[Cleft lip and palate treatment in the plastic surgery department in the university hospital center in Lille]

The aim of cleft care is to favor a normal socialization of patients with fewer therapeutic coercion. It supposes a full multidisciplinary team including psychologist, speech therapeutic, dental orthopedist, oto-rhino-laryngologist and surgeons. All of them have to be well trained which supposes a sufficient amount of cases: anglo-saxon studies have proven that a mean of at least 20 new cases per year of primary cleft were necessary. With purposes to enhance the effectiveness of treatment: prospective studies and measurements of results must be evaluated with the help of objective criteria. These are the goals of our team in lille. Our surgical principles are those of functional procedures, which privilege the muscle function's repair.

[Long-term treatment of Alzheimer's disease: followup of a cohort of 255 patients treated with lacrine for four years]

We describe the follow-up of a cohort of 255 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients (81 males, 174 females) treated by tacrine during 4 years. We performed the survey of hepatic, cholinergic and general tolérance. Drug efficacy was measured by MMS examination on weeks 0, 18, 30, 52, 104, 156 and 208. A total of 190 patients (74.5 percent) were dropped out of this study, 75 (29 percent) for adverse events. We found 85 hepatic (33 percent), 79 cholinergic (31 percent), 31 (12 percent) neuropsychiatric and 72 general (28 percent) side effects. In term of drug efficacy we observed a global decline of 2.5 MMS points during the first year and 2 MMS points between W52 and W156. Tacrine's symptomatic efficacy, defined as the number of patients improved or stabilized at W30, was present in 50 patients (46 percent) among the 109 patients reaching W30. The intensity of symptomatic efficacy was expressed by a 2.7 MMS points increase in 37 patients improved on W30. The long term effects of Tacrine, measured by the MMS score at one year, showed a positive impact as the MMS was 2.5 points above the expected score in non treated AD patients. This study raises the practical problem of optimal cholinesterase inhibitors use in AD and the theoretical question of long term action of cholinesterase inhibitors on cerebral lesions of AD.

Orodigitofacial syndromes type I and II: clinical and surgical studies

Eleven patients were followed at the multidisciplinary facial cleft department from 1963 to 1993. Nine had orodigitofacial (ODF) I syndrome (Papillon-Leage, 1954) and two had ODF II syndrome (Mohr, 1941). The authors observed seven median clefts of the upper lip, eight atypical cleft palates, nine lingual tumors, ten polylobed tongues, four ankyloglossia. All vestibular frenula were hypertrophied. Facial analysis showed five facial hypertelorisms, eight epicanthal folds, ten anomalies of the forehead. Nasal anomalies were constant with ten alar hypoplasia and four nasal curves. Syndactyly was the most frequent anomaly of the hand. Seven patients were mentally retarded. Transmission of ODF I is by X-linked dominant variable expression; ODF II is autosomal recessive. The difference in transmission means a precise diagnosis is necessary. Bilateral duplication of the great toe is characteristic of type II, but not pathognomonic. Hair and cutaneous anomalies suggest type I. The authors proposed a surgical treatment involving three operating steps.