Influence of alcoholism on morbidity after transurethral prostatectomy

Morbidity after transurethral resection of the prostate gland was retrospectively investigated by comparing 73 alcoholics with 73 controls (daily alcohol consumption greater than or equal to 60 g vs. less than 25 g). The compared groups derived from 1,172 patients and were matched for diagnosis, age, weight, smoking habits, treatment for cardiovascular, pulmonary or endocrine diseases, anaesthesia and weight of resected tissue. The postoperative morbidity was significantly higher in the alcohol group than in the controls (62% vs. 20%). Follow-up at 1, 3 and 12 months revealed significantly more complications among the alcoholics and also more frequent requirement of supplementary procedures than in the controls.

Influence of alcohol on morbidity after colonic surgery

Postoperative morbidity after colorectal surgery was retrospectively investigated, comparing 32 alcoholics (greater than or equal to 60 gm of alcohol a day) to 32 controls (less than 25 gm of alcohol a day). The material originated from 260 male patients and the two groups were paired with respect to operative procedure, diagnosis, age-complicating cardiopulmonary diseases, weight, and smoking habits. Postoperative morbidity was higher (P less than .01) in the alcohol group (59 percent with major complications, 75 percent with major and minor complications) compared with the control group (19 percent with major, 33 percent with major and minor). The alcoholics also stayed longer in the hospital (26 days vs. 17 days) (P greater than .01). This apparent increased surgical risk in alcoholics is reevaluated in prospective investigations.

Reflux oesophagitis in heavy drinkers. Effect of ranitidine and alginate/metoclopramide

Of 1,400 consecutive patients applying to an outpatient clinic for treatment of alcoholism, 477 complained of upper abdominal dyspepsia. After 2 weeks of abstinence, 78 had persisting complaints; of these, 72% had oesophagitis at endoscopy. The 53 patients with oesophagitis as the sole diagnosis were randomized to treatment with either ranitidine or a combination of alginate/antacid chewing tablets and metoclopramide for 6 weeks in a double-blind, double-dummy design. Twenty-five patients left the study during the observation time due to relapse of alcoholism, and were only observed until then. No significant differences were found between the treatment groups concerning the course of symptoms and endoscopic or histological improvement.

The innervation of skeletal muscles in chickens curarized during early development

Chicken embryos were treated with partially paralysing doses of d-tubocurarine (dtc) from embryonic (E) days 6 to 10. The pattern of innervation of the lateral gastrocnemius (GL) muscle was examined both morphologically and physiologically just before hatching on day E20 or E21. There was a 70% increase in number of surviving motor neurons in the lateral motor column and a 50% increase in the number of myelinated axons in the nerve to GL. The GL muscle was significantly atrophic, with an average weight of 40% of normal. The atrophy was largely due to the reduced size of the muscle fibres. The mean size of the motor units was essentially unchanged or perhaps slightly increased. There was a striking increase in the level of polyneuronal innervation of the muscle fibres, both in terms of number of synaptic sites per fibre and number of axons innervating each site. Spontaneous miniature endplate potentials (mepps) indicated focal innervation of the fibres in the normal muscle. Most fibres in the dtc-treated muscles had mepps of widely varying time courses, and there was no simple relation between amplitude and rise time. Many of the slow mepps were not represented in the endplate potentials evoked by nerve stimulation. The quantal content of the endplate potential (epp) was generally increased in the dtc-treated muscles. The findings are discussed in terms of a retrograde signal from muscle to nerve and its dependence on muscle activity.

Neonatal treatment with 6-OH dopamine and the elimination of polyneuronal innervation of skeletal muscle in the rat

The polyneuronal innervation of skeletal muscles of newborn rats was eliminated completely in spite of virtually complete destruction of the sympathetic nervous system with 6-OH dopamine (6-OHDA). There was, however, a moderate delay in the elimination of redundant nerve terminals which is probably a secondary effect of the treatment.