We investigated the effect on daytime respiratory function and quality of sleep, of providing adequate ventilation either by intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV) or by continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) both administered through a nose mask in a group of seven patients with severe thoracic kyphoscoliosis. All night control sleep studies were performed with and without vent...

URING 1937 some abnormal chicks appeared among the progenies of two D different breeding pens of our experimental flock of fowls. These chicks showed a close outward resemblance to specimens of the dominant rumpless variation and its intermediate modifications (DUNN 1925; LANDAUER and DUNN 1925; LANDAUER 1928). The simultaneous occurrence of a number of such rumpless birds suggested that we wer...

RATIONALE Rod breakage during pregnancy and delivery has never been described in a patient who has undergone surgery for congenital scoliosis (CS). Here, we present an unusual but significant case of revision surgery. PATIENT CONCERNS A 29-year-old woman presented with low back pain during pregnancy after posterior osteotomy, correction and fusion at T9 to L5 for CS. Radiographs during follow...

Patients with kyposcoliosis and chronic respiratory insufficiency are treated either with home oxygen therapy or ventilation. Kyphoscoliotic patients demonstrate impaired ventilatory mechanics, consequently ventilation seems to be the treatment of choice. Yet, no randomised controlled trials (CRT) exist to prove it. Most investigators find it difficult to ethically justify a CRT. Therefore, the...

Sir, The association of a speckled lentiginous naevus, an organoid naevus with sebaceous differentiation and skeletal and neurological anomalies, constitutes a specific syndrome that has been called phacomatosis pigmentokeratotica (1). It has been hypothesized that the co-occurrence of the two different naevi reflects a so-called twin spot phenomenon (1 – 3). We herein describe an additional ca...

Vascular bypass is a surgical procedure widely used to treat peripheral vascular disease. The intraoperative anesthetic technique and the most appropriate postoperative analgesia for these high-risk patients remain controversial. We present the case of a patient undergoing femoropopliteal-distal bypass in our service, presenting with relevant comorbidities to the choice of anesthetic technique....

We present a case of torsion dystonia in a 35-yr-old primigravida who presented for a Caesarean section under general anaesthesia. She had limb contractures and severe kyphoscoliosis associated with limited respiratory reserve and function. General anaesthesia was induced using thiopental and divided doses of mivacurium for rapid sequence induction. After the delivery of a healthy male baby, sh...

Fifty-six patients were diagnosed to have mitral valve prolapse (MVP) syndrome by auscultatory criteria, confirmed by cross-sectional echocardiography. Complete physical examination and x-ray of the bony thorax revealed bony deformities which were subdivided into four main groups according to the predominant deformity. Shallow chest with pectus excavatum, straight back, kyphoscoliosis and ellip...

ar+ Unsual obstruction is found in the pulmonary adH^' Electrocardiography in spite of many ari!^ ?ns ^ea<^s does no^ appear to have "ed much to our knowledge. Two new procedures, essentially clinical, have ^1 yet been made use of in unravelling the ystery of the genesis of Cor, Pulmonale. They of*(1) The removal of a lung. The reduction ? the vascular bed is not likely to be less than e one ca...