Effectiveness of extracorporeal shockwave therapy in three major tendon diseases.

Background: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy is a conservative treatment for several painful musculoskeletal disorders. The aim of the study was the assessment of the relief from pain by the shockwave therapy in a population of consecutive patients affected by specific pathologies.

Materials And Methods: A group of consecutive patients were studied and treated.

Molecular analyses of sentinel lymph nodes: an open question.

Aims: To detect micrometastases in the sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) of melanoma patients the authors analysed 52 lymph nodes (47 SLNs and five non-sentinel) and 17 corresponding primary skin melanomas using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays in paraffin-embedded tissues to detect the mRNAs of tyrosinase, MAGE1, MAGE3, MIA, MART-1 and mRNA coding for telomerase catalytic component.

Results: Our data show that the use of molecular markers for melanoma micrometastases detection in SLN is still in a very preliminary stage. In comparing the molecular analysis results with the pathological staging we did not find any evident correlation with the expression of the analysed genes in SLN.

[Cholelithiasis in children: observations on a further case and the technique of laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a child].

A new case of gallstone in a child, with non apparent predisposing condition, who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy is reported. The importance of considering cholelithiasis in children with abdominal pain as well as the value of ultrasonography in diagnosis is stressed. The technique of laparoscopic cholecystectomy modified for pediatric patients and its benefits (decreased pain and ileus after surgery, shortened hospitalization and improved cosmesis) are discussed.

Safety of the posterior approach in adrenal surgery: experience in 105 cases.

Background: At the advent of laparoscopic adrenalectomy when it was timely to reappreciate the results of time-honored procedures, we reviewed the cases of 105 patients who underwent adrenalectomy through the posterior approach.

Methods: Between 1970 and 1992 among 331 patients, 105 underwent adrenalectomy through the posterior approach (0 of 111 pheochromocytomas, 48 of 64 Conn's disease, 37 of 57 Cushing's disease, 2 of 20 virilizing-feminizing tumors, 13 of 61 nonsecreting adrenalomas, 3 of 12 metastases, 2 of 6 cysts). Adrenalectomy was bilateral in 20 cases.

[Bladder leiomyoma. Presentation of a case].

After a brief review of the literature a case of leiomyoma of the bladder accidentally identified during endoscopy for prostatic adenomatosis is presented.