Implantation of an intracoronary stent in conjunction with balloon angioplasty is not only highly effective in treating acute vessel closure due to balloon-induced dissection, but it may also reduce the rate of restenosis¹–⁴. Unfortunately, all stents ...

The long-term benefit of coronary balloon angioplasty is limited by the possibility of restenosis of the treated segment, which occurs in approximately 30 to 50 percent of patients¹–⁴. Restenosis can be caused by several factors, including elastic recoil ...

Rectal cancer is a common malignant disease in the United States, with an estimated 43,000 new cases in 1993¹. This tumor is frequently diagnosed at a stage when complete resection is possible. However, because of local recurrence of tumor in the pelvis ...

Vertebral hemangiomas are relatively common abnormalities. They have been found in 10.7 percent of spines at autopsy and in 14.2 percent of people over the age of 60 years¹. However, neurologic symptoms, which result from epidural compression of the ...

Figure 1. Bilateral Femur Fractures.

Bilateral femur fractures are visible in a nine-month-old boy who was restrained with only a standard lap belt in the rear seat of an automobile that struck a post at 40 miles (65 km) per hour. The child required ...

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States among people 1 to 34 years of age¹. Almost half of all traffic fatalities (a total of 17,700 in 1992) are related to alcohol². Furthermore, two out of five people in the United ...

Studies of injured drivers suggest that driving under the influence of drugs other than alcohol is a growing cause of traffic injuries in the United States¹–⁶. In some trauma centers and among some age groups, more injured drivers test positive for ...

Allergic reactions to insect stings are a common and often serious medical problem. Estimates of the incidence in the general population of anaphylaxis caused by insect stings over a specified period range from 0.3 to 3 percent¹–³. Some episodes are fatal^...

Presentation of Case

A 61-year-old man was admitted to the Neuromuscular Clinic because of muscular weakness.

The patient had been well and athletic until nine months earlier, when he experienced severe fatigue, promptly went to bed, and slept for most of ...

Mind-altering drugs of one type or another have been with us for thousands of years, and in every society some people become dependent on these drugs, perhaps because they find life without them too harsh or are otherwise susceptible. Societies have dealt ...

Nearly 10 years ago, coronary-artery stents were developed with the hope of preventing restenosis after coronary angioplasty, a problem that has proved all too common. The first clinical report of coronary-artery stenting, by Sigwart and colleagues, was ...

It has long been recognized that patients receive less relief from pain than they should¹,². A recent review concluded that pain can be relieved effectively in 90 percent of patients but is not relieved effectively in 80 percent of patients³. The tendency ...

To the Editor: The hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, first described in June 1993, was initially thought to be limited to the western United States. More recently, there have been cases reported in Indiana and Louisiana¹,². We now report a case of the ...

To the Editor: Cantwell et al (April 14 issue)¹ described two infants with presumably congenital tuberculosis. Although maternal infection was proved in both cases, I doubt that these infants were infected prenatally. The only clear-cut evidence of ...

To the Editor: In his review of mechanical ventilation (April 14 issue),¹ Tobin examines the new alternative methods of ventilation, including noninvasive ventilatory techniques. But he fails to mention a noninvasive method of ventilation that is based ...

To the Editor: In his review of hormonal treatment of postmenopausal women (April 14 issue),¹ Dr. Belchetz states (in Table 4) that “Combination therapy is contraindicated in women with hyperlipidemia or established ischemic heart disease.”

What is the ...

To the Editor: In the Clinical Problem-Solving case presented by Duffy (April 7 issue),¹ three ophthalmologists misdiagnosed vitamin A deficiency as simple conjunctivitis in a 40-year-old woman with mild Down's syndrome who had severe eye pain. The ...

To the Editor: Iglehart's recent review of the role of physicians in health care reform (March 10 issue)¹ represents yet another incomplete analysis of the transformation that politics has wrought on the contemporary medical scene. In overlooking ...

To the Editor: Annually, from late July through early September, thousands of seasonal workers harvest wild blueberries in Maine and the eastern provinces of Canada. Maine's crop in 1993 was approximately 30 million kg¹. The harvesting is done mostly by ...

Because preoperative and postoperative care are the domain of the surgeon, I would not ordinarily have considered reading a book on this subject edited by two nonsurgeons. However, the old axiom “Prejudice stems from ignorance” has proved true once again. ...

In his preface to “The Practice of Surgery,” Dr. Ronald A. Malt states that when he began the book in 1983, he “hoped to memorialize the practice of general surgery as it existed before its obvious degeneracy into satrapies of overspecialization.” He says ...

Over the past few years, several textbooks on pancreatic surgery have been published; Trede and Carter have made a fine addition to this important area with their Surgery of the Pancreas. Preparing such a book is a formidable undertaking because of the ...

This large two-volume textbook of gastrointestinal radiology is the result of a monumental attempt to cover the imaging techniques, anatomy, pathology, and imaging appearance of all possible conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. In pursuing their goal,...

A founding principle of the field of hepatology is the use of the liver biopsy as an aid to the diagnosis and management of hepatic diseases. Nevertheless, monographs dedicated to liver pathology are relative newcomers in the 50-year history of modern ...

“From Bench to Bedside” is the seductive subtitle of this book, whose editors' stated purpose is “not only to produce a standard reference text, but to present research advances and current concepts... as they relate to inflammatory bowel disease.” In ...

The Management of Hyperthyroidism Review Article, N Engl J Med 1994:330;1731-1738.. On page 1737, in the left-hand column, the sentence that begins in line 5 should have read, “Propylthiouracil is the drug of choice for pregnant or lactating women because ...