Predicting the survival of patients with small bowel neuroendocrine tumours: comparison of 3 systems.

Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) are clinically challenging due to their unpredictable behaviour. Nomograms, grading and staging systems are predictive tools with multiple roles in clinical practice, including patient prognostication. The NET nomogram allocates scores for various clinicopathological parameters, calculating percentage estimates for 5- and 10-year disease-specific survival of patients with small bowel (SB) NET.

Role of Staging in Patients with Small Intestinal Neuroendocrine Tumours.

Small bowel neuroendocrine tumours are the commonest malignancy arising in the small intestine and have substantially increased in incidence in recent decades. Patients with small bowel neuroendocrine tumours commonly develop lymph node and/or distant metastases. Here, we examine the role of staging in 84 surgically treated patients with small bowel neuroendocrine tumours, comparing diagnostic information yielded from morphological, functional and endoscopic modalities.

Cold-Plasma Coagulation on the Surface of the Small Bowel Is Safe in Pigs.

Introduction: Surgical treatment in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis is often limited by the extent of small bowel involvement. We investigated the results of the application of cold-plasma coagulation on the surface of the small bowel.

Methods: After permission by the federal government of Schleswig-Holstein, 8 female pigs underwent a laparoscopy and cold-plasma coagulation on the small bowel with different energy levels.

Survival of diabetes patients with major amputation is comparable to malignant disease.

Introduction: Almost all studies on diabetic foot syndrome focused on prevention of amputation and did not investigate long-term prognosis and survival of patients as a primary outcome parameter.

Methods: We did a retrospective cohort study including 314 patients who had diabetic foot syndrome and underwent amputation between December 1995 and January 2001.

Results: A total of 48% of patients received minor amputation (group I), 15% only major amputation (group II) and 36% initially underwent a minor amputation that was followed by a major amputation (group III).

Conversion of laparoscopic surgery for perforated peptic ulcer: a single-center study.

Purpose: A perforated peptic ulcer can be managed laparoscopically in selected patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether conversion of emergency laparoscopy is inferior to primary median laparotomy in terms of postoperative morbidity and mortality.

Methods: We analyzed patients who underwent laparoscopic or open surgery for a perforated peptic ulcer at the Department of Surgery, University of Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Luebeck between January, 1996 and December, 2010.

Spontaneous and non-spontaneous bleeding complications in patients with oral vitamin K antagonist therapy.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate potential differences between patients with spontaneous and non-spontaneous bleeding episodes during treatment with vitamin K antagonists which mainly resulted in compartment syndromes.

Methods: The population in this study comprised 116 patients who suffered at least one bleeding complication which required surgical treatment during therapy with an oral vitamin K antagonist. The patients were treated between September 2001 and July 2008.

Outcome and management of invasive candidiasis following oesophageal perforation.

The regular colonisation of the oesophagus with a Candida species can, after oesophageal perforation, result in a contamination of the mediastinum and the pleura with a Candida species. A patient cohort of 80 patients with oesophageal perforation between 1986 and 2010 was analysed retrospectively. The most common sources with positive results for Candida were mediastinal biopsies and broncho-alveolar secretions.

Influence of second or multiple tumours on the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the Western world. A wide variety of prognostic factors for colorectal cancer have been identified. There is, however, a paucity of literature addressing the influence of multiple primary carcinomas on prognosis.

Complicated jejunal diverticulitis: a challenging diagnosis and difficult therapy.

Background/aim: In contrast to diverticulosis of the colon, jejunal diverticulosis is a rare entity that often becomes clinically relevant only after exacerbations occur. The variety of symptoms and low incidence make this disease a difficult differential diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: Data from all patients who were treated in our surgical department for complicated jejunal diverticulitis, that is, gastrointestinal hemorrhage or a diverticula perforation were collected prospectively over a 6-year period (January 2004 to January 2010) and analyzed retrospectively.

The application of cold-plasma coagulation on the visceral pleura results in a predictable depth of necrosis without fistula generation.

A technique for the safe transfer of electric energy to the pulmonary surface for the potential evaporation of malignant tumours is non-existent to date. By conducting the current study, we wanted to generate data on the potential beneficiary effects and complications of using cold-plasma coagulation on the pulmonary surface. Cold-plasma coagulation was applied to the pulmonary surface in eight female mini-pigs via a thoracoscopic access.

Multivisceral and standard resections in colorectal cancer.

Purpose: The current study was designed to identify prognostic factors for long-term survival in patients with advanced colorectal cancer in a consecutive cohort.

Methods: A total of 123 patients were operated because of T4 colorectal cancer between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2008 in the Clinic of Surgery, UK-SH Campus Luebeck.

Results: A total of 78 patients underwent a multivisceral resection.