Endorectal Ultrasound in Local Recurrence of Rectal Cancer: A Systematic Review.

Local recurrence (LR) of rectal cancer (RC) has a disease-free survival rate of up to 50% if diagnosed early. Endorectal ultrasound (ERUS) is an outpatient procedure that can be used together with rectal digital examination for patient follow-up. This is the first study to determine the diagnostic test accuracy of ERUS in the detection of LR after RC and whether it is a good follow-up method.

Clinical and surgical algorithm for managing iatrogenic bile duct injuries during laparoscopic cholecystectomy: A multicenter study.

The present study was a multicenter, analytical, nonrandomized research on 108 cases of intraoperative vascular and bile duct lesions during laparoscopic cholecystectomies. We selected these cases from 16,559 cholecystectomies performed entirely laparoscopically or debuted laparoscopically and converted to an open approach. The study included two surgical centers labeled as primary, with extensive experience in hepato-biliary reconstructive surgery, and four other centers labeled as secondary that referred cases to the previous two.

Cognitive and Affective Assessment of Navigation and Mobility Tasks for the Visually Impaired via Electroencephalography and Behavioral Signals.

This paper presented the assessment of cognitive load (as an effective real-time index of task difficulty) and the level of brain activation during an experiment in which eight visually impaired subjects performed two types of tasks while using the white cane and the Sound of Vision assistive device with three types of sensory input-audio, haptic, and multimodal (audio and haptic simultaneously). The first task was to identify object properties and the second to navigate and avoid obstacles in both the virtual environment and real-world settings. The results showed that the haptic stimuli were less intuitive than the audio ones and that the navigation with the Sound of Vision device increased cognitive load and working memory.

Herniation of an abdominal antireflux fundoplication into the chest: what does it mean?

Objectives: The specific contribution of the herniation of an abdominal antireflux fundoplication into the chest to symptomatic and therefore surgical failure remains unclear.

Methods: The study was conducted in 189 consecutive fundoplication patients, categorized as patients reoperated on for chest herniation of either an abdominal 360° (Group 1; n = 95) or a partial (Group 2; n = 10) fundoplication, and patients having undergone an intrathoracic 360° fundoplication for short oesophagus (Group 3; n = 84; reference group). There were four subgroups in Group 1: 1A: wrap still complete and perioesophageal; 1B: wrap still complete but perigastric; 1C: wrap still perioesophageal but partially disrupted and 1D: wrap perigastric and partially disrupted.

Surgical management of acute cholecystitis: results of a 2-year prospective multicenter survey in Belgium.

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is considered nowadays as the standard management of acute cholecystitis (AC). However, results from multicentric studies in the general surgical community are still lacking.

Methods: A prospective multicenter survey of surgical management of AC patients was conducted over a 2-year period in Belgium.

Complex anatomical variant of inferior vena cava--a case study.

This case has multiple anatomical variants of the inferior vena cava and its branches which determine the appearance of associated arterial abnormalities. The study has been performed on a female corpse, aged average 60, with no other morphological changes of the blood vessels or retroperitoneal viscera. The method we used was classical dissection.

Light interactions with gold nanorods and cells: implications for photothermal nanotherapeutics.

Gold nanorods (AuNR) can be tailored to possess an intense and narrow longitudinal plasmon (LP) absorption peak in the far-red to near-infrared wavelength region, where tissue is relatively transparent to light. This makes AuNRs excellent candidates as contrast agents for photoacoustic imaging, and as photothermal therapeutic agents. The favorable optical properties of AuNR which depend on the physical parameters of shape, size and plasmonic coupling effects, are required to be stable during use.

[In vivo study of effects of some alkyl-phenyl-pyridinium compounds after their exposure to optical UV beams].

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of some alkyl-phenyl-pyridinium compounds (which are in fact cytostatics) on the pseudotumoral tissues after their exposure to optical UV- vis beams.

[Surgical strategy in laparoscopic repair of hiatal hernia and procedures for gastroesophageal reflux].

The authors discuss about 68 celioscopy antireflux procedures, carried out for transhiatal hernia accompanied by gastroesophageal reflux, during a period of 8 years, between 1996 and 2003. The aim of this research is a clinical and technical comparative study, in fact between the posterior total or partial fundoplication and the anatomical procedures. In order to have a complete evaluation of the risks and results, the authors discuss the indications of each procedure, a series of specific intra and postoperative complications, including conversions and reinterventions, for each procedure.

[Classical and laparoscopic therapeutic options in surgery for hepatic abscess].

Although lots of modern surgical and imaging techniques have been developed and last generation antibiotics are in use, the difficulties in the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic abscesses are still a rather sombre reality. Our research concerning 14 patients submitted to surgery within the last ten years can be thought of as a record, considering the poor number of cases in the last decades. So, our study also includes the possible clinical or imaging errors, the technical details of the surgery, the attitude towards the abscess cavity and the still obscure etiology in most of the cases.

[Choledochal cyst as a complex malformation of the intra and extrahepatic bile ducts].

The authors present the case of a 64 years woman with a choledochal cyst along with a complex malformation of both intra and extrahepatic bile ducts. The patient was admitted with a diagnosis of acute and underestimated cholecystitis, which was in fact a real acute severe suppurated angiocolitis located at the cystic cavity level along with severe hepato-renal failure. As long as the choledochal cyst evolves as a stand-alone entity, it can frequently be associated with other malformations of the bile ducts--such as choledochal duct stenosis or abnormal connection of the common hepatic duct with pancreatic ducts.

[Extraperitoneal transomphalic drainage of the posthydatid hepatic restant cavity by coelioscopic approach].

Being often biliary contaminated and suppurative, the hydatid hepatic cyst is in fact a real parasitic abscess. So far its surgical approach represents the only credible possibility of treatment. Authors impart their experience regarding the external drainage of the restant posthydatid cavity, by using a completely extraperitoneal way of bringing out the drain, by means of the round ligament, an original method conceived and put into practice by Prof.

[The extraperitoneal transomphalic drainage of the postoperative hydatid cavity through the transposed round ligament detached from the liver].

The transomphalic and then the transligamentary extraperitoneal drainage imagined by D. Burlui and its multiple use in the liver and the biliary tract surgery, is well known. Concerning the hepatic hydatid cysts, the drainage of the remaining cavity by the round ligament way is possible for most of the locations of the parasite, but it is less performed in the right liver lateral segments locations, too far situated, and also in the left liver locations.

[Carcinoid tumors, leiomyosarcoma and invasive adenocarcinoma metastasis of the Treitz angle].

Our paper studies the quite rare occurrence of the digestive superior occlusive pathology, namely some causes which might induce partial or even total obstruction of the digestive tract, at the distal anatomical limits of the duodenum, also known as the Treitz angle. The first two described cases were carcinoid tumors, obstructive and ulcerated in the lumen of the same angle. The last two cases were an obstructive leiomyosarcoma and an invasive mesenteric metastasis from a right colon cancer, which cause a total external compression of the Treitz angle, clinically manifested as a complete food intolerance, as a first symptom.

Drainage of the common bile duct by the axial transomphalic extraperitoneal route.

Aim: A retrospective analysis was made of results obtained in 169 patients with axial transomphalic external biliary drainage, operated between 1984 and 1998. However, the authors' experience with this method covers a total of 773 cases in which this type of drainage was used between 1966 and 1998.

Method: The technique is described in detail.