[Results of FDG-PET scanning in the pre-operative staging of broncho-pulmonary tumors].

Background: Positron emission tomography (PET) with [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has recently established itself as an important imaging strategy in the management of respectable non-small cell bronchial carcinoma (NSCLC). In this study we report our experience of the impact of FDG-PET in the pre-operative assessment of NSCLC.

Methods: In a single centre retrospective study between 01 January 2000 and 31 Dec 2002, 108 FDGPET scans were performed during the preoperative assessment of histologically proven or strongly suspected NSCLC.

Resection for tumors with carinal involvement: technical aspects, results, and prognostic factors.

Background: Resection of tumors with carinal involvement remains a challenge because of specific problems of operative technique and airway management. We reviewed our experience with carinal resection and studied factors influencing postoperative course and long-term survival.

Methods: Between 1983 and 2002, 65 patients underwent a carinal resection for non-small-cell lung cancers involving the carina (54 squamous cell carcinomas and 11 adenocarcinomas).

Solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura: clinical characteristics, surgical treatment and outcome.

Objective: The aim of this paper is to study clinical characteristics, surgical treatment and outcome of patients with solitary fibrous tumor of the pleura operated in our institutions in a 20-year period.

Methods: Clinical records of all patients operated for solitary fibrous tumors of the pleura between 1981 and 2000 were reviewed retrospectively. Tumors were classified as malignant in the presence of at least one of the following criteria: (1) high mitotic activity; (2) high cellularity with crowding and overlapping of nuclei; (3) presence of necrosis; (4) pleomorphism; otherwise they were considered as benign.

[Intestinal invagination caused by colonic lipoma].

The observation of a case of intestinal intussusception caused by lipoma of the colon prompted the authors to review the literature on the subject and to examine the main characteristics of lipoma of the colon which represent the most frequent benign neoplasia of the large intestine after adenomatous polyps. Lipomas of the colon are localised in 90% of cases at the submucous level, are usually solitary, of varying size and may be sessile or pedunculated. They are almost always asymptomatic; only when they are of a reasonable size do they become manifest following alterations of the alveus, rectorrhagia, abdominal pain or the occupation of the colic lumen by the mass, or intestinal intussusception caused by the progression of the pedunculated lipoma.

[Low anterior resection of the rectum using mechanical anastomosis in intestinal endometriosis].

A case of sigmoid-rectal endometriosis prompted the authors to focus attention on the question of indications for surgery and operative tactics in intestinal endometriosis. In this case, the presence of a pelvic mass which could not be cut away from the intestinal wall without the risk of perforation led to the performance of a low anterior resection of the rectum with mechanical stapler, a choice which was certainly radical but necessary in view of the impossibility of excluding the malignant nature of the mass either macroscopically or extemporaneously.