Repeated Surgical or Endoscopic Myotomy for Recurrent Dysphagia in Patients After Previous Myotomy for Achalasia.

Aim: Surgical myotomy of the lower esophageal sphincter has a 5-year success rate of approximately 91 %. Peroral endoscopic myotomy can provide similar results for controlling dysphagia. Some patients experience either persistent or recurrent dysphagia after myotomy.

Noncathartic CT colonography to screen for colorectal neoplasia in subjects with a family history of colorectal cancer.

Purpose: To prospectively assess the diagnostic performance of noncathartic computed tomographic (CT) colonography in the detection of clinically relevant colorectal lesions (≥6 mm polyps or masses) in a well-defined cohort of first-degree relatives of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC), using colonoscopy and histologic review as the standard of reference.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained, and all subjects provided written informed consent. Consecutive patients admitted with CRC (index cases) were prospectively evaluated, and those who agreed to contact their first-degree relatives who were at least 40 years old were included.

Are Surgisis biomeshes effective in reducing recurrences after laparoscopic repair of large hiatal hernias?

Prosthetic repair is frequently advocated after repair of large hiatal hernias, and biomeshes have been proposed to help reduce the high recurrence rate. All patients undergoing laparoscopic repair of primary or recurrent large hiatal hernia, and with intraoperative finding of weak diaphragmatic pillars, as judged by the surgeon, were included, from June 2004 to July 2005, in a prospective observational study. In these patients, Surgisis biomeshes were employed to assist the repair.

The outcome of cholangitis after percutaneous biliary drainage in neoplastic jaundice.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate factors affecting the outcome of cholangitis after PTBD in jaundiced cancer patients. Twenty nine patients with neoplastic jaundice (male/female ratio 13/16, median age 55 years) with full clinical data, were treated by PTBD and developed cholangitis at a median of 9 days later. Four patients (14%) died of biliary sepsis a median of one month after PTBD while the other 25 survived a median of 6 months, with one week median duration of cholangitis.

[Use of Severini's coaxial catheters in gastrointestinal interventional radiology].

The growing importance of gastrointestinal interventional radiology has led to the development of new instruments and materials for the different proposed purposes. The authors present a set consisting of two coaxial catheters which was created for percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (Severini set). Its easy handling, adaptability and tolerability make it a versatile instrument in the hands of interventional radiologists for positioning large-calibre catheter (9-14 F) in deep sites.