Hepatocellular carcinoma treatment: ablation and arterial embolization.

Percutaneous and endovascular techniques take an important role in the therapeutic management of patients with hepatocarcinoma. Different techniques of percutaneous ablation, especially indicated in tumors up to 2cm diameter offer, at least, similar results to surgical resection. Taking advantage of double hepatic vascularization and exclusive tumor nutrition by the artery, several endovascular techniques of treating the tumor have been developed.

Evaluation of the rabbit liver by direct portography and contrast-enhanced computed tomography: anatomical variations of the portal system and hepatic volume quantification.

Background: The study was aimed at: (1) describing the incidence of anatomic variations of the portal system in the rabbit using direct portography; and (2) estimating the liver volume and caudate lobe volume by using contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) in the same animal model.

Methods: Forty-six New Zealand white rabbits were included. All of them underwent direct portography and unenhanced CECT.

Posthemipelvectomy hernia.

We report the case of a white male who underwent a classic hemipelvectomy due to a femur fibrosarcoma with inguinal metastases, which 33 years later, developed into a posthemipelvectomy hernia in the amputation stump that impaired the use of his Canadian prosthesis. The hernia was repaired with a polypropylene mesh in a subaponeurotic position. A seroma was drained in the postoperative and it was only 2 months after the operation that he could use his prosthesis with any difficulty.

Molecular Mechanics Study of the Inclusion Complexes of 2-Methyl Naphthoate with alpha- and beta-Cyclodextrins.

Molecular mechanics calculations were employed to study the inclusion of 2-methyl naphthoate in alpha- and beta-cyclodextrin in vacuo and in the presence of water as a solvent. The driving forces for complexation are dominated by nonbonded van der Waals host:guest interactions in both environments. The 2-methyl naphthoate penetrates completely into the cavity of beta-cyclodextrin, but there is only partial penetration by the same molecule into the smaller cavity of alpha-cyclodextrin.

Bilateral gluteoplasty for fecal incontinence.

Purpose: This study describes our clinical experience with adynamic bilateral gluteoplasty in 20 patients with total fecal incontinence, in whom a sphincter repair had failed (n = 17) or was nonviable.

Methods: Between 1986 and 1995, 12 women and 8 men ranging in age from 15 to 58 (mean, 37) years underwent different techniques of adynamic gluteoplasty. The indications for the operation were congenital anomalies, denervation, or sphincter destruction.