[Gritti's amputation in vascular surgery]

Gritti's amputation was performed in 35 patients, mean age 71 years, with vascular disease of leg. There was no immediate postoperative mortality. Of twenty patients fitted with an appliance using a specific technique, only one had a poor functional result. The results obtained in this preliminary series were compared with those after amputations and knee disarticulations. They showed that Gritti's amputation should be considered for patients with arteritis when a functional knee is impossible to conserve.

[Deafness in the Muckle-Wells syndrome]

Typical of the syndrome described by Muckle and Wells is a combination of progressive perceptive deafness appearing at various ages in a family, but usually at the same age in the same family, arthralgia, urticarious eruption and renal amyloidosis. The existence of incomplete forms, either without deafness or without renal amyloidosis should be known. This perceptive deafness is very probably due to lesion of the internal ear but the histological characteristics do not seem to be very clear at the present time. Finally, as certain of our observations show, in a few cases, conduction may be impaired, either in isolation, or associated with impairment of perception. Only an analysis of a large number of cases will enable the audiological characteristics of this curious syndrome to be defined.

[Intermittent rheumatism revealing a familial syndrome. Arthritis--urticarian eruptions--deafness: Muckle-Wells syndrome without kidney amylosis]

At a consultation with a 31-year-old man, motivated by painful episodes of joint pain that had started considerably earlier, a familial disease entity was discovered that included the three clinical signs of the Muckle and Wells syndrome : urticarial eruption, intermittent pain in the limbs originating in the joints, and bilateral deafness of perception. In spite of the absnece of renal amylosis, the similarity of the characteristics of these three elements, as well as the nature of the biochemical disturbances, and the mode of transmission, led the authors to consider these observations in the contest of this syndrome. The joint manifestations being indicative, the signs of this intermittent rheumatism are described, as well as the characteristics of the other disorders.