Multicentre prospective study of drug-eluting bead chemoembolisation safety using tightly calibrated small microspheres in non-resectable hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: To assess the safety and tolerability of transarterial drug-eluting bead chemoembolisation (DEB-TACE) using tightly calibrated 100-μm microspheres in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Method: This multicentre prospective study included 131 patients with a 2-year follow-up. All patients had Child-Pugh scores ≤ B7, a good performance status, and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A or B.

[Use of gastrostomies in patients over 75 years old].

Objective: To describe the indications of insertion of a percutaneous gastrostomy (PG) in older patients in a university hospital, as well as patient characteristics, short and long term complications, and mortality.

Methods: Retrospective descriptive study of all patients over 75 years who had a PG inserted during a three year period by the Interventional Radiology Department. The indication of the procedure was reviewed, and the incidence of complications and mortality during a 36 months follow-up period were assessed through electronic medical records.

[Transparieto-hepatic dilation of benign biliary stenosis: 5 years experience].

Objective: To assess the results of percutaneous transparieto-hepatic dilation of benign biliary stenosis achieved over a period of 5 years.

Design: A retrospective study to assess the technique, complications and the clinical, analytical and radiology results.

Patients: Data was gathered on 13 patients diagnosed in our Hospital between the years 2002 and 2006 with benign biliary stenosis and who had been treated using percutaneous dilation.

Treatment of aberrant right subclavian artery aneurysm with endovascular exclusion and adjunctive surgical bypass.

Aberrant right subclavian arteries occur in as much as 2% of the population. Aneurysms in this vessel are rare but exhibit a marked propensity toward rupture; therefore, early elective treatment is indicated. Transluminally placed stent-grafts offer an alternative approach to the standard surgical treatment.

[Hypogastric artery embolization as a palliative treatment for bleeding secondary to intractable bladder or prostate disease].

Objectives: Bleeding secondary to severe vesicoprostatic pathology (mainly neoplasic disease and radiation cystitis) may be a serious clinical management problem due to its morbidity and associated increased resources demand in the form of admissions, transfusions and other measures. We review a series of patients embolized for this purpose, its efficacy, tolerability and adverse events.

Methods: We review 8 patients who underwent hypogastric arteries embolization between July 1998 and December 2001, analyzing indications, efficacy and duration, tolerability, and consequences.