Atherothrombotic brain infarction in a patient with pachydermoperiostosis.

A 58-year-old man was admitted due to mild right-sided hemiparesis and a speech disturbance. We diagnosed an atherosclerotic brain infarction of the left cerebral hemisphere. The patient had severe clubbing of his fingers and toes bilaterally.

Hand-assisted endoscopic esophagectomy for esophageal cancer.

Radical esophagectomy is a highly invasive operation for esophageal cancer, and improved techniques are being sought to reduce the invasiveness of this procedure. We devised a method in which an assistant inserts their left hand into the thoracic cavity, and the operator inserts their left hand into the abdominal cavity through a small incision in the upper quadrant during an endoscopic procedure. Between 1996 and 1999, we performed endoscopic esophagectomy on 18 patients.