Is Laparoscopy-assisted Radical Gastrectomy Safe in Patients with Child-Pugh Class A Cirrhosis?

PURPOSE: We investigated early postoperative morbidity and mortality in patients with liver cirrhosis who had undergone radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 41 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy at the Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital (Hwasun-gun, Korea) between August 2004 and June 2009. There were few patients with Child-Pugh class B or C; therefore, we restricted patient selection to those with Child-Pugh class A. RESULTS: Postoperative complications were observed in 22 (53.7%) patients. The most common complications were ascites (46.3%), postoperative hemorrhage (22.0%) and wound infection (12.2%). Intra-abdominal abscess developed in one (2.4%) patient who had undergone open gastrectomy. Massive ascites occurred in 4 (9.8%) patients. Of the patients who underwent open gastrectomy, nine (21.9%) patients required blood transfusions as a result of postoperative hemorrhage. However, most of these patients had advanced gastric cancer. In contrast, most patients who underwent laparoscopic gastrectomy had early stage gastric cancer, and when the confounding effect from the different stages between the two groups was corrected statistically, no statistically significant difference was found. There was also no significant difference between open and laparoscopic gastrectomy in the occurrence rate of other postoperative complications such as ascites, wound infection, and intra-abdominal abscess. No postoperative mortality occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic gastrectomy is a feasible surgical procedure for patients with moderate hepatic dysfunction.

Clinical Comparison of Hepatic Resection and Radiofrequency Ablation of Hepatic Metastases from Colorectal Cancer

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics between hepatic resection and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in hepatic metastases of colorectal cancer. METHODS: Among 183 patients who were diagnosed as having colorectal cancer with hepatic metastases from May 1999 to Dec. 2002, excluding 56 patients who did not undergo a hepatic resection or RFA due to multiple hepatic metastases or other distant metastases, 127 patients who were treated with a pure hepatic resection (N=68), pure RFA (N=35), or a hepatic resection with RFA (N=24) synchronous or metachronous were reviewed in this study. The study included metastatic hepatic tumor size, number, distribution, disease-free survival rate, and overall survival rate. RESULTS: The mean hepatic tumor sizes in the resection group, the RFA group, and the resection with RFA group were 3.3 cm, 3.0 cm, and 2.5 cm, respectively, but the differences in the sizes had no statistical significance (P>0.1). In the view of the number of hepatic metastases, single metastases were the most prevalent kind in the resection group and the RFA group (64.7% and 60.0%) while multiple metastases were the most prevalent kind in the resection with RFA (20/24, 83.3%). In the resection and the RFA groups, a unilobar distribution was the most common (88.2% and 68.6%), but a bilobar distribution was the most common (87.5%) in the resection with RFA group. The disease-free survival rates were 42.2% (resection group), 30.7% (RFA group), and 22.2% (resection with RFA group) in the third year (P=0.65). The overall survival rates were 70.9% (resection group), 68.4% (RFA group), and 62.9% (resection with RFA group) in the third year (P=0.19). CONCLUSIONS: There were no significant statistical differences in the disease-free survival and the overall survival rates between the three groups. Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is considered as not only a complementary but also an alternative treatment tool to hepatic resection in the treatment of hepatic metastases of colorectal cancer and has a similar survival rate.

Is Routine Chest X-ray Useful in Detection of Pulmonary Metastases after Curative Resection for Colorectal Carcinoma?

PURPOSE: This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of conventional chest radiography and abdominal CT for early detection of pulmonary metastases after curative surgery for colorectal cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 138 cases of pulmonary metastases from a group of colorectal-cancer patients, who were recruited from 1994 to 2002 at Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, and who had been surgically treated with a curative resection. RESULTS: The detection rates for pulmonary metastases were 34.1% by conventional chest radiography, 50.0% by abdominal CT, and 15.9% by other means. For stage I and II tumors, conventional chest radiography was superior to abdominal CT (45.7% vs. 34.3%, P<0.05) for detecting pulmonary metastases. On the contrary, for stage III tumors, abdominal CT was superior to conventional chest radiography (55.3% vs. 30.1%, P<0.05). Compared with stage I and II, pulmonary metastases in stage III had a tendency to be more numerous, bilateral, and extra-pulmonary. They also had a low detection rate by conventional chest radiography and a higher detection rate by abdominal CT, and they were associated with poor survival. CONCLUSIONS: Conventional chest radiography is no more useful in detecting early pulmonary metastases after curative colorectal surgery than abdominal CT, especially for stage III tumors. We propose the use of routine chest CT or extended abdominal CT for screening of occult lung metastases in stage III colorectal cancer patients.

Expression of beta-catenin in Colorectal Cancer with Liver Metastasis

PURPOSE: Decreased expression of beta-catenin has been known to be associated with tumor metastasis. However, the clinical relationship between the degree of expression and the prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic value of beta-catenin expression in CRC patients with liver metastasis. METHODS: Paraffin embedded blocks were obtained from 70 patients who underwent potentially curative resection for CRC with liver metastasis. Samples from normal colon mucosa, primary CRC and metastatic liver lesion were prepared in tissue microarrays and were stained by immunohistochemistry with monoclonal antibody against beta- catenin. The membranous beta-catenin expression was assessed and the beta-catenin expression difference between primary CRC and metastatic liver lesion was analysed in relation to overall survival as well as disease free survival rates. RESULTS: In beta-catenin expression, preserved expression (score >6) was observed in 42.0%, and 21.9% of primary CRC tumor samples and tumor samples from metastatic liver lesion respectively. The degree of beta-catenin expression in metastatic liver lesion was significantly lower than that in primary CRC (P=0.022). According to the difference of beta-catenin expression score between primary CRC and liver metastasis, patients were classified as group 'A' and 'B'. Group 'A' was defined as patients showing remarkably decreased expression of beta-catenin in metastatic liver lesion in that the difference of the score was three or more. Group 'B' was defined as patients showing maintained or increased beta-catenin expression in metastatic liver lesion in comparison to primary CRC, in that the difference of beta-catenin expression score was less than three. Overall survival rate and disease free survival rate were significantly better in group 'B' than group 'A' (P=0.02, P=0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Decreased expression of beta-catenin in metastatic liver lesion may be a poor prognostic marker in colorectal cancers with liver metastasis. A further large-scaled investigation is necessary to define the role of beta-catenin in CRC.

Rhabdomyolysis in Aortic Surgery: case report

Rhabdomyolysis is an uncommon complication in a vascular surgery. Recently we experienced two cases of rhabdomyolysis after aortic surgery. The first one underwent an elective surgery for AAA but the 2nd case performed an emergency surgery because of ruptured AAA. Both patients recovered from rhabdomyolysis by conservative medical treatment without any major complications such as acute renal failure.

Clinical Analysis of Above-Knee Femoropopliteal Bypass on Chronic Lower Limb Ischemia

PURPOSE: To elucidate overall aspects of femoropopliteal bypass including patency rate, risk factors for patency and complications. METHOD: We analyzed 61 limbs with atherosclerosis in 57 patients underwent above-knee femoropopliteal bypass surgery from September 1994 to April 2000 retrospectively. The mean age of the patients was 65.3 years (31~80 yr.) Operative indications included disabling claudication (54%), resting pain (11.5%), ischemic gangrene (or ulceration) (34.4%). Associated risk factors were cerebrovascular accident (51%), diabetes mellitus (39%), coronary artery disease (32%), hypertension (30%), hyperlipidemia (16%). We used PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) synthetic graft in all cases. Adjunctive procedures were performed in 13 cases, which were iliac artery stent insertion in 7 cases, balloon dilatation in 4 cases, neurolysis in 1 case, profundaplasty in 1 case. RESULT: Overall 1, 3, 5-year primary and secondary graft patency rates were 83.8%, 73.0%, 71.3% and 98.0%, 85.0%, 75.0%. 17 postoperative complications occured including 10 cases of leg edema, 3 cases of myocardiac infarction, 3 cases of cerebral infarction, 1 case of pneumonia. In uni- and multivariate analysis, run off score was the only significant factor influencing primary graft patency rate (p=0.013), but risk factors such as DM, smoking, hyperlipidemia had no statistical significancy on the primary and the secondary graft patency rates. CONCLUSION: We consider that run off score is the most important factor for predicting the graft patency as other studies verified.