Volume 96 · Issue 06 · 1983

In 932 colorectal cancer cases 220 (23.6%) had colonic cancer and 712 (76.4%) rectal and anal cancer. They constitute 3.93% of all the inpatients and 9.91% of the surgical inpatients. Long-term surgical results and the factors affecting the survival rate are discussed.

Radiographic measurement of heart volume using PA and lateral chest films is performed. Normal mean value of total heart volume, heart volume index and upper limit.s of the normal heart volume index among Chinese are obtained by a film method. This method and K value nomogram provide an accurate index of cardiac volume and permits comparison with normal standards without regard to body habitus or configuration. This method is a simple and practica.l clinical procedure.

Using a Bilbao-Dotter tube, antegrade small bowel enema is a simple and effective method for small intestine organic lesion detection. Our experience with 70 small bowel enema studies using the technic and the problems is presented in this article. The merits and pitfalls of small bowel enema compared with the conventional technic are discussed.

A total of 51 patients with intracardiac myxomas were found from 1975 to 1981 in Fuwai Hospital. Of these, 50 were diagnosed by M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography. These diagnoses were confirmed by surgery in 43 and by autopsy in 2. Cases of intracardiac myxomas presented no characteristic clinical signs, electrocardiographic patterns or X-ray findings. Most of them had been misdiagnosed before echocardiography which was available in this hospital, and only one case of left atrial myxoma was found by autopsy within a period of 20 years. Echocardiography proves to be the best diagnostic method for intracardiac myxomas, and M-mode echocardiography was found to, be still useful in detecting this disease although two-dimensional echocardiography provides more information about the tumors. No other preoperative examination is necessary once the diagnosis is established[ by echocardiography.

The authors propose an anterior approach for procurement of a vascularized fibular graft and believe it has the following merits: less trauma, less bleeding, good exposure and fast and safe procedure. The experience with 17 cases receiving the operation is reported, the procedure described and necessary precautions mentioned.

Vascularized skin grafts are being popularized in China. This paper shows the state of their use in a district hospitaL 53 vascularized free skin graft transplant operations were performed in 40 patients.

Continuous postoperative peritoneal lavage (CPPL) is a new, effective and energetic surgical therapy for severe general peritonitis (SGP) and recurrent attacks of severe diffuse adherent intestinal obstruction. Since 1958, the author has used this technic in clinical practice. To the best of the author's knowledge, the earliest use of this technic abroad was in 1968 and it was published in the literature in 1970, the author's work started 10 years earlier. CPPL is only used in peritonitis abroad while the author has used it also in recurrent adherent intestinal obstruction (including tuberculosis) with good results.

9 cases of atrial fibrillation from 3 generations of 1 family including 32 members are presented. The incidence is much higher than re- ported. One of our patients was only 10 years old, the youngest among those reported. The disease is considered, through clinical studies and chromosome examination an autosomal dominant hereditary disease, since familial sick sinus syndrome (SSS) is suggested and atrial fibrillation probably is merely one of its manifestations.

121 cases (153 eyes) of middle or late stage glaucoma in which intraocular pressure is controlled within normal range by surgery or miotics are treated with 4 Radix Salviae Miltiorrhizae preparations, 3 being compounds, given intramuscularly. The 4 medications improved vision in 43.7% of the eyes treated and most visual fields remained unchanged or improved in 87.5%. There were no statistically significant differences among the 5 medications. It is apparent that the traditional Chinese medicine therapy series showed better results than the control group. Follow up examination of 19 eyes showed that 14/19 retained long term therapeutic efficacy after treatment.

Tracer experiments with radioactive thyroid hormones and NaI demonstrate that, in mice, dexamethasone (DEXA) administration increases thyroid hormone deiodination and iodine urinary excretion but decreases thyroid iodine accumulation and thyroid hormone transfer to muscles. Propylthiouracil mainly inhibits thyroid iodine accumulation, whereas propranolol has little effect on thyroid hormone deiodination and thyroid iodine accumulation. In rats, DEXA increases the metabolic clearance rates of plasma 3',3,5-triiodothyronine (T3) and plasma iodide as well as renal iodide clearance rate. Plasma T3 is reduced not only by reduction in its formation from thyroxine, but also by elevation of its clearance rate, which results from the increase in deiodination and increase in urinary iodide excretion.