Groin Repair Research Articles

Comparison of ReoPro((R)) (abciximab) versus intracoronary thrombolysis for early coronary stent thrombosis.

AIMS: This study evaluated the treatment of early coronary stent thrombosis with intracoronary urokinase or the platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibitor ReoPro (abciximab). METHODS AND RESULTS: Seventy-four patients (126 stents) were treated immediately after identification of early (0-30 days) coronary stent thrombosis. Twenty-nine patients were treated with intracoronary urokinase (UK) (UK alone in 19; UK and additional balloon angioplasty in 10) and another 45 patients were given ReoPro((R)) (abciximab) (0.25 mg/kg as a bolus alone in 26, abciximab with additional balloon angioplasty in 19) within 30 days of stent implantation. TIMI grade 3 flow was obtained in 23 patients (79%) in the UK group and in 38 (84%) in the abciximab group (nonsignificant). Three patients (10%) in the UK group and one (2%) in the abciximab group underwent repeat percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) (nonsignificant). Five patients (17%) in the UK group and three (7%) in the abciximab group were referred for urgent coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) because of residual thrombus and refractory ischemia (nonsignificant). Repeat revascularization was necessary in eight patients (28%) in the UK group versus four (9%) in the abciximab group (p < 0.05). Five patients (17%) in the UK group and eight (18%) in the abciximab group developed myocardial infarction (nonsignificant). Five patients (17%) in the UK group (cardiogenic shock (three), cerebral hemorrhage (one) and pneumonia (one)) and three (6.6%) in the abciximab group (cardiogenic shock (two), heart failure (one)) died within 30 days (nonsignificant). Overall, noncardiac complications (bleeding including surgical repair of groin) were observed in 11 patients (38%) in the UK group and three (7%) in the abciximab group (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Compared to urokinase, abciximab reduced the need for repeat revascularization procedures and the risk of noncardiac events, including bleeding complications in patients with early coronary stent thrombosis.

The treatment of complicated groin and incisional hernias.

One hundred years ago, Edoardo Bassini said: "L'ernia é una malattia meccanica." Before that, Ambroise Paré (1598) and Joseph-Pierre Desault (1798) asserted the mechanical nature of strangulation. Beside strangulation, the most serious of all complications even today, I have studied huge hernias, which are natural complications, and recurrent hernias, which are the complications of suboptimal repairs. In this article, I consider the general features and diagnostic and technical consequences of the repair of groin and incisional hernias. The treatment of strangulating hernias, usually an emergency operation, has not seen any recent technical progress. Huge and recurrent hernias, however, usually allow time for adequate surgical preparation. These hernias are also amenable to modern prosthetic repairs. In prosthetic repairs, large pieces of polyester mesh are inserted beneath the muscular wall outside the peritoneum. They act as artificial, nonabsorbable endoabdominal fascia, making the abdominal wall instantly and definitively pressure tight. The state of hernial surgery has advanced to the point that one must consider the systematic surgical cure of all diagnosed hernias.