Hepatic portal venous gas: physiopathology, etiology, prognosis and treatment.

Hepatic portal venous gas (HPVG), an ominous radiologic sign, is associated in some cases with a severe underlying abdominal disease requiring urgent operative intervention. HPVG has been reported with increasing frequency in medical literature and usually accompanies severe or lethal conditions. The diagnosis of HPVG is usually made by plain abdominal radiography, sonography, color Doppler flow imaging or computed tomography (CT) scan.

Consequences of dysthyroidism on the digestive tract and viscera.

Thyroid hormones define basal metabolism throughout the body, particularly in the intestine and viscera. Gastrointestinal manifestations of dysthyroidism are numerous and involve all portions of the tract. Thyroid hormone action on motility has been widely studied, but more complex pathophysiologic mechanisms have been indicated by some studies although these are not fully understood.

The impact of obesity on surgical outcome after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Context: The effect of obesity on surgical outcome is becoming an increasingly relevant issue given the growing rate of obesity worldwide.

Objective: To investigate the specific impact of obesity on pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Design: A retrospective comparative study of a prospectively maintained database was carried out to investigate the specific impact of obesity on the technical aspects and postoperative outcome of pancreaticoduodenectomy.