[Clinical staging of malignant tumors of the digestive system by the TNM system].

Computed tomography has decisively improved the determination of the clinical stage of tumors of the esophagus- and rectum. This method enables tumors to be diagnosed and localized as well as the extend of tumor spread to adjacent organs and metastatic lymph node involvement to be evaluated in most cases without additional invasive imaging procedures. CT is rarely used for tumors of the stomach, small bowel and colon.

[Problems of pelvic infection following rectopexy using synthetics and its treatment].

The complication of the infected Ivalon-sponge after rectopexy is described in five patients. In two patients the pelvic sepsis perforated spontaneously into the vagina and in another two patients the pelvic abscess perforated through the levator muscles into the ischio-rectal fossa formating a typical horse-shoe abscess in one case. The management of choice in cases of pelvic sepsis is the complete removal of the infected Ivalon-sponge.

[Current aspects of the surgical treatment of colonic ileus caused by stenosing colonic carcinoma].

Formerly it was considered dangerous to undertake resection in the presence of colonic obstruction. This idea has been abandoned. Immediate right hemicolectomy is the accepted treatment for obstructed lesions of the right colon.

[Emergency colectomy using primary anastomosis in obstructive cancer of the left colon].

From 1979-1982 a small series of 12 patients with obstruction from a carcinoma of the left colon underwent emergency abdominal colectomy with primary ileosigmoidostomy or ileorectostomy without diversion. The mortality and morbidity was favourable compared with those reported in series of similar cases treated by staged procedures or primary resection. This study could not document the more advanced state of cancers with acute obstruction.

[Image of tumorous obstructions of the extrahepatic bile ducts in computer tomography].

Basing on a patient material consisting of 28 patients with tumours in the region of the extrahepatic bile ducts, the following criteria are examined which govern the demonstration of tumour obstructions by means of the computer tomogram: Extent of widening of the bile ducts, assessment of stenosis or complete obstruction of the bile ducts and demonstration of the structure of the tumorous tissue and of the tumorous infiltration into the adjacent tissues. Computerized tomography of this region can achieve a narrowing-down of the indications for an endoscopic or percutaneous visualization of the bile ducts, these being more severely invasive methods.

[Phlebography of the upper extremity: assessment of various x-ray signs].

The article reports on the findings obtained in 56 serial phlebographies of the upper extremity. Using 17 phlebographies without pathological findings as basis, the physiological phenomena of venous contrasting in the region of the shoulder and arm are examined. The remaining phlebograms with pathological findings are assessed according to different criteria, such as localisation and extent of venous vascular occlusion, visualisation of vascular clot and formation of collaterals resulting in collateral circulation.

[Leiomyoblastoma of the stomach (author's transl)].

Clinical symptomatology, pathology and surgical management of five patients with gastric leiomyoblastoma are reported. Leiomyoblastomas of the gastrointestinal tract are defined as a group of tumors, which originate from the smooth muscle, and which have to be classified in between benign leiomyomas and malignant leiomyosarcomas. These tumors metastasize in about 10% of cases.

[Percutaneous radiation therapy for localized and generalized stages of prostatic cancer (author's transl)].

Eighty-three patients with prostatic cancer, who underwent megavoltage therapy of the carcinoma or of its metastases, are reported. The majority of the patients had advanced disease (Stage C or D according to Flocks) when they came to be treated, and thus the general prognosis was bad. Radiation therapy, however, represents on the whole an important constituent of therapy in prostatic cancer, with regard to the practicability as well as to palliative treatment of metastases to the skeleton.

[Results of radiation therapy in carcinoma of the endometrium (author's transl)].

141 patients with endometrial cancer underwent radiation therapy at the department of radiology, University of Münster, between 1967 and 1979. The concept of the combined surgical and radiation therapy (intracavitary radium and percutaneous high voltage therapy) was adjusted to the stage (FIGO) and to the depth of penetration of invasive growth into the myometrium, this being ascertained by means of the excised tissues. Five-year survival for Stage-I patients amounted to 93.

[Studies in connection with blurring performance in tomography apparatus with multidimensional blurring (author's transl)].

The quality of a tomogram is mainly determined by the fact whether and to what extent the details outside the sharply delineated tomographic area are visible as blurred shadows. The blurring effects with various tomography apparatus with multidimensional blurring were examined experimentally in two series of experiments: by means of a modulation transfer function on the one hand, and blurred images of a prepared skull of a corpse on the other. Both methods of examination showed that the blurring effect is much better with the complicated, multidimensional tomography movements (hypocycloids and spiral) than with the simple multidimensional ones (circle and ellipse).

[Angiographic findings in cerebral aneurysms (author's transl)].

The angiograms of 140 patients with congenital intracerebral aneurysms were examined, and specific angiographic findings correlated to course and prognosis of the patient. Vascular spasm at or near the aneurysm seen shortly after its rupture seems to be a protective measure against further hemorrhage. Persistance of spasm for over a week, however, is a bad prognostic sign.

[Clinical and roentgenological findings after radiation therapy of malignant esophageal tumors (author's transl)].

The palliative effect of treatment stands in the first place in radiation therapy of the esophageal carcinoma. Clinical and roentgenolocical features before and after radiation therapy are reported for 172 patients having been treated under high-voltage conditions between 1962 and 1977. The response of the tumor to irradiation is largely dependent on the tumor shape as visible in the radiograph.

[Malignant tumors of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses (author's transl)].

Therapeutic results from 134 cases with malignant tumors of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses are reported. Retrospective classification based on clinical and roentgenological findings was possible in 121 cases. 49 patients underwent primary radiation treatment by 60Co-teletherapy, 46 were exposed to postoperative irradiation.

[Craniofacial tomography in tumours of the nasal fossa and the paranasal sinuses (author's transl)].

Craniofacial tomography of 55 patients with tumours of the nasal fossa and the paranasal sinuses were examined retrospectively. Only those tomograms were considered which had been taken before surgical or radiological treatment. The clinical classification of the tumours resulting from the tomographic findings shows, that these are, in most cases, advances tumours, which have already invaded neighbouring regions.

[Tomographic findings in C.S.F. fistulae (author's transl)].

The majority of C.S.F.

[Results of therapy in cases of tumors of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses in relation to different tumor classifications (author's transl)].

The primary findings in 128 patients with malignancies of the nasal cavity and the paranasal sinuses were classified by 4 tumor classifications. The survival times and the rates of recurrences in relation to the stage of tumor were compared. Mostly cancers of advanced stages T3 and T4 with bad prognosis were treated: only 35% of the examined patients survived longer than 5 years.

[Irradiation pneumonitis after high voltage treatment of carcinoma of the breast (author's transl)].

Pulmonary changes following irradiation after post-operative high voltage therapy of the carcinoma of the breast is usually greater than following orthovoltage treatment. Among our own 635 patients, treated post-operatively with telecobalt including the chestwall, pneumonitis occurred in 35%. The data published in the literature and our own show the need for refined techniques of irradiation and individual planning.

[Results of radiation therapy in Brill-Symmers' disease with special consideration to histological grading (author's transl)].

Histological preparations from 22 irradiated patients with gigantofollicular lymphoblastoma Brill-Symmers have been reviewed and graded in accordance with the Kiel classification 1974. Corresponding to this, 19 patients had centroblastic-centrocytic lymphoma and three a centroblastic sarcoma. In the three sub-groups of centroblastic-centrocylic lymphomas, no essential differences were found in stages I-III with respect to anamnesis or clinical findings before the onset of treatment, or to the previous course of the disease.