Curettage and acrylic cementation in surgery of giant cell tumors of bone

True giant cell tumors of bone (osteoblastomas) are comparatively rare but often large at time of discovery, making the surgical treatment controversial. Simple curettage or resection with bone filling is used when the lesion is small. Resection with arthroplasty or arthrodesis and possibly amputation is used in advanced cases. Thorough curettage with acrylic cementation is presented in a series of 6 cases from Rotterdam and Lund with a follow-up time between 2 and 7 years. The advantages of this method are full and early mobility and stability as well as a simplified postoperative X-ray control, especially when barium sulphate contrast has been added to the acrylic cement. Finally, if this technique is used in cases where more extensive surgery becomes necessary later, there is much to gain and little to lose. The operation may turn out to be the method of choice for this special type of tumor when a simple curettage or resection is no longer possible without loss of function. No recurrences or spread have been observed among these 6 cases. It is suggested that the heat generation could be an advantage of the method.     

In situ morphologies of deep-sea and sediment bacteria

Deep-sea and sediment bacteria at the bottom of an approximately 1200-m water column were sampled by means of pressure vessels attached to a remote underwater manipulator. Cells were immediately fixed in situ with glutaraldehyde, and after processing in the laboratory their morphologies were observed with the scanning electron microscope. Most bacteria were coccoid or rod-lide and less than 0.4 mum in diameter or width. Few filamentous bacteria were observed. Bacteria were in aggregates or free-living. It is concluded that morphologies of deep-sea bacteria collected and fixed at the hydrostatic pressure of their environment are, in general, similar to the observed morphologies of deep-sea bacteria determined at 1 atm pressure after collection and decompression during ascent through the water column.     

Intrauterine devices and acute pelvic inflammatory disease

One of the most serious problems among women using the intrauterine device (IUD) has been pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). Subjects for the present investigation were chosen from 15- to 44-year-old women seeking emergency medical attention at a large city hospital. Febrile and afebrile patients with PID and appropriate controls were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire concerning their demographic, reproductive, and contraceptive histories. Results showed a significantly higher proportion of IUD users among febrile cases of PID (38%) than among controls (11%). This implies that febrile PID is five times as likely to develop in an IUD user as in a nonuser.     

Binding of diethylstilboestrol to deoxyribonucleic acid by rat liver microsomal fractions in vitro and in mouse foetal cells in culture

Diethylstillboestrol, a synthetic and carcinogenic hormone, binds to DNA as a result of incubation with a liver microsomal preparation in vitro and on incubation with primary mouse foetal cells in culture. Enzymic digestion of DNA samples thus prepared gives several covalent deoxyribonucleoside-diethylstilboestrol products from the microsomal system. One of these is produced in small but significant yield in the tissue-culture system.