Root Cause Analysis of Rebleeding Events following Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Creation for Variceal Hemorrhage.

Purpose: To identify fundamental causes underlying recurrent variceal hemorrhage (VH) after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) to ascertain opportunities for improvement of TIPS-based management of VH and prevention of rebleeding.

Materials And Methods: This single-center retrospective study comprised 166 patients (male-to-female ratio 101:65; median age, 52 y; median Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, 14) who had TIPS created for VH in 1998-2014. Medical record review was used to identify patients who had recurrent VH events, and root cause analysis allowed identification of the most probable causal factors.

MELD score for prediction of survival after emergent TIPS for acute variceal hemorrhage: derivation and validation in a 101-patient cohort.

Unlabelled: BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY: The Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score has not been derived and validated for the emergent transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) population. We sought to identify predictive factors for survival among emergent TIPS patients, and to substantiate MELD for outcomes prognostication in this population.

Results: 101 patients with acute life threatening variceal hemorrhage underwent emergent TIPS (defined by failed endoscopic therapy for active bleeding, acute hemoglobin drop, ≥ 2-unit transfusion requirement, and/or vasopressor need) at between 1998-2013.

Massive Hemorrhage from Arterial Access during Intracranial Aneurysm Stent-Assisted Embolization: Endovascular Diagnosis and Therapy.

Massive hemorrhage from arterial access in patients receiving anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy is a rare but potentially devastating complication. The authors present a patient who developed a large retroperitoneal and anterior abdominal wall hemorrhage following an unintentional and unrecognized arterial injury during an endovascular procedure. Reversal of anticoagulation in patients who have undergone stent-assisted coil embolization of intracranial aneurysms is an undesirable approach due to the risk of thromboembolism; rather, transcatheter embolization of the bleeding source should be considered.

Tumor lysis syndrome and primary hepatic malignancy: case presentation and review of the literature.

Tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) represents a constellation of laboratory and clinical derangements that can occur following treatment of malignancies with high cellular turnover. Most commonly noted in hematologic malignancies, TLS has been reported to occur following liver-directed therapy in the form of both ablative therapies and transarterial therapies. Classification schemes exist, as do established diagnostic criteria, to aid in the definitive diagnosis of TLS.

Comparison of combination therapies in the management of hepatocellular carcinoma: transarterial chemoembolization with radiofrequency ablation versus microwave ablation.

Purpose: To compare retrospectively the outcomes and complications of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization with drug-eluting embolic agents combined with radiofrequency (RF) ablation or microwave (MW) ablation in treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Materials And Methods: From 2003-2011, 89 patients with HCC received a combination therapy-transcatheter arterial chemoembolization plus RF ablation in 38 patients and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization plus MW ablation in 51 patients. Local tumor response, tumor progression-free survival (PFS), overall PFS, overall survival (OS), and complications were compared.

Adenoma localization for recurrent or persistent primary hyperparathyroidism using dynamic four-dimensional CT and venous sampling.

Purpose: To determine if parathyroid venous sampling (PVS) combined with four-dimensional (4D) computed tomography (CT) improves sensitivity and accuracy of identification of parathyroid adenoma in patients with recurrent or persistent primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT) and negative technetium-99m methoxyisobutyl isonitrile ((99m)Tc-MIBI) and ultrasound (US) scans.

Materials And Methods: Both PVS and 4D CT were performed in 28 patients with recurrent or persistent pHPT and negative (99m)Tc-MIBI and US examinations. Localization by 4D CT alone and in combination with PVS and lateralization by PVS alone were retrospectively assessed for correlation with surgical results.

Staphylococcus aureus infection of the optic nerve.

A 71-year-old woman presented with painful vision loss in the right eye followed by ophthalmoplegia. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated optic nerve sheath enlargement and enhancement. Biopsy of the optic nerve sheath revealed purulent and necrotic material that was positive for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus.

Technical and practical considerations for device selection in locoregional ablative therapy.

Percutaneous ablation therapy is an essential component of contemporary interventional oncologic therapy of primary and secondary malignancies. The growing armamentarium of available ablation technologies calls for thorough understanding of the different ablation modalities to optimize device selection in individual clinical settings. The goal of the current article is to provide direction on ablative device selection by reviewing device mechanisms of action, advantages and disadvantages, and practical considerations in real-life case scenarios.

Characteristics of primary and secondary hepatic malignancies associated with hepatopulmonary shunting.

Purpose: To identify liver tumor characteristics associated with low (<10%), intermediate (10%-20%), and high (>20%) lung shunt fraction (LSF) at technetium 99m ((99m)Tc) macroaggregated albumin (MAA) imaging performed before yttrium 90 ((90)Y) radioembolization (RE).

Materials And Methods: In this single-center retrospective study, 141 patients (70 with hepatocellular carcinoma [HCC], 71 with other tumors; 95 men, 45 women; median age, 61 years) underwent mapping arteriography with (99m)Tc-MAA LSF calculation before (90)Y RE from 2006 to 2012. Tumor characteristics, including tumor type, index lesion size and morphologic structure (circumscribed, infiltrative), focality (solitary oligonodular, multinodular), disease distribution (unilobar, bilobar), tumor burden (≤50%, 50%), portal vein invasion (present, absent), and arterioportal shunting (present, absent) were correlated with (99m)Tc-MAA imaging-calculated LSFs at univariate and multivariate analysis.

Rosai-Dorfman disease (sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy) of the pancreas: second case report.

Introduction: Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD), originally described as sinus histiocytosis with massive lymphadenopathy, is a rare histiocytic proliferative disorder with a distinctive microscopic appearance. It formerly was thought to be a process limited to lymph nodes, yet RDD has been documented to occur in many organ systems, notably the bone, skin, soft tissue, central nervous system, eye and orbit, and upper respiratory tract. The digestive system, however, is affected only exceptionally, with this being only the second documented case involving the pancreas.