Long-term prognosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma.

Objective: The clinical course of patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is variable, even in the subgroup of patients after surgery with curative intent and postoperatively persistent elevated calcitonin levels. This study aimed to evaluate the long-term prognosis of survival in patients with MTC.

Patients: Long-term survival was analysed in 32 patients with MTC being treated in an endocrine centre over a 40-year period.

Immunohistochemical assessment of an asymptomatic glucagonoma in a patient with hypergastrinemia and marked antral angiodysplasia.

A 58-year-old patient had been treated for recurrent gastritis. Numerous gastroscopies indicated hemorrhagic gastritis combined with increasingly severe anemia. The patient was admitted with a hemoglobin of 4.

Detecting the sentinel lymph node in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

The aim of this study was to evaluate sentinel lymph node mapping in patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Nine patients with suspected thyroid carcinoma who were scheduled to undergo thyroidectomy underwent scintigraphic localization of sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs). On the day of surgery we injected 37 MBq technetium-99m nanocolloid intratumourally.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy and interventional endoscopy for gallstone complications during pregnancy.

Background: Symptomatic or complicated gallstone disease is the most common reason for nongynecological operations during pregnancy. Gallstones are present in 12% of all pregnancies, and more than one-third of patients fail medical treatment and therefore require surgical endoscopy or laparoscopy. Gallstone pancreatitis and jaundice during pregnancy is associated with a high recurrence rate, exposing both fetus and mother to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality.

[Surgical ultrasound--indications for "therapeutic splitting" in complicated gallstones].

The use of selective therapeutic ERCP, indicated by ultrasonographically detected dilation of the common bile duct, is a safe procedure with low morbidity, no mortality and a significant reduction in the need for conversion to open cholecystectomy.

[Potential for improvement of combined endoscopic-surgical treatment of bleeding gastroduodenal ulcer].

A total of 119 patients (January 1995-December 1996; 53 women, 66 men) with a medium age of 63.1 years were admitted to hospital with bleeding gastroduodenal ulcer. Emergency gastroduodenoscopy was performed immediately in all cases, sclerotherapy in 94 cases (78.

[Bedside laparoscopy (BSL) for postoperative follow-up of mesenteric infarct and diffuse peritonitis].

Bedside laparoscopy (BSL) for postoperative follow-up in mesenterial infarction of the intensive care patient undergoing respiration treatment represents an important tool for avoiding second-look operations and/or for precisely securing the indication for a relaparotomy. Up until now, nine patients with mesenterial infarction have undergone a BSL, allowing five of then to avoid a second-look operation in this way. Of these nine patients, three died due to a diffuse peritonitis with anastomotic dehiscence, a pulmonary embolism, and a perforation of the stomach after PEG tube deplacement, respectively.

[Value of diagnostic laparoscopy and minimal invasive procedures in acute abdomen].

During the last three years 172 diagnostic laparoscopies (DL) were performed at our department in patients with an acute abdomen of unclear causes. This corresponds to 17% of all patients who underwent operation due to an acute abdomen in the same period. Always the indication for a diagnostic laparoscopy arose then, when the cause or the localization of the acute abdomen could not be found by conventional diagnostic methods.

[Urgent ERCP and early elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy in biliary pancreatitis].

Background: For many years the best algorithm of treatment for complicated gallstone disease has been intensively discussed. Gallstone pancreatitis with cholangitis still belongs to the most often identified causes of death of necrotizing pancreatitis. The reduction of complication and lethality rates was mainly achieved by urgent ERCP and sequential cholecystectomy.

[Treatment of postoperative bile fistulas after laparoscopic cholecystectomy by ERCP, EPT and bile duct drainage].

Background: Bile leakage as a complication following cholecystectomy can be found more frequently after laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) than after open cholecystectomy. The present study planned to find out the importance of ERCP, sphincterotomy and temporary drainage of the bile duct system in the treatment of bile leakage.

Patients And Methods: From July 1992 to October 1996 15 consecutive patients presenting with bile leakage following LC underwent endoscopic therapy by CBD-drainage with sphincterotomy (n = 11), CBD-drainage without sphincterotomy (n = 1) and sphincterotomy alone (n = 3).

[Preoperative therapeutic splitting].

Introduction: The best clinical strategy for using ERC combined with LC is still unknown. Based on a wide discussion of literature reports the aim of our study is to critically analyse laparoscopic bile duct exploration and to correlate these data to our prospective study of "therapeutical splitting".

Patients And Methods: In a prospective study 1645 consecutive patients with sympomatic gall stone disease were examined by ultrasound.

[Choledocholithiasis--therapeutic splitting].

Despite new developments like chemolitholysis and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy, conventional cholecystectomy was the "gold standard" in the treatment of gallstones. The range of indications and the operative strategy were well standardized, although the management of common bile duct stones in gallstone disease was still under debate. For high-risk and elder patients endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (ERCP), papillotomy and stone extraction was established, in younger patients the best management was questionable.

[Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in cholecysto-choledocholithiasis. "Therapeutic splitting" or conventional surgical procedure?].

In a prospective study the impact of preoperative, selective endoscopic cholangiography (ERC/P) and therapy was evaluated in 586 consecutive patients with symptomatic gallstone disease in respect of biliary pathology and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (n = 520). Exclusion criteria for the admission to the study were previous gastric surgery, necrotizing cholecystitis and gallbladder perforation. Because of presumed pathology on ultrasound, suggestive for common bile duct stones or papillary stenosis 59 patients (11.

[Extracorporeal shock wave treatment of calcium containing gallbladder calculi].

A total of 50 patients--37 female and 13 male--with an average age of 50 +/- 27 years (23-86 years), suffering from rim-calcified gallbladder stones, underwent extracorporeal shock-wave lithotripsy (ESWL), using an ultrasound-guided overhead module of Lithostar Plus (Siemens Company). The total number of stones was 87, with an average diameter of 16 +/- 7 (7-38) mm. 29 patients had a solitary stone, 13 had two and 8 patients three or more stones.

[A combined endoscopic surgical treatment concept in acute biliary pancreatitis].

This paper presents the results of a combined endoscopic-surgical approach with management of acute biliary pancreatitis in 91 patients. The diagnosis was always made by means of endoscopic-retrograde cholangiography. Papillary or bile duct stones, or unmistakable signs of previous stone passage, and in exceptional cases flow obstruction due to preiampullary diverticuli were considered criteria for a positive diagnosis.

[Laparoastoma (open packing) in the treatment concept of infected pancreatic necroses].

Out of 284 patients with acute pancreatitis 73 (26%) had pancreas necrosis. Of these 73 cases 43 patients with infected pancreas necrosis were treated surgically, whereas conservative treatment proved successful in the remaining 30 cases with so-called sterile necrosis. Our interdisciplinary treatment combined delayed surgery for the better demarcation of the necrotic tissue, with extended intensive care therapy and epigastral laparostomy; through this laparostomy surgical revision with necrosectomy and peritoneal lavage was performed daily for 15 (+/- 6) days, necessitating long-term artificial respiration for an average of 15 (4/168) days.

Immunocytochemical localization of estrogen and progesterone receptors in human thyroid.

The presence of steroid hormone receptors has previously been suggested in thyroid tissue by biochemical means. Our studies were designed to confirm these results and to localize the specific receptor-containing cell type using a novel immunocytochemical method. Monoclonal antibodies specific to estrogen receptors (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR) were used to localize these steroid hormone receptors in the human thyroid gland.