Low Preoperative Serum Albumin Levels Are Associated With Impaired Outcome After Cytoreductive Surgery and Perioperative Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy for Peritoneal Surface Malignancies.

Preoperative hypoalbuminemia is known to be associated with postoperative morbidity and mortality, as well as with poor survival after gastrointestinal cancer surgery. However, limited data exist regarding the prognostic significance of hypoalbuminemia in patients with peritoneal metastases undergoing cytoreductive surgery, combined with perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy. We performed a systematic literature review of the previously published studies addressing the potential association between preoperative albumin levels and overall surgical outcomes after the performance of cytoreductive surgery and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy for peritoneal surface malignancies.

Percutaneous Retroperitoneoscopic Drainage of Complex Extraperitoneal Abscesses Using Flexible Endoscopy: Description of Technique and Perioperative Care.

The treatment of primary psoas abscesses usually is performed by a combination of prolongued antiobiotic therapy and drainage with interventional radiology techniques. However, although this combination is usually adequate for the treatment of solitary extraperitoneal collections, the presence of multi-loculated complex abscesses requires usually multiple procedures and feruently mandates open surgery. Herein, we describe an alternative tehnique of percutaneous retroperitoneoscopic drainage of multiple extensive primary psoas abscesses using flexible endoscopy, which can enable treatment these cases as one-stop proedure in a minimally invasive manner.

Surveillance Colonoscopy after Appendicectomy in Patients over the Age of 40: Targeted Audit of Outcomes and Variability in Practice.

Recent evidence suggests the need to proceed with a surveillance colonoscopy in patients above the age of 40 years who undergo appendicectomy for acute appendicitis, given the higher risk of an underlying colonic tumor. After anecdotally observing a substantial variability in terms of adaptation of these recommendations by the on-call surgical teams, we performed a clinical audit regarding our relevant endoscopic follow-up compliance rates to identify areas for improvement of our practise. Materials We performed a retrospective review of the electronic records of all patients above 40 years who had appendicectomy for acute appendicitis within a 3-year period in our institution, assessing as primary outcome the actual performance of a follow-up colonoscopy and the detected endoscopic findings.

Effects of NFkappaB decoy oligonucleotides released from biodegradable polymer microparticles on a glioblastoma cell line.

The objectives of this study were to investigate a nuclear factor-kappa B (NFkappaB) decoy oligonucleotide (ODN) strategy on the inhibition of glioblastoma (GBM) cell line growth and to evaluate a poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microparticle delivery system for the NFKB decoy ODNs in vitro. We have demonstrated that NFkappaB activation is important in regulating GBM cell line growth. Aberrant nuclear expression of NFkappaB was found in a panel of GBM cell lines, while untransformed glial cells did not display NFkappaB activity.