Laparoscopic versus Open Inguinal Hernia Repair Is Feasible in Infants with Caudal Anesthesia and Spontaneous Respiration.

Introduction:  Minimally invasive surgery (i.e., laparoscopy) and minimally invasive anesthesia (i.

Normalization of serum bile acids after partial external biliary diversion indicates an excellent long-term outcome in children with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis.

Background/purpose: The surgical treatment for patients with progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) is either liver transplantation (LTX) or partial external biliary diversion (PEBD). Both procedures achieve a good short-term outcome. However, the treatment strategy for these children remains controversial because the long-term outcome after PEBD is unknown.

Impact of laparoscopic anterior 270 degrees fundoplication on the quality of life and symptoms profile of neurodevelopmentally delayed versus neurologically unimpaired children and their parents.

Background: This prospective study investigated the therapy-induced changes in the quality of life (QoL) experienced by neurologically healthy and neurodevelopmentally delayed children and their parents after laparoscopic anterior 270 degrees fundoplication (LAF).

Methods: In this study, 40 patients (21 impaired) with a mean age of 7.8 years underwent LAF for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and were evaluated before surgery and then 3 and 6 months afterward using the Gastrointestinal Quality-of-Life Index (GIQLI) supplemented by conventional symptom markers.

Carbon dioxide modifies the morphology and function of mesothelial cells and facilitates transepithelial neuroblastoma cell migration.

Background: The response of mesothelial cells to surgical trauma and bacterial contamination is poorly defined. We have recently shown that CO(2) pneumoperitoneum increases systemic metastasis of neuroblastoma cells in a murine model. Thus, we hypothesized that CO(2) alters the morphology and function of mesothelial cells and facilitates transmesothelial tumor cell migration.

CO(2) pneumoperitoneum increases systemic but not local tumor spread after intraperitoneal murine neuroblastoma spillage in mice.

Background: Minimally invasive techniques are increasingly used for biopsy and resection of neuroblastoma, but the impact on the behavior of spilled tumor cells is unknown. We aimed to investigate whether CO(2) pneumoperitoneum can affect local or systemic tumor manifestation after spillage of neuroblastoma cells into the peritoneal cavity.

Methods: Murine neuroblastoma cells (Neuro2a, 1x10(6)) were inoculated into the peritoneal cavity of 25 male A/J mice, which subsequently underwent CO(2) pneumoperitoneum (n = 12) or laparotomy (n = 13) for 1 h.

Family cases of gastroschisis.

The etiology of gastroschisis is still unclear. To the authors' knowledge, there are only 14 cases of familial gastroschisis in the literature. The authors add the second case of mother-and-son occurrence and a case of siblings occurrence, thereby updating the current literature for family gastroschisis.