Laparoscopic treatment of common bile duct stones. Phantom experiments using electrohydraulic and pulsed dye laser lithotripsy.

To evaluate the feasibility of laparoscopic transcystic lithotripsy of common bile duct stones, a phantom model comprising bovine liver and biliary tract tissue integrated within a laparoscopic trainer was built. A 9 French cholangioscope was introduced via the cystic duct into the common bile duct in which a human gall stone of known composition had been introduced. Lithotripsy was performed using either a laser or electrohydraulic probe passed through the working channel of the cholangioscope following which the stone fragments were manipulated into the duodenum through the papilla of Vater using the choledochoscope. A total of 20 lithotripsies with each energy form were performed. Lithotripsy was successful in breaking the stones into fragments smaller than 6 mm. The energy expenditure was comparable with a mean of 49 J for laser lithotripsy (range 9 to 159 J), and 53 J (range 16 to 160 J) for electrohydraulic wave lithotripsy. The lithotripsy time measured from introduction of the cholangioscope until its removal was a mean of 30 minutes for electrohydraulic wave lithotripsy and 41 minutes for dye laser lithotripsy. This difference was statistically significant. Macroscopic tissue damage to the common bile duct wall was not observed following any procedure. An additional experiment was performed to evaluate damage that could be caused to the wall of the common bile duct. Both electrohydraulic shock wave and pulsed dye laser lithotripsy without optical feedback regulation caused severe tissue defects when there was tissue contact or distance less than 2 mm. With optical feedback regulation however, no tissue damage was induced by laser lithotripsy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

[Coronary angiographic findings in 308 patients with the clinical diagnosis of intramural myocardial infarction (author's transl)]. / Der nicht transmurale Herzinfarkt--ein diagnostisches Problem. Koronarangiographische Befunde bei 308 Patienten, bei denen klinisch di Diagnose eines nicht transmuralen Herzinfarktes gestellt worden war.

308 patients with the clinical diagnosis of intramural myocardial infarction made elsewhere were re-investigated more than eight weeks after the acute event. ECGs and pulmonary "wedge" pressures were recorded at rest and during exercise and coronary angiography performed (Sones' or Judkin's technique). In the first group (1973/74) of 77 patients, 35 (45.5%) had a normal coronary angiogram, compared with 0.7% in a control group with transmural myocardial infarction. A normal coronary angiogram was found in 85% of the 40 patients who had no angina during exercise. In a second group (1974/77) of 231 patients, there was a steady decrease in the number of patients without angina pectoris during exercise, in parallel with a decrease in the number of those with normal coronary angiograms. This change in pattern was apparently due to improved diagnosis in the referring hospitals. Of the 37 patients (first group) with angina during exercise, all but one were subsequently found to have significant coronary arteriosclerosis. It is suggested that most patients with a normal coronary angiogram had sustained a myocarditis and (or) pericarditis which produced the symptoms and the altered ECGs, leading to the misinterpretation of "intramural myocardial infarction".