Sentinel Lymph Node Navigation Surgery for Early Gastric Cancer: Is It a Safe Procedure in Countries with Non-Endemic Gastric Cancer Levels? A Preliminary Experience.

Purpose: Early diagnosis of gastric cancer is still the exception in Western countries. In the East, as in Japan and Korea, this disease is an endemic disorder. More conservative surgical procedures are frequently performed in early gastric cancer cases in these countries where sentinel lymph node navigation surgery is becoming a safe option for some patients.

Effectiveness of current disinfection procedures against biofilm on contaminated GI endoscopes.

Background And Aims: Attention to patient safety has increased recently due to outbreaks of nosocomial infections associated with GI endoscopy. The aim of this study was to evaluate current cleaning and disinfection procedures of endoscope channels with high bioburden and biofilm analysis, including the use of resistant mycobacteria associated with postsurgical infections in Brazil.

Methods: Twenty-seven original endoscope channels were contaminated with organic soil containing 10(8) colony-forming units/mL of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, or Mycobacterium abscessus subsp bolletii.

Minor gastric resections with modified lymphadenectomy in early gastric cancer with negative sentinel node.

Objective: To study the sentinel lymph node in early gastric cancer as a diagnostic method of unsuspected lymph node metastasis, which may allow the performance, in those with negative lymph nodes, of smaller gastric resections with limited lymphadenectomy.

Methods: We studied seven patients with early gastric cancer treated at the Hospital Universitário Clementino Fraga Filho, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, from September 2008 to May 2011, who underwent sentinel lymph node exams, performed by intraoperative peritumoral endoscopic injection of patent blue dye.

Results: We found an average of three sentinel nodes per patient.

Distinct patterns of mucosal apoptosis in H pylori-associated gastric ulcer are associated with altered FasL and perforin cytotoxic pathways.

Aim: To analyze the level of apoptosis in different mucosal compartments and the differential expression of Fas/Fas-ligand and perforin in H pylori-associated gastric ulcer.

Methods: Antral specimens from patients with H pylori-related active gastric ulcer (GU), H pylori-related gastritis, and non-infected controls were analysed for densities and distribution of apoptotic cells determined by the TdT-mediated dUDP-biotin nick-end-labelling method. GU patients were submitted to eradication therapy with follow-up biopsy after 60 d.