Laparoscopic repair of vesicovaginal fistula caused by radiation therapy: Use of a perirectal fat interposition graft.

Introduction: We present a case of laparoscopic repair of vesicovaginal fistula caused by radiation therapy using a perirectal fatty tissue interposition graft.

Case Presentation: A 72-year-old woman was diagnosed with vesicovaginal fistula induced by radiation therapy. Repair of the vesicovaginal fistula was achieved via laparoscopic approach.

Radiotherapy of bone metastases of a spinal meningeal hemangiopericytoma.

Hemangiopericytoma is a rare tumor arising from pericapillary cells or pericytes of Zimmerman, and can occur anywhere capillaries are found. We describe a patient with a meningeal hemangiopericytoma who was treated with primary surgical resection and experienced multiple bone metastases 20 years after the first treatment. This patient with multiple bone metastases was treated with multiple courses of irradiation and good palliation was achieved.

Analysis of treatment results of hypopharyngeal cancer.

Sixty-three patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx were treated at the University of Tokyo between 1985 and 1993. Twelve patients were treated with surgery alone, 16 with preoperative irradiation, 26 with postoperative irradiation, and nine with irradiation alone. A tumor dose of 50 Gy (25 fractions/5 weeks) was used in postoperative irradiation, 40-60 Gy in preoperative irradiation, and 70 Gy in irradiation alone.

Radiation therapy for patients with xeroderma pigmentosum.

Our experience reported here, as well as a review of the literature, suggests that radiation therapy can be used in the palliative treatment of XP-related malignancy. However, radiation therapy should be used with caution in XP patients with an anticipated prolonged life expectancy, because the late side effects of ionizing radiation in XP are not well known.

[Verification of rotational conformation radiotherapy using megavoltage CT scanning].

Although portal imaging is a promising method of verification during static multi-port irradiation, it cannot be applied directly to dynamic irradiation such as rotational conformation with multi-leaf collimator movement. A real-time beam monitoring system based on megavoltage computed tomography scanning has been developed to establish a verification method for the rotational conformation technique. The exit beam through the patient is extracted by the same detector unit as that used for megavoltage scanning during the actual treatment.