[Vacuum assisted closure in open abdomen and deferred closure: experience in 23 patients].

Introduction: We analyse our experience and the results obtained with the use of vacuum assisted closure (VAC(®), KCI Clinic Spain SL) in the management of open abdomen.

Material And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the laparostomies performed between June 2006 and March 2011 using VAC(®) treatment in the Hospital Xeral-Cíes, Vigo.

Results: We included 23 consecutive patients (18 males and 5 females) on whom the VAC(®) was used in the open abdomen due to different indications (abdominal trauma, peritonitis, pancreatitis, ischaemic disease or abdominal compartmental syndrome).

Differential expression of serum clusterin isoforms in colorectal cancer.

Clusterin is an enigmatic protein altered in tumors of colorectal cancer patients. Because there is no information available about serum clusterin regarding this pathology, we applied proteomic techniques to analyze its isoforms in donors and patients. First we separated serum proteins through concanavalin A, obtaining a fraction with non- and O-glycosylated proteins (FI) and a second fraction enriched in N-glycoproteins (FII) wherein clusterin was supposed to elute on the basis of its glycosylation.