This report describes a rare case of an 86-year-old man with an indwelling urethral catheter who developed severe abdominal pain and was diagnosed with intraperitoneal urinary bladder perforation. A home-visiting nurse suspected catheter obstruction and performed a catheter exchange. However, bladder irrigation could not subsequently be performed. Computed tomography of the abdomen and pelvis after transurethral perfusion of contrast medium demonstrated extravasation of the contrast material into the peritoneal cavity. Furthermore, the Foley catheter balloon was positioned in the peritoneal cavity through the bladder. The patient was diagnosed with peritonitis due to spontaneous intraperitoneal perforation of the urinary bladder, and exploratory laparotomy was performed. During exploration, a perforated tear at the top of the bladder was discovered where the Foley catheter had penetrated the bladder. The Foley catheter balloon was floating freely in the peritoneal cavity. There was no evidence of pathologic lesions, such as cancer or inflammatory mass at the site of the injured peritoneum. Successful closure of the damaged peritoneum and bladder was performed. Since the proportion of elderly individuals continues to increase in the general Japanese population, the incidence of the chronic Foley catheterization is expected to increase. Therefore, clinicians should be aware of this potential complication.

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The use of biopesticides has expanded rapidly in recent years; however, their use in weed control is less advanced. Herein, we describe the development of a weed control agent by screening 208 plant extracts (104 species) for their plant growth-inhibition activities, which resulted in 142 active samples (from 89 plant species). Verbascoside, isolated from the shoots of Verbena incompta, was identified as a growth inhibitor against rice-root (EC50, 1.75 mM), and its root growth-inhibition activity was also confirmed in radish, tomato, and Lotus japonicus. Verbascoside is composed of hydroxytyrosol (EC50,12.51 mM) and caffeic acid (EC50, 4.08 mM), two poorly water-soluble phenolic components with weak growth-inhibition activities, and two sugars, which are more soluble but inactive. The plant apparently developed a more active and highly soluble compound by condensing these four components. We conclude that a biopesticide containing verbascoside may be useful for weed-control purposes.

Cryosurgery has been performed on 18 patients with prostatic hypertrophy, and the following conclusions are reached:The quotient obtained by dividing the estimated weight of the prostate gland by the frozen weight obtained by an equation is called the freezing index, and this index can be introduced into the evaluation of the results of cryosurgery on the prostate gland. Cryosurgery was not markedly effective in cases of freezing indices over 0.76, and the incidence of complications was high in cases of freezing indices not more than 0.5. The ideal freezing index obtained empirically was 0.6. No dysuria has recurred during past three years in the cases where cryosurgery was assessed satisfactory in effect within two to three months.-cryosurgery; prostatic hypertrophyDuring the ten years since the report by Gonder et al. (1966) on cryosurgery on the prostate gland, the clinical evaluation of this technique appears to have been established. However, when long-term observations are included, there is no definitive opinion about the relationship between the freezing time and the clincial effects. According to our idea that the freezing effect would improve in proportion to the freezing time to a certain extent, we examined the relationship between the size of hypertrophied prostate and the freezing time in terms of freezing index, and studied its correlation with the clinical effects. PROCEDURES AND SUBJECTSUsed in our cryosurgery was the model CE-4 unit manufactured by the Union Carbide, Linde Division, U.S.A., with a probe 21-Fr in size and the freezing part 45 mm in length. As the subjects were selected 18 patients with prostatic hypertrophy.All the cases but one, in which cryosurgery was performed on the patient's desire, had been complicated by severe disturbances in the respiratory, cardiovascular and central nervous systems, and there were indications for cyrosurgery.The freezing technique currently employed greatly differs from that employed in the stage shortly after the introduction of the cryosurgery. In these days, the patient is instructed to take the lithotomy position after lumbar anes thesia; the bladder is punctured via the pubic area, and under observation with a trocar cystoscope the tip of the probe is inserted, and advanced to the bladder neck.