30 minutes high energy transurethral microwave thermotherapy (30 minutes TUMT) for the treatment of chronic urinary retention in patients with ASA II-III-IV.

Objective: To investigate if 30-Minutes-TUMT was useful and safe in the treatment of chronic urinary retention due to BOO in patients with ASA II-III-IV.

Material And Methods: 19 patients with chronic urinary retention (mean age 73.5 years) were scheduled for TUMT treatment because of absolute or relative contraindications to surgery.

Is it possible to predict post-residual voided urine by bladder scan before uroflowmetry--a useful and timesaving test to reduce the number of non--evaluable uroflow measurements?

Objectives: Bladder-scan before uroflowmetry is useful to reduce non-evaluable Q(max)-data. A significant problem is to receive an adequate voided volume in uroflow-measurements. Aims of this study were 1--to confirm if pre-voiding bladder scan can reduce the number of inadequate flow measurements, 2--to establish threshold values for prevoiding bladderscan volumes before and after different treatments options 3--to study if it is possible to predict the post-residual voided volume.

Immunosuppression in renal cancer: differential expression of signal transduction molecules in tumor-infiltrating, near-tumor tissue, and peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Alterations in the expression of signal activation molecules, such as the T-cell receptor (TCR) zeta and epsilon chains and p56lck tyrosine kinase, are described in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL). The aim of this study was to ascertain if such molecules were present in near-tumor-tissue lymphocytes (NTTL) and peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), as well as TIL, of renal cell carcinoma patients, to verify whether this tumor induces immunosuppression only locally or affects distant lymphocytes as well. Tissue from the tumor and from healthy nearby sites, as well as blood samples, were obtained from 27 consecutive patients who had undergone radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma.

Spleen-preserving total pancreatectomy with conservation of the spleen vessels:: operative technique and possible indications.

Conventional distal pancreatectomy (cDP) and total pancreatectomy (cTP) also involve removal of the spleen. The spleen, however, is an important organ in the immunologic defense of the host and is worthy of preservation if this can be safely achieved. We performed a spleen-preserving total pancreatectomy (SPTP), with good results, in a Caucasian woman, 66-year-old, affected by pancreatic metastases of renal clear cell carcinoma.

Usefulness of a prevoiding transabdominal sonographic bladder scan for uroflowmetry in patients involved in clinical studies of benign prostatic hyperplasia.

Objective: Flow rate measurements in clinical studies require an amount of voided urine greater than 125 to 150 mL. Often patients do not void sufficient amounts of urine, and having them produce repeated flows is often difficult. Transabdominal sonographic scanning of the bladder is a simple method for estimating bladder volume.

[Intercostal incisional hernia: case report].

The authors report a case of intercostal incisional hernia following marsupialization of liver hydatid cyst stressing the considerable rarity of the pathology and describing the restorative procedure by intercostal plastic with polypropilene Mesh and rib's approach with stainless steel wires.

[Our experience in using a synthetic prostacyclin analog in the treatment of critical ischemia of the extremities].

The authors, after examination of pharmacologic profile of Iloprost, prostacyclin synthetic analogue, report their clinical experience from January 1992 to June 1997 on 105 patients with severe ischaemia of inferior limbs. They utilize two protocols: 0.5-2 ng/kg/min x 6 hs once a day x 28 days and 1-1.

[Multiple bilateral biopsy of the prostate].

Introduction: Transrectal guided biopsy is the method of choice to detect carcinoma of the prostate. Systematic bilateral biopsies have been recently introduced in clinical practice because they provide valuable information about the local staging of the cancer and better representation of the actual Gleason grade of the whole tumor. The purpose of this study is to assess the frequency of neoplastic lesions in prostatic areas with normal structure at US and rectal examination and to identify, if possible, some criteria to be used in the selection of patients for random biopsies.

The role of ultrasonographic percutaneous cholecystostomy in treatment of acute cholecystitis.

Background/aims: The Authors propose ultrasonographic percutaneous cholecystostomy in the treatment of acute cholecystitis.

Materials And Methods: During the period between July 1991-December 1993, 26 patients with acute cholecystitis (18 calculous and 8 acalculous) were observed. The cholecystostomy was performed in principle on patients aged over 70 years and in those with acalculous acute cholecystitis.

Use of transfer factor for the treatment of recurrent non-bacterial female cystitis (NBRC): a preliminary report.

Results of conventional treatment of female non-bacterial recurrent cystitis (NBRC) are discouraging. Most patients show an unexpected high incidence of vaginal candidiasis, while their cell mediated immunity to Herpes simplex viruses (HSV) and Candida antigens seems impaired, and it is known that the persistence of mucocutaneous chronic candidiasis is mainly due to a selective defect of CMI to Candida antigens. Twenty nine women suffering of NBRC, and in whom previous treatment with antibiotics and non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs was unsuccessful, underwent oral transfer factor (TF) therapy.

A preliminary report on the use of transfer factor for treating stage D3 hormone-unresponsive metastatic prostate cancer.

As conventional treatments are unsuccessful, the survival rate of stage D3 prostate cancer patients is poor. Reports have suggested the existence of humoral and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) against prostate cancer tumour-associated antigens (TAA). These observations prompted us to treat stage D3 prostate cancer patients with an in vitro produced transfer factor (TF) able to transfer, in vitro and in vivo, CMI against bladder and prostate TAA.

Orally administered HSV-specific transfer factor (TF) prevents genital or labial herpes relapses.

Forty-four patients suffering from genital (22) and labial (22) herpes were orally treated with HSV-1/2-specific transfer factor (TF). TF was obtained by in vitro replication of a HSV-1/2-specific bovine dialysable lymphocyte extract. Treatment was administered bi-weekly the first 2 weeks, and then weekly for 6 months, most patients received 2-3 courses.

[Inguinal hernia repair in the elderly: modified Shouldice procedure, 10 years of experience].

Authors relate their experience of 10 years period (1984-1994) with Shouldice technique for inguinal hernia repair in the elderly. This technique, in the Author's clinical practice, replaced the Bassini operation. The personal series is costituted of 190 patients underwent to inguinal repair during a 10 years period from 1984 to 1994 with recurrence rate of 1.

Palliative endoscopic treatment of malignant esophagorespiratory fistula: case report.

The authors report on a case of esophagorespiratory fistula due to squamous carcinoma of the esophagus treated on an emergency basis by endoscopic insertion of an Atkinson prosthesis following dilation of the malignant stenosis with Savary dilators. The authors suggest the endoscopic insertion of a prosthesis as the first approach in the emergency treatment of a malignant esophagorespiratory fistula because of the easiness of the technique, and its low morbidity and mortality rates; furthermore, this procedure relieves digestive and respiratory symptoms rapidly and reduces hospital stay while providing the patient with a better quality of remaining life.

[Obstructive bladder neck syndrome in women].

Primary bladder neck obstruction in women is quite rare and its symptoms--dysuria, frequency, and urgency--are equivocal. Routine radiological investigations alone do not allow a diagnosis to be made, due to the lack of simultaneous measurements of detrusor pressure and urine flow. A precise diagnosis is thus to be obtained by synchronous video urodynamic studies which allow the depiction of nonfunneling or tight bladder neck during the entire phase of detrusor contraction, of bladder trabeculae and diverticula, vesico-ureteral reflux, long micturition time and incomplete voiding.

[Functional stenosis of the urethra in girls].

The authors studied 24 girls with distal urethral narrowing at voiding cystourethrography. Their observation seem to confirm that the distal urethral stenosis is generally functional, because often an anatomical obstruction can not be detected with the bougie a boule calibration. The urodynamic and urovideocystographic methods of study allow to differentiate three types of functional urethral stenosis that are not detectable with the radiologic examination alone.

Transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Differences between primary tumour and following relapses.

The presence of tumour-associated antigens in bladder carcinomas has been shown in leucocyte migration inhibition and lymphocyte stimulation using formalin-treated autologous tumour cells as antigen. The treatment of patients with an in vitro produced specific transfer factor enhances their reactivity in these tests. However, when tumour cells from relapses were substituted for those of the primary tumour, the reactivity previously observed was abolished.

[Acute sepsis caused by "Gaffkya tetragena" in adult with hypogammaglobulinemia (author's transl)].

A case of acute sepsis caused by Gaffkya tetragena in an adult with acquired hypogammaglobulinemia has been described. The Authors pointout the importance that particular conditions of disreactivity and/or of immunodeficiency can play in the acquistion of pathogenicity by Gaffkya tetragena. In the case under discussion a high deficit of IgG and IgA was demonstrable, which had previously caused a long series of infective bacterial diseases.