[Paul Broca: 1824-1880]. / Paul Broca: 1824-1880.

Paul Broca was very gifted: a hospital surgeon and professor of surgery by the age of 29, anatomist, neurologist, anthropologist, he was interested in medicine as a whole. He remains famous for describing the first brain localisation.

[Notes on the history of Duchenne's disease]. / Note sur l'histoire de la maladie de Duchenne.

The author shows by citations from Paul Broca, Duchenne (de Boulogne) and other authors that the first description of myopathias has been given in 1847 by P. Broca at the Société anatomique and that he had correctly interpreted their muscular (and not nervous) origin.

[Mortality in emergency abdominal surgery. 304 cases. A plea for better clinical practice]. / Mortalité en chirurgie abdominale d'urgence. A propos de 304 observations. Plaidoyer pour la clinique.

Survey of 304 cases of surgical, abdominal emergencies (peritonitis and bowel occlusions). We deplored 42 post-operative deaths (14%). When patients are operated within 12 hours after the beginning of the pain, out of a group of 56 patients, two died (4%). After the 48th hour, of 114 patients operated, 26 died (23%) despite a stay in an intensive care unit. 174 patients, under 60 years old, we operated; 4 died (2.3%). This is mainly due to a stay in an intensive care unit (50 were operated after the 48th hour). Out of a group of 60 eighty years old patients, 18 were operated before the 24th hour; one death, that of a 94 years old patient, was deplored. Out of the 42 patients operated after the 24th hour, 19 died (45%). On the 304 patients, 56 (18%) were operated before the 12th hour, and 18 only, before the 6th hour (6%). the delay in operating, does not increases mortality only, but increase the duration of hospitalisation; this in itself increase expenses and sufferings. The causes of these delays are analyzed. A wiser use of clinical examination would decrease them.

[Mortality in emergency abdominal surgery: apropos of 304 cases. An argument for clinical medicine]. / Mortalité en chirurgie abdominale d'urgence: à propos de 304 observations. Plaidoyer pour la clinique.

Survey of 304 cases of surgical, abdominal emergencies (peritonitis and bowel occlusions). We deplored 42 post-operative deaths (14%). When patients are operated within 12 hours after the beginning of the pain, out of a group of 56 patients, two died (4%). After the 48th hour, of 114 patients operated, 26 died (23%) despite a stay in an intense care unit. 174 patients, under 60 years old, were operated; 4 died (2.3%). This is mainly due to a stay in an intense care unit (50 were operated after the 48th hour). Out of a group of 60 eighty years old patients, 18 were operated before the 24th hour; one death, that of a 94 years old patient, was deplored. Out of the 42 patients operated after the 24th hour, 19 died (45%). On the 304 patients, 56 (18%) were operated before the 12th hour, and 18 only, before the 6th hour (6%). The delay in operating, does not increase mortality only, but increase the duration of hospitalisation; this in itself increase expenses and sufferings. The causes of these delays are analyzed. A wiser use of clinical examination would decrease them.

[Place of endoscopic sphincterotomy in the treatment of biliary lithiasis]. / Place de la sphinctérotomie endoscopique dans le traitement de la lithiase biliaire.

Endoscopic sphincterotomy is a benign procedure but occasional complications happen. They require a surgical team used to their specific management. On the other endoscopic sphincterotomy may control surgical insufficiency: retained stones. Main duct stones need a surgical approach, but endoscopy may be a substitute in many cases; this technic is more benign and efficient in most cases.

[Retroperitoneal tumors in adults. Apropos of 11 cases]. / Les tumeurs rétropéritonéales de l'adulte. A propos de onze cas.

This study reviews 11 cases of retroperitoneal tumors. The authors note the absence of symptoms and recommend preoperative angiography as a method of diagnosis and therapy. Preoperative vascular embolization of the retroperitoneal mass helps to control bleeding at operation. Operative results were disappointing. Although three patients are still alive some ten years after treatment, four have died of the cancer itself, meanwhile. But even in the case of very invasive tumors, the results may seem satisfactory for fairly long periods of time.

[Early jaundice after orthotopic liver transplantation. The role of ischaemia (author's transl)]. / Ictère précoce après transplantation hépatique orthotopique. Le rôle de l'ischémie.

The purpose of this experimental study was to identify the cause of early cholestatic jaundice occurring after orthotopic liver transplantation. The role of ischaemia was investigated in dogs undergoing auto-transplantation of the liver preserved for two hours. The animals developed early cholestasis with lesions that were markedly different from the graft-rejection lesions observed in a control group, being restricted to the cells and canaliculi of the central lobular area. The results of this work have made it possible to avoid overdosage with immunosuppressive drugs in a patient who had recently undergone orthotopic liver transplantation.