A case of colon necrosis resulting from a delayed traumatic diaphragmatic hernia.

We present the case of a 71 years old woman who came at the emergency room for abdominal pain and symptoms of occlusion. The scanner demonstrated a colonic occlusion resulting from an incarceration, diagnosed as a hernia of Bochdalek. But two old rib fractures and a past history of a fall directed us to the diagnostic of delayed diaphragmatic rupture. The patient was operated in emergency and post-operative follow-up was simple. Traumatic diaphragmatic hernias are rarely diagnosed directly after trauma. Complications such as pneumonia, occlusion, enteric ischemia, visceral perforation and twisting of splenic hilium can occur many years after the trauma. This is why, for patients with intestinal obstruction or association of pulmonary abdominal symptoms and history of thoraco-abdominal injury, the diagnostic of diaphragmatic hernia should be considered. When patients present complications, there is a higher rate of morbidity and mortality (31%) reason why, emergency surgery is mandatory.

Incidence and prevention of deep vein thrombosis in restrained psychiatric patients.

BACKGROUND: Although physical restraint is still used in psychiatric inpatient settings, it sometimes causes serious side effects, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and resulting pulmonary embolism. The aim of this study was to review the literature investigating the incidence of the DVT in restrained psychiatric patients, to identify the risk factors of this condition and the effectiveness of routine prophylaxis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Studies investigating associations between deep vein thrombosis and restrained psychiatric patients were searched in the Pubmed database. More than 700 articles were sorted independently by two of the authors using predefined criteria. Only research articles, reviews and meta-analyses were selected for this review. RESULTS: 5 articles published between 2010 and 2016 were selected. Although antipsychotics and restrain are known to be thrombogenenic, in all retrospective studies, with anticoagulant prophylaxis for those restrained for more than 12 or 24 h, incidence of DVT in restrained psychiatric patients was almost not existent. Controversially, in a comparative study by Ishida, although deep sedation and physical comorbidities were associated with the occurrence of DVT, not using of anticoagulants was not associated with any increased incidence of DVT. DVT may be overlooked because psychiatric patients are often unaware of leg symptoms because of their psychiatric disease and induced sedation. Furthermore most DVT, in particular distal DVT are asymptomatic. When screened and assessed with more appropriate methods such as plasma D Dimer and ultrasound scanning the incidence of DVT reaches 11.6%. CONCLUSION: The incidence of DVT in restrained psychiatric patients was not low in spite of prophylaxis. These findings emphasize the importance of regular screening of and thorough assessments of DVT, especially in restrained psychiatric patients.

Aortic valve translocation for severe prosthetic valve endocarditis: early results and long-term follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Surgical management of ventriculo-aortic disconnection and aortic root abscesses after prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis carries high mortality and morbidity. Initial experience with translocation of the aortic valve and distal coronary artery bypass grafting was disappointing in terms of short-term and long-term success in the few published reports. We describe a technique of translocation of the aortic valve into the ascending aorta with direct antegrade myocardial revascularization. METHODS: Between 1980 and 1992, we included 21 patients and evaluated their long-term outcome. The surgical technique included extracting the aortic valve prosthesis, resecting all infected tissue, restoring the left ventricular outflow tract, and translocating the aortic valve into the ascending aorta, associated with myocardial revascularization of the left main trunk and the proximal right coronary artery. RESULTS: All patients required emergency surgery: 15 patients were in severe congestive heart failure, 3 patients were in cardiogenic shock, and 3 patients had multiple neurologic and peripheral signs of distal embolization. Fifteen patients had active prosthetic valve endocarditis. Intraoperative findings dictated the translocation. The overall hospital mortality was 14%. None of the 18 hospital survivors had prosthetic aortic valve endocarditis recurrence. All patients were observed from 12 to 22 years, are alive, and have resumed normal activities. CONCLUSIONS: In severe forms of prosthetic valve endocarditis, this technique provides a safe and reliable alternative to homograft replacement. The long-term results are satisfactory.