Abdominal Pain in the Presence of Small Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: If in Doubt, Cut It Out!

Although small (<5 cm) abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) have been associated with symptoms and indication for intervention scarcely, the clinicians should never exclude such potential association especially in the absence of other overt pathological findings. In such cases, a surgical exploration with consequent intervention, if feasible, should be justified to prevent a detrimental evolution in a dubious scenario. In this article, we present 2 cases of patients with small AAA presenting with severe abdominal pain.

Value of the cervical compartments in the surgical treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma.

In the treatment of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), supplementary lymph node dissection (LND) is not well standardized. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the significance of the cervical compartments in the lymphatic spread of PTC and the impact of modified radical neck dissection (MRND) as an additional surgical procedure to thyroid resection. From 1999 to 2002, LND of the central compartment (compartment A) was performed in 39 patients.