Hepatic arterial embolization with microencapsulated mitomycin C for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhosis.

From 1986 to 1988, 35 patients with a hepatoma judged either inoperable or unresectable because of coexistent cirrhosis were treated with hepatic arterial embolization of mitomycin C microcapsules. Five of these 35 patients (14.5%) could not be treated because of inability to selectively cannulate the hepatic artery and were therefore excluded from the evaluation (feasibility rate, 86%).

Nonpulmonary thoracic biopsy.

The aim of the present paper is to distinguish between thoracic pulmonary needle biopsy--which can be carried out under fluoroscopic guidance--and thoracic extrapulmonary needle biopsy, which requires a more accurate type of guidance, such as CT. Among the 500 thoracic punctures performed during the last 5 years, we considered only 90 biopsies of mediastinal (N = 58) or thoracic wall (N = 32) masses. We have thus excluded all parenchymal lesions of the lungs.

The occurrence of cholangitis after percutaneous biliary drainage: evaluation of some risk factors.

Sepsis of the biliary tract is often reported after percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) and is considered a life-threatening condition. The authors studied 39 patients with biliary stenosis (35 with neoplastic stricture and four with benign disease) with the purpose of identifying some factors possibly associated with a higher risk of cholangitis. None of the patients complained of biliary sepsis at the first clinical examination.

[Structuring and use in clinical research of a software for the diagnosis and features of polypoid lesions of the colorectum].

Double contrast enema and endoscopy are very important in the diagnosis of adenomas and early cancer of the colon and rectum. These exams can not only detect the presence, but also suggest the histologic diagnosis, of polypoid lesions of the colon. An Olivetti M24 Personal Computer was used to create a software to study the results obtained by double contrast enema, and to compare them with endoscopy and pathology.