The importance of bacterial infections as precipating factors of chronic hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhosis.

Background/aims: It is generally accepted that chronic hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a stable form of neuropsychiatric disorder, usually related to porto-systemic shunts and with no exogenous precipitating factors. Bacterial infections are frequent causes of morbidity in cirrhosis, including the development of HE in its acute form, but there are no reports of its role in chronic forms of HE.

Methodology: We studied 168 episodes of hepatic encephalopathy in 111 patients with cirrhosis who were admitted to hospital during the last four years.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in childhood.

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck region is rare in young patients and even less frequent in children 15 years or younger children. The patients reported in the literature are isolated cases and their management is always difficult because there is no large experience or a convincing theory to support treatment decisions for every child.

Procedures And Results: Four patients aged 15 years or younger were treated for SCC of head and neck between 1977 and 1995 at the Head and Neck Service of Heliópolis Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil, and with this paper we are reporting our experience with their treatment, including a genetic investigation in two cases (immunohistochemical analysis using monoclonal antibodies against p53 and c-erbB-2 oncogenes).

Quantitative analysis of the extent of extracapsular invasion and its prognostic significance: a prospective study of 170 cases of carcinoma of the larynx and hypopharynx.

Background: The extracapsular spread of disease in modal metastasis of head and neck tumors is an important prognostic factor. However, the implications of the degree of capsular involvement are rarely mentioned. This is a prospective study which intends to investigate the role of transcapsular spread in metastatic lymph nodes on the outcome of patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal carcinoma.

The value of therapeutic planning and the degree of experience of the surgical team on the results of cancer treatment of the larynx and hypopharynx.

This is a prospective study supported by 170 cases of epidermoid carcinoma of the larynx or hypopharynx, treated during the period from January of 1981 to January of 1988, at the Head and Neck Surgery Service of the Heliópolis Hospital Complex, São Paulo. The objective of this project was to evaluate the importance of surgeon experience with regard to the rates of post-operative complications and the rates of relapse and survival. The results of the 8 surgical specialists who integrate the permanent staff at the institute and who different varying degrees of experience with regard to time spent exercising their specialties were compared.

A prospective study of bacterial infections in patients with cirrhosis.

One hundred and seventy hospitalized patients with cirrhosis were included in a prospective and sequential study, to verify the prevalence and most frequent causes of bacterial infection. The differences in clinical and laboratory data between the two groups were analyzed: group I--80 patients who developed bacterial infection and group II--90 patients without bacterial infection. The prevalence or cumulative frequency of the development of bacterial infection during one hospitalization was 47.

Prognostic factors in laryngeal cancer patients submitted to surgical treatment.

The authors studied some demographic, clinical, pathologic, and therapeutic variables in relation to the disease-free interval (DFI) and to the overall survival of laryngeal cancer patients. The patient population consisted of 278 consecutive cases of primary laryngeal cancer who had been admitted to four head and neck surgery services in Sao Paulo and Curitiba (Brazil) between 1973 and 1986. All patients had surgical treatment.

Cryptogenic cirrhosis: clinico-biochemical comparison with alcoholic and viral etiologies.

Cryptogenic cirrhosis defines a group of undetermined etiology that would either be caused by factors as alcohol, virus and others or be due to still unknown etiological factors. To test these hypotheses we have looked for similarities or differences in clinico-biochemical presentation of 196 cases of alcoholic, viral and cryptogenic cirrhosis. Age, jaundice, spiders, palmar erythema and factor V showed a statistically significant difference of the cryptogenic cirrhosis when compared with both alcoholic and viral etiologies.

A new technique of microlympho-venous anastomoses. Experimental study.

This experimental study in dogs presents a new technique of microlympho-venous anastomosis to improve long-term patency rates and clinical results in lymphedema therapy. Technical points, such as an oval window on the wall of the vein and a few sutures piercing only two lymphatic layers, adventitia and media, outside the lumen for successful results are emphasized. Three methods for assessment of patency of anastomoses were used: (1) observation with operating microscope of dye transit across the anastomotic site; (2) lymphography, and (3) histopathologic examination.