Job autonomy and control over one's spouse: a compensatory process.

This research addresses the relationship between work conditions and family life by examining job autonomy and control over one's spouse. While research has shown that low job autonomy can lead to depression, this study examines a different response to low job autonomy: controlling one's spouse. Using a sample of newly married couples from the first two waves of a three-year longitudinal study where respondents are queried about their job, relations with their spouses, and self-feelings, the results show that individuals respond to reduced job autonomy not only by becoming depressed, but also by controlling their spouses. Depression and control over one's spouse are independent and not alternative responses to low job autonomy. These results hold for Year 1 and for Year 2, and they hold for husbands as well as wives. The findings are understood in terms of the compensatory process of control. Broadly speaking, negative work conditions influence relations at home, and controlling the spouse may serve to reclaim the self-view that one has control over the environment.

Common bile duct exploration: indications and results.

To ascertain the best diagnostic indicators of choledocholithiasis and to decrease the incidence of retained stones in the common bile duct after exploration, the authors carried out a retrospective review of 110 consecutive patients who underwent common bile duct exploration for calculous biliary tract disease. Conditions that were most often associated with choledocholithiasis were cholangitis and clinically obvious jaundice. The serum bilirubin level was helpful in identifying patients with stones in the common bile duct only when the value was greater than 6 mg/dl (103 mumol/l), and alkaline phosphatase only when the value was more than 250 IU (normal 110 IU). When stones are felt in the duct at operation, the diagnosis of choledocholithiasis is certain; positive operative cholangiograms are highly reliable and the coexistence of small gallstones and a dilated cystic duct is suggestive. The retention of stones is best prevented by careful exploration followed by high-quality T-tube cholangiography performed at operation after the exploration is complete. Any missed stones found in this way should be removed by re-exploration at the time of the original operation. Stones left in the common bile duct are best extracted nonoperatively under radiologic control. This technique, while effective and safe, is associated with considerable morbidity.

Iatrogenic false aneurysms.

Of 270 patients operated upon for aneurysm, 25 patients underwent repair for 28 iatrogenic false aneurysms. Of these, 67.9% were complications of vascular reconstructive surgery and 64.3% occurred at the groin. Iatrogenic false aneurysm was associated with various prosthetic and suture materials and in many the attenuation of host arterial wall appeared to play an important role. Newer invasive procedures, such as arterial infusion of chemotherapeutic agents, also lead to formation of iatrogenic false aneurysm. Infections, present in 50% of the author's series, and intra-abdominal iatrogenic false aneurysm, with abdominal viscera forming part of the aneurysmal wall, posed a technical challenge. Iatrogenic false aneurysm is a potentially grave complication since the mortality and limb loss were each 8% in this series.