Comparing reconstruction with Roux-en-Y to a pouch following total gastrectomy.

Background: Although more than 50 methods of gastric replacement after total gastrectomy have been used, none of them has demonstrated a substantial nutritional advantage. The Roux-en-Y esophagojejunostomy is still the preferred type of reconstruction, more because of its simplicity than the lack of postprandial disturbances.

Study Design: A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare two reconstructive procedures, Roux-en-Y esophagojejunostomy (n = 24) and Hunt-Rodino-Lawrence pouch (HRL, n = 24), by evaluating nutritional status (body weight, arm circumference, and serum nutritional parameters), nutritional habits (number of meals, energy intake, and postprandial disturbances), and emptying time of the jejunal loop.

Ultrasound therapy of chronic arm lymphedema after surgical treatment of breast cancer.

The treatment of chronic arm lymphedema following axillary dissection for breast cancer is still a therapeutic challenge. To examine other treatment options, we undertook a pilot study on the efficacy of ultrasound therapy (UST) in management of these patients. Fifty patients with post-surgical arm lymphedema and without regional irradiation underwent ultrasound treatment (2 cycles at 4 month intervals) and the results were compared up to 1 year with 100 other patients treated by standardized mechanical pressure therapy (MPT) using a pneumatic pump.

[Histochemical methods in the study of normal and tumoral cells in serous effusions].

The behaviour of intracellular lipids (Sudan black B), PAS positivity peroxidase and hydrolytic enzymes (acid and alkaline phosphatase, aspecific esterases) was studied in normal and tumour cells from serous effusions. It is suggested that the practical application of such method to the diagnosis of effusions should be checked over a wider range of case material.