[Effects of postoperative continuous epidural analgesia after laparoscopy-assisted colectomy].

Background: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of continuous epidural analgesia on the postoperative pain and the early recovery after laparoscopy-assisted colectomy (LAC).

Methods: A total of 50 patients undergoing elective LAC were investigated for postoperative pain score and other variables retrospectively.

Results: Thirty patients who had received epidural analgesia (E group) showed significantly lower pain scores for 2 and 24 hours after surgery, compared with twenty patients who had received analgesics intramuscularly or transrectally (C group).

Pulmonary adenocarcinomas with ground-glass attenuation on thin-section CT: quantification by three-dimensional image analyzing method.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate software designed to calculate whole tumor volumes and the ratio of the solid component to whole volume (%solid) in pulmonary nodules with ground-glass opacity in three dimensions.

Methods: The study included 49 patients with histologically diagnosed adenocarcinomas smaller than 2 cm in diameter. The %solid was calculated both automatically using new software, and by manual measurement of the following four parameters by two observers: the ratio of the largest diameter (a) and the area (b) at the mediastinal window to those at the lung window, and the ratio of the largest diameter (c) and the area (d) of the solid component to those of the ground-glass component at the lung window.