Bronchial carcinoid, nine years experience

Bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors are low grade malignant tumors, of neuroendocrine origin. They are not associated with smoking. This work was conducted between 1995- 2003 to study bronchial carcinoid tumor regarding age and sex distribution, incidence rate, surgical techniques and patients survival. Eleven patients were included in this study. Bronchoscopic biopsy was obtained in 5 patients, transthoracic needle biopsy in 4 and the diagnosis was reached postoperatively in the remaining 2 patients. No carcinoid syndrome was found in any of our studied patients. There were 6 males and 5 females the mean tumor size was 2 X3.5 cm and the mean age was 32 years. Nine patients were symptomatic, and the tumor was discovered accidentally in the remaining 2. Bronchial carcinoid represented 22.4% of all carcinoid tumors and 8.2% of lung cancer patients referred to our institution during this period. Operative procedures performed were; lobectomy in 5, bilobectomy in 1, pneumonectomy in 3 and sleeve resection in 2 patients. Postoperative pathology revealed 10 patients with typical and I with atypical carcinoid. Morbidity was encountered in 3 patients, in the form of arrhythmia in 2 and air leak in 1 patient with no operative related mortality. Follow up data was available for 9 patients as 2 patients were lost to follow up. One patient with a typical carcinoid died 8 months postoperative from disseminated disease, the remaining 8 patients are alive disease free. Bronchial carcinoid is of low malignant potential with excellent survival following complete resection. Bronchoplastic procedures should be encouraged whenever indicated

Repair of parastomal hernia associated with incisional hernia and pendulous abdomen

Parastomal hernia [PSH] represents one of the difficult challenges for the surgeon. The association of incisional hernia [laparocele] and parastomal hernia adds to the novel of the issue especially if the abdomen is pendulous. The aim of this study is to evaluate a surgical treatment plan for such complex situations. Seventeen patients with parastomal hernia around a permanent stoma associated with laparocele and pendulous abdomen were selected for the study. They were 11 males and 6 female with a mean age of 53 +/- 9 years. After preoperative assessment, they were subjected to relocation of the stoma plus reinforcement of the laparocele repair and the old stoma site with onlay proparietal polypropylene mesh together with dermolipectomy. The overall complications were encountered in three patients Wound infection was reported in the 3 cases [17.7%], seroma in 2 [11.8%], minimal flap necrosis in 2 [11.8%] sinus formation in one patient [5.9%] and development of PSH at the new site in two patients 11.8%. The association of parastomal hernia, incisional hernia and pendulous abdomen jeopardizes the patient's quality of life and surgery is often indicated. The repair by relocation and reinforcement with onlay polyproplene mesh together with dermolipectomy represents a good solution in terms of low morbidity and an acceptable final outcome

Evaluation of some serological tests in diagnosis of toxoplasmosis among complicated pregnancy

Toxoplasmosis is one of the common public health problems. The congenital infection is the most serious form of the disease. This work was conducted on 100 serum samples of pregnant women with previous complicated obstetric history suggesting Toxoplasma infection. Anti-Toxoplasma IgG and, IgM antibodies were evaluated using four commercial serological tests: Latex agglutination, IHAT, ELISA and Immuno-Comb test. The results of the study proved that Latex test gave the highest percentage of seropositivity [58.3%], followed by IgG ELISA [55.8%] and Immuno-comb [55%], while IHAT gave a positive result of [50%]. IgM seropositivity was [44.1%] by ELISA and [46.6%] by Immuno-comb. The correlation between all tests was significant