Surgical management of complicated parapneumonic pleural effusion in children.

Aims: We analyzed and examined the effect of different management strategies on short term outcomes for pediatric patients with parapneumonic pleural effusions.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 16 cases of children admitted and treated in our department of pediatric surgery for empyema or pleural effusions for a period of 30 months.

Results: When chest drains are used alone, patients can make a complete recovery, even with the cost of longer hospital stay.

[Gastric cystic duplication--case report].

Gastrointestinal duplication is a rare surgical pathology, with unspecified symptoms, which explains why these malformations are difficult to diagnose correctly before surgery. The authors present a case of a gastric cystic duplication, that was diagnosed before surgery, as a pancreatic pseudocyst. The accurate diagnosis was established by surgery and based on histopathological examination.

[Precocious diagnosis in children's intussusception--a necessity].

Intussusception is the most common cause of intestinal obstruction in children. Despite the fact that this is a frequent and well known disease, sometimes clinical presentation is various and difficult to interpret, which leads to delay in diagnosis and treatment. Late treatment will sometimes require intestinal resection, with high morbidity and mortality.

[Sandostatin treatment in postoperative external digestive fistulae].

The aim of the conservative treatment of postoperative external digestive fistulae is to obtain a reduction of the output, thus favoring spontaneous closure and shortening outcome. A retrospective comparative study has been performed on two groups of patients with postoperative anastomotic gastrointestinal and pancreatic fistulae. Group A included 18 cases (14 anastomotic, 4 pancreatic fistulae) receiving conventional treatment only.