Our local experience with the surgical treatment of ampullary cancer.

Background: The aim of this study is to report the outcome after surgical treatment of 32 patients with ampullary cancers from 1990 to 1999.

Methods: Twenty-one of them underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy and 9 local excision of the ampullary lesion. The remaining 2 patients underwent palliative surgery.

Long-term evaluation of sclerotherapy for haemorrhoids. A prospective study.

Background: Sclerotherapy is one of the older methods of conservative treatment of haemorrhoids. It has been widely used and the early results are considered satisfactory although the long-term results are not as good as expected.

Aims: The evaluation of long-term results of sclerotherapy in patients with symptomatic 1st and 2nd degree haemorrhoids.

The role of juxtapapillary duodenal diverticula in biliary stone disease.

Background: Duodenal diverticula are acquired lesions found more often in older patients; when located near the major duodenal papilla they are called juxtapapillary. The prevalence of juxtapapillary duodenal diverticula (JDD) in the general population is around 20%; they are often associated with biliary lithiasis. This study assessed the association between JDD and biliary stone disease, particularly choledocholithiasis.

Prosthetic graft placement using the deep forearm veins in hemodialysis patients: a preliminary report.

When the superficial arm veins are not suitable for the creation of a conventional endogenous arteriovenous (A-V) fistula or the placement of a prosthetic graft in the forearm, the use of the deep forearm veins as an outflow system to construct an A-V graft access seems to be a reasonable alternative. Using this approach, we placed 6 prosthetic grafts in 6 hemodialysis patients in whom conventional methods had failed. Adequate functioning of this 'deep vein'-type vascular access in these 6 patients has been maintained for 3, 6, 11, 15, 19 and 24 months, respectively, without complications or any need for further interventions.

Effect of early postoperative enteral feeding on the healing of colonic anastomoses in rats. Comparison of three different enteral diets.

This experimental study compares the effects of early postoperative administration of three enteral diets of different compositions on the healing of colonic anastomoses. Sixty Wistar rats were subjected to colonic anastomoses. Following surgery, the rats were randomly allocated to four groups of 15 each.