ABSTRACT
Background: Hernia of the umbilical cord is a rare clinical entity which presents with hernia of the small bowel into the proximal part of the umbilical cord. This is sporadically associated with other congenital malformations. This is usually poorly identified and mistakenly termed as 'omphalocele minor. Inadvertent clamping of the cord in these cases leads to iatrogenic bowel wall injury. The aim of this study is to present a spectrum of cases presenting with umbilical cord hernia in a tertiary care Govt medical college, along with demography, intra operative findings, associated malformations and postoperative outcome and 1 year follow up.Methods: This is an ambispective study on neonates who attended the Outpatient Department (OPD) or Emergency department. The babies were evaluated by age, birth weight, gender, any gross clinical malformation. They were also evaluated intraoperatively for any associated anomalies. Post-surgery the babies were followed up until 2 years of age in pediatric surgery OPD of the same institute and outcome was recorded.Results: Out of 90 babies, 88 babies (97.77%) had body weight more than 2.5 kg, and rest 2(2.22%) had bodyweight of 1.5kg and 1.8 kg. Regarding content of contents of umbilical cord hernia, out of 87 patients, 43 patients (49.42%) had ileal loop as, 32 patients (36.78%) had ileum with Meckel's diverticulum, 6 patients (6.39%) had cecum with appendix.Conclusions: Most of this study cases had ileal loops as content of the hernial sacs, and 36.78% cases had Meckel's diverticulum associated, which is a remnant of Vitello intestinal duct. Prompt identification of the condition and early intervention and adequate post-natal care are affective to prevent long term morbidity.
ABSTRACT
It was shown earlier that immune responses against cholera toxin (CT) as well as Vibrio cholerae lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or whole bacterial cells (WC) were protective and that these different antibody specificities co-operated synergistically for protection against experimental cholera. Similarly, antibodies against the heat-labile toxin (LT) and major colonization factors (CFs) of enterotoxingenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) co-operated synergistically for protection against LT-producing ETEC expressing homologous CFs. Studies in humans revealed that repeated oral antigen administration was optimal in inducing intestinal immune responses. Based on these findings oral inactivated vaccines consisting of toxin antigen and whole cells, i.e. the licensed recombinant cholera B subunit (rCTB)-WC cholera vaccine Dukoral®, and candidate ETEC vaccines have been developed. In different trials the rCTB-WC cholera vaccine has provided very high (85-100%) short term protection, which was significantly higher than that induced by the WC component alone, whereas rCTB-WC and WC alone provided comparable (50-60%), long term protection. An oral ETEC vaccine consisting of rCTB and formalin-inactivated E. coli bacteria expressing major CFs was shown to be safe and immunogenic in adults and children in different countries. The vaccine also induced significant protection against non-mild ETEC diarrhoea, i.e. diarrhoea interfering with daily activity in American travellers but not against ETEC diarrhoea in young children in Egypt. Against this background, a modified ETEC vaccine consisting of recombinant E. coli strains overexpressing the major CFs and a more LT like hybrid toxoid (LCTBA) has been developed. This vaccine will be tested soon alone and together with a mucosal adjuvant, i.e. dmLT, in clinical trials.