Associations of Volume and Thyroidectomy Outcomes: A Nationwide Study with Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: This study explored how different hospital volumes and surgeon volumes affect thyroidectomy outcomes in terms of length of stay (LOS), costs, and in-hospital mortality.

Data Sources: MEDLINE and EMBASE databases.

Review Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 125,037 thyroidectomy patients treated at Taiwan hospitals from 1996 to 2010.

Adjuvant heparanase inhibitor PI-88 therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence.

Aim: To demonstrate that administering heparanase inhibitor PI-88 at 160 mg/d is safe and promising in reducing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence for up to 3 year following curative resection.

Methods: A total of 143 patients (83.1% of the 172 participants in the phase II study) participated in the follow-up study.

Recurrence after skin-sparing mastectomy and immediate transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous flap reconstruction for invasive breast cancer.

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the recurrence pattern after skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM) and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) using transverse rectus abdominis musculocutaneous (TRAM) flap in patients with invasive breast cancer.

Methods: From 1995 to 2010, patients with invasive breast cancer who underwent SSM followed by IBR using TRAM flap were retrospectively reviewed. The pattern of the first recurrence event was recorded.

Intraoperative hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy as adjuvant chemotherapy for advanced gastric cancer patients with serosal invasion.

Background: To evaluate hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) as an adjuvant chemotherapy in advanced gastric cancer (AGC) patients with serosal invasion.

Methods: Patients who received radical surgery and palliative surgery between January 2002 and December 2010 were retrospectively examined. Patients were divided into two groups, namely, one group that underwent surgery and another group that underwent surgery with HIPEC.

Number of involved lymph nodes is important in the prediction of prognosis for primary duodenal adenocarcinoma.

Background: The significance of lymph node involvement regarding the prognosis of primary duodenal adenocarcinoma remains controversial. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic accuracy of nodal metastasis using the seventh edition American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system in patients with primary duodenal adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Between 1993 and 2010, 36 patients who had undergone surgical resection for primary duodenal adenocarcinoma at the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital were retrospectively reviewed.

Long-term results of a randomized, observation-controlled, phase III trial of adjuvant interferon Alfa-2b in hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection.

Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy of adjuvant interferon alfa-2b (IFNα-2b) therapy on recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with postoperative viral hepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Background: Despite most individual trials have failed to meet their primary endpoint, recent pooled-data meta-analyses suggest that adjuvant IFN therapy may significantly reduce the incidence of recurrence in curatively ablated HCC.

Methods: Patients with curative resection of viral hepatitis-related HCC were eligible, and were stratified by underlying viral etiology and randomly allocated to receive either 53 weeks of adjuvant IFNα-2b treatment or observation alone.

Hepatitis B genotype C correlated with poor surgical outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Genotype B and C are the predominant hepatitis B virus (HBV) strains in Taiwan. We aimed to investigate the role of genotype in HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection.

Study Design: From October 2005 to November 2008, 64 patients who underwent liver resection for HBV-related HCC were enrolled.

Heparanase inhibitor PI-88 as adjuvant therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection: a randomized phase II trial for safety and optimal dosage.

Background/aims: Hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after curative treatment adversely influences clinical outcome. It is important to explore adjuvant therapies. This phase II/stage 1 multi-center, randomized trial investigated the safety, optimal dosage and preliminary efficacy of PI-88, a novel heparanase inhibitor, in the setting of post-operative recurrence of HCC according to a Simon's 2-stage design.

Duodenal angiosarcoma: an unusual cause of severe gastrointestinal bleeding.

Angiosarcoma is a rare soft-tissue neoplasm that occurs most often in the skin and the subcutaneous tissues but very rarely in the gastrointestinal tract. We report a case of primary intestinal angiosarcoma with severe gastrointestinal bleeding. This patient was referred to our institute for shock with tarry-bloody stool and severe anemia.

Mesenteric inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors in an elder patient with early recurrence: a case report.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) of the alimentary tract often occurs in children or young adults, but may occur at any age. Symptoms are nonspecific and depend on the location of the tumor. The most often involved sites are small bowel mesentery especially the distal ileum, mesotransverse colon, or great omentum.

Single-session prolonged alcohol-retention sclerotherapy for large hepatic cysts.

Objective: Our purpose was to evaluate the safety and therapeutic efficacy of single-session prolonged alcohol sclerotherapy in treating large hepatic cysts. A therapeutic comparison between 4-hour and 2-hour retention techniques was also studied.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-seven patients with 31 hepatic cysts were enrolled in this study.

Risk factors of mortality after surgical treatment of intestinal obstruction in patients having prior laparotomy for non-malignancy.

Background: Intestinal obstruction has remained one of the most common surgical emergencies, and its clinical spectrum has shifted in past decades. The factors contributing to its surgical mortality were studied in these selected patients with a view to finding pointers which help surgeons to identify patients with high surgical risk of mortality.

Methods: Those adult patients who had prior laparotomy for non-malignancy and were operated on for intestinal obstruction were included and studied retrospectively.

Multimodality management of hepatocellular carcinoma larger than 10 cm.

Background: Hepatic resection for huge hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is challenging. The role of multimodality nonsurgical therapy for HCC larger than 10 cm is unclear.

Study Design: We retrospectively investigated 131 HCC patients with main tumors larger than 10 cm in diameter seen between October 1990 and October 2001.

Clip-assisted endoscopic method for placement of a nasoenteric feeding tube into the distal duodenum.

Gastroenterologists are often frustrated in their efforts to deliver a feeding tube by endoscopic guidance into the small bowel because of retrograde migration during the withdrawal of the endoscope. We describe a clip assisted endoscopic method whereby a nasoenteric feeding tube can be reliably delivered into the distal duodenum. A nasoduodenal tube with a 3-0 silk suture sewn on its distal tip is inserted into the stomach.

Compartment theory in Helicobacter pylori-associated gastric carcinogenesis.

Background: The compartment theory has not been well investigated in gastric carcinogenesis. This study was aimed at examining the compartment alterations through the Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-related chronic gastritis-intestinal metaplasia-carcinoma sequence, and investigating the long-term effect of bacterial eradication on the compartment changes.