diagnosis of deformities exceeding 10 degrees. Radiological investigation of the anteversion angle of the femoral neck is necessary in the final assessment of a torsion deformity.