BACKGROUND With the easier and earlier recognition of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), a reappraisal of its therapy, particularly the role and timing of sympathectomy, is warranted. PATIENTS AND METHODS Over a 9-year period, 42 patients with CRPS type II of the upper extremity were referred for sympathectomy. Patients were categorized according to the duration of the symptoms (group I, ...

Recent advances in technology and techniques have opened the gates widely to a wide range of applications of minimally invasive surgery in patients with inflammatory and neoplastic diseases of the pancreas. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the gold standard treatment for prevention of further attacks of acute biliary pancreatitis. Bile duct calculi detected at intraoperative cholangiography in p...

Chronic pancreatitis is a benign disease often characterized by recurrent episodes of abdominal pain accompanied by progressive pancreatic exocrine and endocrine insufficiency, and it sometimes requires multiple hospitalizations [1]. The disease is frequently the result of chronic alcohol abuse, even if, recently, other etiological factors have been postulated such as genetic alterations, autoi...

A previous report from this laboratory (1) has shown that venous congestion of the limbs in normal subjects and in hypertensive patients before and after splanchnicectomy causes a decrease in urine flow and sodium excretion. In the present study these observations were extended to include also the renal functional effects of phlebotomy (as well as of venous congestion) in patients with congesti...

Oral administration of CC14 to rats produced (a) decreased cholesterol, phospholipid, and triglyceride plasma concentrations and elevated triglyceride levels in liver, (6) several hours later, a growing increase in plasma FFA, and (c) still later, increased plasma cholesterol, triglyceride, and phospholipid concentrations and continually rising liver triglyceride. The accumulation of hepatic tr...