Rural surgery in southern Sudan.

Introduction: This article reports a retrospective analysis of a 6-year experience of providing surgical care in remote areas of southern Sudan under extremely adverse conditions.

Methods: Teams of expatriate consultants (surgeon, anesthetist, scrub nurse) carried out 28 "surgical missions" with the aims of treating surgical cases previously selected and of training local personnel in basic surgery on the job.

Results: A total of 1642 patients (71% males, 30% under the age of 16) have undergone an operation.

Sentinel node mapping for malignant melanoma.

Sixty-seven patients with malignant melanomas were seen in our institute since 1998. We looked for a sentinel node in 26 (38%) patients with lesions thicker than 1 mm, employing a double technique: staining with methylene blue and gamma probe mapping after injection of 99mTc. Forty-six nodes were retrieved, 25% of them containing tumor cells.

[Perforated endometriosis of the sigmoid. Report of a case].

The term endometriosis means the presence in an ectopic site of normal functioning endometrial tissue, the ectopic endometrial tissue, as the normal uterine mucosa, undergo hormonal stimulation and follow the proliferative and functional changes along the menstrual course; this evolution, characterize the clinical story of patients affected by endometriosis. Endometriosis is considered to be one of the most common gynecologic disorders, occurring in about 10% of women in fertile age. An involvement of adjacent organs such as the pelvic colon and rectum by endometriosis is not uncommon and may cause symptoms difficult to distinguish from malignant or inflammatory disease located in the pelvic region.

[Hemorrhagic necrotic acute pancreatitis: analysis of our case series in the light of the most recent diagnostic and therapeutic criteria].

During the period between 1-1-1979 and 30-9-1992, 43 cases of hemorrhagic necrotic acute pancreatitis were referred to the authors' attention. Six patients were not operated, 12 underwent emergency surgery and laparotomy was postponed in 25 cases. The introduction of sophisticated diagnostic methods, such as Eco, CT, ERCP, intensive medical therapy and postoperative NPT have allowed a more rational surgical approach in terms of timing and extent to be adopted, operating on patients who are metabolically more stable.