Case Report: De Garengeot's hernia. Appendicitis within femoral hernia. Diagnosis and surgical management.

Introduction: Abdominal wall hernias remain as one of the most common problems that the general surgeon has to treat. Although usually straightforward and easy to diagnose by the experienced hands, obstacles appear when contents of the hernia sac include organs. The presence of the appendix inside a femoral hernia (De Garengeot's hernia) is a rare entity which represents multiple challenges, both diagnostic and therapeutic.

Laparoscopic vs open partial colectomy in elderly patients: Insights from the American College of Surgeons - National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database.

Aim: To compare the outcomes between the laparoscopic and open approaches for partial colectomy in elderly patients aged 65 years and over using the American College of Surgeons - National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) database.

Methods: The ACS NSQIP database for the years 2005-2011 was queried for all patients 65 years and above who underwent partial colectomy. 1:1 propensity score matching using the nearest- neighbor method was performed to ensure both groups had similar pre-operative comorbidities.

Improving the functionality of intra-operative nerve monitoring during thyroid surgery: is lidocaine an option?

Intra-operative nerve monitoring (IONM) is rapidly becoming a standard of care in many institutions across the country. In the absence of neuromuscular blocking agents to facilitate the IONM, the depth of anesthesia required to abolish the laryngo tracheal reflexes often results in profound hemodynamic instability during surgery, necessitating the use of large doses of sympathomimetic amines. The excessive alpha and beta adrenergic effects exhibited by these agents are undesirable in the presence of cardiovascular co-morbidities.

Emergency subtotal colectomy in a Jehovah's Witness with massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding: challenges encountered and lessons learned.

A 66-year-old woman who was a Jehovah's Witness had massive lower gastrointestinal bleeding and subsequent hypovolemic shock, necessitating a subtotal colectomy. During the postoperative period, her hemoglobin level decreased to a low of 2.6 g/dL, prolonging her dependence on mechanical ventilation.

Ten years later: a single hospital experience with malignancy in HIV/AIDS.

Background And Objective: We present our experience in the era of HAART with 5,112 patients having HIV infection or AIDS, treated between 2002 and 2006 in our hospital, 182 of whom had malignancies (3.56%). We compared our findings to those from a similar cohort of patients studied 10 years earlier.

Schistosomiasis: a rare cause of acute appendicitis in the African American population in the United States.

Schistosomal appendicitis is rarely reported in developed countries. In this article we report a case series of schistosomal appendicitis at our community teaching hospital. In this retrospective study, we conducted a thorough database search for schistosomiasis in patients who had undergone appendectomy for acute appendicitis from 1995 to 2005.

Abdominal wall endometriomas.

Background: The diagnosis of abdominal wall endometriomas is often confused with other surgical conditions.

Methods: A retrospective study was made of 12 patients presenting with an abdominal wall mass, which proved to be endometrioma.

Results: Of a total of 297 patients of endometriosis treated in our hospital over a 7-year period, 12 (4%) had isolated abdominal wall endometriomas.

Use of endovascular stents in the peripheral circulation.

The concept of transluminal treatment of vascular obstruction by the percutaneous approach was introduced by Dotter and Judkins, in 1964. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) developed rapidly into an extremely important therapeutic modality for relieving symptomatic obstructions in major arteries. However, it was not until 1969 that Dotter reported the successful placement of coiled stainless steel wire endarterial tube grafts, with the aid of a catheter, into the popliteal arteries of dogs.

Delayed presentation of splenic injury: still a common syndrome.

The entity of delayed splenic rupture represents an initially missed injury, a delayed presentation of the latter, or an actually delayed development of an initially latent, minor, splenic injury. Having encountered a number of patients presenting with splenic rupture days after what was considered a minor abdominal trauma we review our experience with this entity. This is a retrospective study.