Blunt pancreatic duct injury in children.

Case: A 10-year-old boy sustained a blunt injury to the pancreatic neck with complete transection of the main pancreatic duct. Because endoscopic catheterization across the rupture site was not possible, an endoscopic nasopancreatic drain was inserted through the proximal pancreatic duct into the retroperitoneum. An emergency laparotomy was carried out, during which time the tube was used as a guide for identifying disrupted pancreatic ducts.

Acute cholecystitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae in a child.

A 6-year old girl was admitted to our hospital with high fever and right upper quadrant abdominal pain. At 5 years of age she had undergone allogeneic bone marrow transplantation because of intractable congenital pure red cell aplasia, after which she had asymptomatic cholelithiasis. Imaging studies and laboratory findings on admission suggested acute cholecystitis with a gallstone.

Splenic abscess in an infant caused by Streptococcus intermedius.

We report a 20-month-old girl with splenic abscess. The patient was admitted to our hospital because of persistent high fever and abdominal pain. Laboratory data showed leucocytosis and elevated C-reactive protein levels.

[A patient with pancreatic cancer and multiple liver metastases after total pancreatectomy who showed a partial response to combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine and UFT].

A 69-year-old man underwent a complete pancreatectomy in March 2002 because of cancer of the body of the pancreas. Two months after surgery, the patient had multiple metastases to the liver, abdominal recurrence, and an elevated cancer antigen (CA) 19-9 level. Combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine and UFT was administered on an outpatient basis.

Carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes: a potential prognostic marker for patients with colorectal cancer.

Background/aims: This study was conducted to define the clinical significance of intraoperative determination of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes from patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer.

Methodology: The correlation of carcinoembryonic antigen levels in peritoneal washes (pCEA) with several clinicopathological factors and the long-term surgical outcome in 54 patients with resectable colorectal cancer was determined retrospectively.

Results: Among several clinicopathological factors, the depth of tumor invasion significantly and independently correlated with pCEA levels as revealed by multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis.

Risk factors predictive of lymph node metastasis in depressed early gastric cancer.

Background: This study was conducted to identify risk factors predictive of regional lymph node metastasis in depressed early gastric cancer and further to establish an objective criterion useful to indicate additional surgical treatment in cases in which submucosal tumor extension becomes evident by endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR).

Methods: Data from 276 patients surgically treated for depressed early gastric cancer were collected, and the relationship between the patient and tumor characteristics, and the lymph node metastasis was retrospectively evaluated by multivariate analysis.

Results: In the multivariate logistic regression model, female sex, a larger tumor size (20 mm or more), submucosal invasion, and presence of lymphatic vessel involvement were found to be independent risk factors for lymph node metastasis.