Complications of catheters: tunneled and nontunneled.

Central venous catheters for hemodialysis remain an indispensable modality of vascular access in the United States. Despite strong recommendations by the NKF-KDOQI guidelines to reduce the dependence on catheters, > 80% of all patients initiate hemodialysis using a central venous catheter. Although the tunneled dialysis catheters have some advantages, their disadvantages are many and often dwarf the miniscule advantages.

Metastatic virilizing adrenocortical carcinoma: a rare case of cure with surgery and mitotane therapy.

A 57-year-old white woman with metastases to lungs and liver from virilizing adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) was treated with radical nephroadrenalectomy followed by oral mitotane 3 to 6 g/day for 5 months. She developed complete response and remained free of disease for more than 25 years. Here we present the case and review the literature.

Infected vertebroplasty: case report and review of literature.

Study Design: Case report.

Objectives: To describe a case of infected vertebroplasty and to demonstrate the importance of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the diagnosis of such infections.

Summary Of Background Data: Infection of the vertebroplasty site is an uncommon complication of vertebroplasty.