Defining the Need for Surgery in Small-Bowel Obstruction.

Background: Small-bowel obstruction is a frequent disorder in emergency medicine and represents a major burden for patients and health care systems worldwide. Within the past years, progress has been made regarding the management of small-bowel obstructions, including the use of contrast agent swallow as a tool in the decision-making process.

Objectives: This is a prospective controlled study investigating the central role of contrast agent swallow in the diagnostic and treatment algorithm for small-bowel obstruction at a university department of surgery.

Ectopic Spleen Tissue - an Underestimated Differential Diagnosis of a Hypervascularised Liver Tumour.

Background: Patients with liver cirrhosis have an increased risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Implantation metastasis following diagnostic biopsy is a well-known complication. Therefore, primary resection of a hypervascularised tumour suspicious for HCC is often performed with curative intent.

Parachute implant: CT morphological criteria of our center to identify the suitable patient.

Aims: In this study, we present and discuss our institutionalized and standardized computed tomography (CT) morphological criteria for the treatment of patients with a parachute device.

Methods And Results: After clinical and echocardiographic screening of 79 patients with ischemic heart failure, 28 were examined using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to assess their suitability for treatment with a parachute implant. From the 28 examined patients, nine were suitable for parachute implantation.