Endoscopic relief of malignant airway obstruction.

The ability to manage acute airway obstruction can be life-saving. Airway relief should be expeditious and immediate, with low morbidity and mortality. It should not interfere with future definitive therapy.

Mucoepidermoid lung tumors.

Mucoepidermoid lung tumors are uncommon, representing 0.2% of all lung tumors and 1% to 5% of bronchial adenomas. Eighteen patients with mucoepidermoid tumors are reported.

Endoscopic palliation of obstructive esophagogastric malignancy.

To investigate the efficacy of alternative endoscopic palliative therapies for obstructive esophagogastric malignancy, the experience of 53 patients treated between 1979 and 1986 was analyzed. Forty-seven patients had placement of intraesophageal prostheses. Ten patients had prostheses placed after neodymium:YAG laser therapy.

Surgical management of tracheal strictures.

Tracheal strictures are complications of prolonged endotracheal intubation or tracheostomy. Successful management requires knowledge of tracheal anatomy, principles of anesthesia, and principles of tracheal surgery. Strictures involving up to one half of the adult trachea can be successfully managed by resection and primary anastomosis in over 90 per cent of the patients.

Preoperative chemotherapy, surgical resection, and selective postoperative therapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.

In an attempt to improve on the long-term survival rate of patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, we designed a study in which treatment included preoperative chemotherapy with fluorouracil and cisplatin, surgical resection, and selective postoperative chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Between 1981 and 1986, 35 patients with potentially resectable lesions were entered into the study. After chemotherapy, 13 of 35 patients (37%) had a complete clinical response, 7 (20%) had a partial response, and 15 (43%) had no response.

The omentum in the management of complicated cardiothoracic problems.

The pedicled omentum finds use in cardiothoracic surgery for management of complicated problems and prevention of serious complications. Its blood supply is excellent and is capable of inducing neovascularity. Based on the right gastroepiploic artery, it reaches anywhere in the thorax or neck.

Transthoracic esophagectomy: a safe approach to carcinoma of the esophagus.

Transthoracic esophagogastrectomy is a safe operation. Mechanical staplers and a cervical anastomosis have been emphasized to avoid catastrophic consequences of anastomotic leaks in the chest. Transhiatal esophagectomy has been proposed to bring the anastomosis into the neck.

Concomitant therapy with infusion of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil plus radiation in stage III non-small cell lung cancer.

Based on our experience with head and neck cancer, we have developed an every-other-week, split-course schedule for giving combined cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil infusion and radiation to patients with regionally advanced non-small cell lung cancer for a limited number of cycles prior to planned resection. Sixty-four patients having stage III disease without distant metastases were treated with 4 cycles of combined chemotherapy and radiation to 40 Gy and were offered surgical resection. Thirty-nine patients (61%) underwent surgery.

Superior sulcus lung tumors. Results of combined treatment (irradiation and radical resection).

Twenty-one patients underwent combined therapy (irradiation and radical resection) for a Pancoast tumor at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1976 and 1985. All patients underwent en bloc removal of the apical chest wall and underlying lung. In addition four patients required subclavian artery resection, and in five patients a portion of the vertebral body was resected.

Bronchial sleeve resection with and without pulmonary resection.

Sleeve resection with and without pulmonary resection is safe, effective, and appropriate treatment for a wide range of endobronchial lesions including neoplasms of low-grade malignant potential and selected cases of bronchogenic carcinoma. Sixty-three patients underwent 64 sleeve resection procedures (47 with concomitant pulmonary resection and 17 without) at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 1962 in 1986 with a 30 day mortality rate of 4.7%.

Laryngotracheal trauma.

Laryngotracheal trauma can be an immediately life-threatening injury. Failure to recognize such injuries and promptly secure an airway may have fatal consequences. Failure to recognize acute injuries or to observe the principles of management can lead to laryngotracheal stenosis.

Simultaneous cisplatin fluorouracil infusion and radiation followed by surgical resection in regionally localized stage III, non-small cell lung cancer.

Sixty-four patients with stage III (M omicron) non-small cell lung cancer were treated with cisplatin fluorouracil infusion chemotherapy and simultaneous radiation therapy for 5 days every other week. A total of 4 cycles (40 Gy) was followed by attempted surgical resection. Clinical response to the preoperative treatment included 5 (8%) complete and 32 (48%) partial responses.

Preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery with possible postoperative radiotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus: evaluation of the chemotherapy component.

Twenty-four patients with squamous cell cancer of the esophagus were entered into a treatment protocol consisting of preoperative chemotherapy (CT), surgical resection (SR), and possible postoperative CT or radiation therapy (RT) beginning August 1981. CT consisted of two cycles of 5-fluorouracil, 1,000 mg/m2, by continuous intravenous infusion for 4 days and cisplatin, 100 mg/m2, on day 4 with mannitol-induced diuresis at 4-week intervals. Postoperatively, RT was administered when resection margins were minimal or if paraesophageal nodes were abnormal; the RT consisted of 5,000 to 5,400 cGy to the tumor area plus a 800- to 1,200-cGy boost to known abnormal tumor margins.

Survival following resection for second and third primary lung cancers.

The performance of sequential resections and the consideration of new lesions as second or third primary lung cancers remain controversial issues. Criteria to define these as new primary lesions depend upon a difference in histologic types, a prolonged interval between initial and second or third resections, and location in the contralateral lung or a different ipsilateral lobe. Ninety patients have undergone multiple resections for bronchogenic carcinoma from 1960 to December, 1983.

Valve surgery in patients over the age of sixty-five.

Two hundred one patients over the age of 65 underwent valvular heart surgery with a hospital mortality of 5.5% and a late mortality of 18.4%.

Prospective randomized study of the role of N-acetyl cysteine in reversing doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy.

We conducted a randomized prospective trial in 19 disease-free soft tissue sarcoma patients with doxorubicin-induced cardiomyopathy identified by ECG radionuclide angiography at rest and during exercise to determine the efficacy of the free radical scavenger, N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), in reversing the drug's cardiotoxic effect. Of the 19 patients, 11 received oral NAC (5.5 gm/m2 daily for 30 days) and eight patients served as controls.

Preservation of arterial flow to the liver: goal in treatment of extrahepatic and post-traumatic intrahepatic aneurysms of the hepatic artery.

Post-traumatic intrahepatic aneurysms are frequent sources of intrahepatic and intrabiliary bleeding. The authors describe selective management of ten recent post-traumatic intrahepatic aneurysms, five extrahepatic aneurysms, and one ruptured hepatic artery in a patient with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Twelve patients had gastrointestinal bleeding or jaundice.

Doxorubicin cardiotoxicity: assessment of late left ventricular dysfunction by radionuclide cineangiography.

Radionuclide cineangiography was used to evaluate 32 patients who sustained long-term remission of soft tissue sarcoma after adjuvant therapy with a cumulative doxorubicin dose from 480 to 550 mg/m body surface area. Left ventricular ejection fraction at rest was below normal (less than 45%) in eight of 32 patients. The abnormal response of ejection fraction to exercise identified an additional 12 patients with diminished left ventricular functional reserve.

En bloc resection of inferior vena cava in cytoreductive surgery for bulky retroperitoneal metastatic testicular cancer.

En bloc resection of the inferior vena cava (IVC) has been demonstrated to be of benefit in removing bulky retroperitoneal testicular tumor metastases. The major indications for its use have been to increase the amount of tumor resected, to allow access to large amounts of tumor located posterior to the aorta which would otherwise be inaccesible, to diminish the possibility of massive pulmonary embolism from clot or tumor located in the IVC, and to decrease the risk of major hemorrhage from injury to the IVC, aorta, or one of their branches. To date the surgical morbidity has been acceptable, and no direct mortality has been associated with it.

The role of thoracotomy in the management of pulmonary metastases from malignant melanoma.

Thirty-three patients over a 21-year period underwent thoracotomy for resection of suspected pulmonary metastases from malignant melanoma. Eleven patients were found to have nonmalignant disease (Group 1); 10 were found to have unresectable disease (Group 2); and 12 were rendered disease-free (Group 3). Of the patients found to have melanoma, 20 of 22 received post-operative chemotherapy.