Corneal involvement in Crohn's disease: an in vivo confocal microscopy study.

Purpose: To evaluate the corneal changes of patients with Crohn's disease (CD) using confocal microscopy and to investigate the association among confocal parameters and CD activity and CD treatment.

Methods: Thirty consecutive patients (age: 42 ± 12 years; 19 women and 11 men) affected by CD and 30 control eyes (age matched and gender matched) underwent an ophthalmic examination and, in 1 eye chosen at random, confocal microscopy of the central cornea using the cornea module of Heidelberg Retina Tomograph. The following confocal parameters were evaluated: density of basal epithelial cells, epithelial dendritic cells, anterior and posterior stromal keratocytes, and endothelial cells; the subbasal plexus was assessed for number and tortuosity of the nerve fibers.

[The biliointestinal bypass: a thirty-years experience].

Aim: Aim of our study was the evaluation of Italian experience with bilio-intestinal bypass in the surgical treatment of morbid obesity.

Materials And Methods: 1030 patients; mean age 36.1 years; preoperative mean weight Kg 136.

Azathioprine and mesalamine for prevention of relapse after conservative surgery for Crohn's disease.

Background & Aims: Because the reoperation rate for Crohn's disease is high after resective surgery, use of conservative surgery has increased. Mesalamine was investigated for the prevention of postoperative relapse, with disappointing results. The role of azathioprine in the postoperative setting is unknown.

Repeated liver resection for recurrent metastases from colorectal cancer.

Background/aims: Repeat hepatectomy is the most effective treatment for recurrent colorectal liver metastases. We aim to assess how repeated liver resections increase survival, without unacceptable surgical risk.

Methodology: Between December 1992 and December 1998, among 19 patients, 5 underwent secondary resection of recurrent metastatic disease.