Evaluation for Usefulness of Abdominal Sonography in Acute Appendicitis

PURPOSE: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common surgical diseases and the accuracy of diagnosis has been reported to be between 71% and 85%. In this study we tried to determine whether abdominal sonographic examination is critical to the decision to operate and whether its use is essential before surgery of patients with clinically diagnosed or suspected acute appendicitis. METHODS: A total of 552 patients with clinically diagnosed acute appendicitis from January 2000 to December 2001 were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent an abdominal graded compression sonography performed by a staff radiologist. RESULTS: A total of 535 patients (96.9%) with positive findings of appendicitis proceeded to surgery. 17 patients (3.1%) were found to have other diseases. Of the 535 patients undergoing operation, 531 (99.3%) were proved to have appendicitis by pathologic reports. The 17 patients with negative findings in sonography underwent operation or CT examination; 12 (70.6%) were proved to have appendicitis. Abdominal sonography for detecting acute appendicitis had a sensitivity of 97.8%, a specificity of 55.6%, an accuracy of 97.1%, a positive predictive value of 99.3%, and a negative predictive value of 29.4%. CONCLUSION: Abdominal sonography is therefore one of the most useful examinations in diagnosing acute appendicitis before surgery and our experience suggests that patients with clinically suspected acute appendicitis should routinely undergo abdominal sonographic examination.

Malignant Glucagonoma of the Pancreas: A case report / 대한내분비외과학회지

Glucagonomas are rare pancreatic tumors of islet ahpha-2 cells. Less than 430 cases have been reported worldwide and 210 cases are malignant tumors. In generally, the tumors typically present with a characteristic constellation of symptoms including necrolytic migratory erythema of the skin, weight loss, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, anemia, cheliosis, stomatitis, and an increased thrombotic tendency. Since pancreatic glucagonomas are predominantly located in the tail and findings of radiographic or sonographic examination can remain unspecific, patients often present already metastasis when diagnosis is first established, and can be difficult to differentiate from the other pancreatic tumors. We report the case of a 59-year-old woman with an malignant glucagonoma of the pancreas infiltrating already the spleen and presenting metastatic lesion in perirenal lymph nodes, and that the tumor was not assocated with the characteristic skin rash. The pateint with a past history of a diabetes mellitus and hypertension for 9 years was admitted with cramp-like left lower abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, and nausea. A solid tumor of tail of the pancreas revealed by ultrasonography and abdominal computed tomography and distal pancreatectomy, radical nephrectomy, and splenectomy were performed. Immunohistochemial examination of the tumor did show glucagon-reactive tissue and electron microscopy revealed many secretory granules, 180 to 300 nm in diameter in granulated cells. After pancreatic tumor resection, the patient had normalization of plasma glucagon and blood sugar.

Adenomyoma of the common bile duct / 한국간담췌외과학회지

A fifty year old Korean female was admitted with a few months history of general malaise. On admission, positive HBs Ag, negative HBs Ab and HBe Ag was negative. The liver function tests showed AST 274 U/L, ALT 126 U/L, CEA 1.87 ng/ml. With the clinical impression of chronic hepatitis B, abdominal CT and ERCP were performed and demonstrated a narrowing of the distal common bile duct suggesting a malignant etiology. The Whipple's procedure was done. The intraoperative finding revealed neoplastic involvement of the distal 1 cm of the common bile duct with severe narrowing and proximal dilatation. Microscopic findings demonstrated cystically dilated ductular structures and intervening irregular hypertrophic smooth muscle bundles.

A Case of Mature Cystic Teratoma of the Ovary with Rupture into the Sigmoid Colon and Peritoneal Cavity

A spontaneous rupture into the sigmoid colon and peritoneal cavity is a most unusual complication for a mature cystic teratoma of the ovary. A 38-year-old woman with acute lower abdominal pain, presenting as peritonitis, visited our hospital. Physical examination revealed tenderness, rebound tenderness, and vague palpable mass in the right lower quadrant of the abdomen. A pelvic computed tomographic scan demonstrated a right ovarian cystic mass with bone and fat tissue, which had ruptured into the sigmiod colon, and peritoneal fluid collection. During a laparotomy, the ovary tumor was found to be densely adherent to the rectosigmoid junctional wall; also a solid element of the ovary tumor containg hair and skin tissue seemed to be in continuity with colonic lumen, and the ovarian wall was ruptured with spillage of purulent exudate into the peritoneal cavity. En bloc resection of the tumor-bearing segment of the sigmoid colon, together with the adherent right ovary and salpinx was carrried out. The diagnosis of a mature teratoma of the ovary was made by histologic examination of a surgical specimen; the tumor had perforated the sigmoid colon wall, had protruded into the bowel lumen, and had ruptured the intraperitoneal cavity due to inflammation its wall.

Retroperitoneal Hemorrhage due to Spontaneous Rupture of Adrenal Myelolipoma: A case report / 대한내분비외과학회지

Adrenal myelolipomas are rare benign tumors consisting of mature fat and hematopoietic elements resembling bone marrow. Due to the frequent use of ultrasound and computerized tomography their presence is now more frequently discovered. Although these tumors are usually asymptomatic and only found incidentally at autopsy, they can cause local symptomes or hemorrhage requiring surgical excision. We present the case of a large surgically and histologically confirmed, adrenal myelolipoma with retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to spontaneous rupture in a 32-year old man.

Retroperitoneal Hemorrhage due to Spontaneous Rupture of Adrenal Myelolipoma: A case report / 대한내분비외과학회지

Adrenal myelolipomas are rare benign tumors consisting of mature fat and hematopoietic elements resembling bone marrow. Due to the frequent use of ultrasound and computerized tomography their presence is now more frequently discovered. Although these tumors are usually asymptomatic and only found incidentally at autopsy, they can cause local symptomes or hemorrhage requiring surgical excision. We present the case of a large surgically and histologically confirmed, adrenal myelolipoma with retroperitoneal hemorrhage due to spontaneous rupture in a 32-year old man.

Clinical Analysis of 253 Cases of laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

No abstract available.

Clinical Analysis of Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in Complicated Cholelithiasis

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been popularized all over the world as the treatment of choice for unnecessory symptomatic or asymptomatic gall stones. Initially, this surgery was applied to limited indications, but nowadays the indications of the surgery have been expanded to include severe, inflamed, complicated patients with gall stones, which used to be thought of as contraindications in the past. Surgeon,s technical improvement and newly devised surgical instruments made it possible to expand the limit of surgical indications for laparoscopic cholecystectomy. However, anatomical disorientation due to severe inflammed gall bladder is still the drawback to the possible occurrence of laparoscopic bile duct injury and bleeding. We have a clinical analysis of 32 cases of laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis or G.B.empyema, surgical time,safety and case were evaluated. Two patients were converted to open laparotomy because of intraoperative bile duct injury and anatomical disorientation by hepatic flexure colonic interposition. As a result, we suggest that even in patients with subphrenic abscess or bile peritonitis secondary to G.B.empyema could be the indications for the laparoscopic cholecystectomy if surgeon's ability or patient's condition allow it.

A Clinical Study of Acute suppurative Cholangitis with Conservative Treatment and Delayed Operation

The classic clinical manifestations of acute suppurative cholangitis were first described by Charcot in 1877 as a triad of fever(and chill),jaundice and right upper quadrant pain. In 1959,Reynolds and Dargan characterized acute suppurative cholangitis as a distinct clinical entity manifested by a clinical pentad of Charcot,s three signs plus shock and central nervous system depression.We have clinical analysis of acute suppurative cholangitis,218 cases who were admitted in Chonnam Hospital from Jan.1989 to Dec.1995.All cases were treated conservatively initially,and then delayed operation was performed when the patients were improved from the septic condition by cholangitis.