Diagnostic Difficulties in Evaluation of Neck Masses - Idiopathic Lymph Node Infarction.

Palpable neck masses are often the only signs of patients visiting their ENT specialists. Lymphadenopathy may be a primary or secondary manifestation of numerous benign and malignant disorders. The medical history, physical examination, imaging and pathological examination may help to set the appropriate diagnosis.

[Fulminant isolated necrotizing fasciitis of the chest wall, complicating thoracic empyema].

Authors introduce the case of a 64-year-old male patient with fulminant isolated necrotizing fasciitis of the chest wall, complicating empyema thoracis of unknown origin. The patient's co-morbidities were hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation with oral anticoagulation. The real etiology was revealed post mortem, due to the rapid progression.

[Insulin-like growth factor-II secreting prostate tumour causing severe hypoglycaemi].

The authors present a case of an 82-year-old male patient who presented with frequent hypoglycaemia. Four years prior to the current evaluation the patient had been diagnosed with prostate carcinoma; however, he refused surgical treatment. Initial diagnostic tests indicated organic hypoglycaemia with low serum insulin levels.

Comparing bipolar electrothermal device and endostapler in endoscopic lung wedge resection.

Video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATS) is gaining on thoracic surgery, having newly developed devices next to endostaplers for haemostatic and airtight sealing of lung parenchyma. Though the bipolar electrothermal Ligasure has good results for pulmonary wedge resection, its literature is small in numbers. Authors compared Ligasure and endostapler for pulmonary wedge resection of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN).

[Solitary oesophageal metastasis of breast cancer after 17 years latency].

The authors discuss a case of a 63-year-old woman, who presented with dysphagia, 17 years after radical mastectomy for breast cancer. CT scan showed a juxta esophageal mediastinal tumour. A biopsy via right thoracotomy revealed a metastatic adenocarcinoma of the oesophageal wall from the previous breast carcinoma.

Erythema Gyratum Repens an Immunological Paraneoplastic Dermatosis.

The authors present a patient with erythema gyratum repens who had a bronchogenic carcinoma. Autoantibodies and complement at the basement membrane zone of the skin was found which suggest that erythema gyratum repens may have an immunological pathogenesis but the nature of the antigen should be further characterised.