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To prevent air embolism and minimize neurosurgical venous hemorrhage, the dural sinus pressure (confluens sinuum pressure, CSP) was examined under various conditions in 47 cases, 11 of whom were children. Either the extracranial (group A) or catheter type (group B) pressure transducer was used. The latter gave approximately 30% higher values than the former. In any surgical position, children showed a tendency toward higher pressure than did adults. This was particularly the case in the sitting position; adults showed negative pressure [-8.6 +/- 2.3 (SD) mmHg, group A], whereas all eight children less than 9 yr of age (group A, 5 cases; group B, 3 cases) showed positive pressure. The youngest with negative CSP in a sitting position was a 9-yr-old boy. When the upper half of the body was raised, the CSP decreased linearly and became zero at approximately 25 degrees. In anteflexion of the neck, the CSP decreased significantly, and even with inclination of the upper half of the body of only 15-20 degrees or more upward, negative pressure was observed in adults. In children, right and left rotation of the neck showed remarkable increase of the CSP. In both supine and sitting positions, CSP was elevated sufficiently by bilateral jugular compression to prevent air embolism. Positive-pressure respiration did not raise the CSP, contrary to widely accepted knowledge. This study was originally performed in relation to brain surgery, but the results also seemed to be valuable in physiology.

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A 47-year-old woman on long-term hemodialysis due to a chronic isolated abdominal aortic dissection was admitted to our department with severe abdominal pain. She had not suffered any hematemesis or melena. An emergency laparotomy revealed an abdominal aortic aneurysm with a diameter of 60mm, densely adhered to the ileum. An aortoenteric fistula manifesting as intramural rupture into the ileum was found after infrarenal abdominal aortic and bilateral common iliac cross-clamping. The fistula on the ileac side was nontransmural, but that on the aortic side communicated with the pseudolumen of the abdominal aorta, and contained mural thrombus. The infrarenal abdominal aorta and bilateral common iliac arteries were replaced with a collagen-sealed woven Dacron bifurcated graft. Histological examination of the ileum in this portion showed intramural bleeding and xanthomatous granulation with foam cell infiltration in the thickened subserosa. While it is difficult to diagnose nonpenetrating aortoenteric fistula preoperatively, such a fistula must be considered in a patient with severe abdominal pain, for whom previous abdominal aortic surgery has been performed or when an abdominal aneurysm is observed. To our knowledge, no other case of an aortoenteric fistula presenting as an intramural rupture into the ileum in an isolated abdominal aortic dissection has ever been reported.