Combined distal median nerve block and local anesthesia with lidocaine:epinephrine for carpal tunnel release.

Aim: Evaluating patient comfort during full awake local anesthesia in carpal tunnel release surgery, without tourniquet use, by using epinephrine to obtain a completely dry surgical field.

Methods: We included into the study 41 patients who underwent carpal tunnel syndrome surgery under full awake combined anesthesia, using a 9-point questionnaire. Pain and anxiety in all patients were evaluated through a Wang-Baker 0-5 scale.

The Proteomic Signature of Intestinal Acute Rejection in the Mouse.

Intestinal acute rejection (AR) lacks a reliable non-invasive biomarker and AR surveillance is conducted through frequent endoscopic biopsies. Although citrulline and calprotectin have been suggested as AR biomarkers, these have limited clinical value. Using a mouse model of intestinal transplantation (ITx), we performed a proteome-wide analysis and investigated rejection-related proteome changes that may eventually be used as biomarkers.

The venous thrombosis of the pancreatic graft.

Background And Aims: Venous thrombosis of the pancreatic graft is the main nonimmunological cause of the loss of transplants. It has a frequency between 0.8 to 20% according to literature.

Trends of mortality rates from gastric cancer and colorectal cancer in Romania, 1955-2003.

Background: Steady and persisting falls in gastric cancer (GC) mortality rates have been observed worldwide in the last 50 years, and in Romania too. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is presently the most frequent digestive neoplasia in the Western countries. An increase of CRC incidence and mortality rates has been reported recently in Eastern European countries, including Romania.

Pill esophagitis.

Pill esophagitis is a rare clinical diagnosis. We report a series of two patients who experienced ulcerative esophagitis while taking doxycycline (patient 1) and alendronate (patient 2). Both patients presented with retrosternal pain, odynophagia and dysphagia.

Synchronous gastric adenocarcinoma and carcinoid.

We report the rare case of a 68-year-old man who had two separate and histologically dissimilar gastric tumors: a poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and a carcinoid. The latter tumor showed argyrophilic granules (Grimelius technique) and positivity for chromogranin A and neuron-specific enolase stains, confirming the neuroendocrine nature of the neoplasia. The literature concerning this subject is reviewed.

Heterotopic bone formation in gastric carcinoma. Case report and discussion of the literature.

Osseous metaplasia is a rare finding in the gastrointestinal tract. We report the case of a 75-year-old woman with a gastric adenocarcinoma showing heterotopic ossification with bone marrow formation. The pathogenetic theories are briefly discussed.