Surveillance imaging for sporadic renal angiomyolipoma less than 40 mm: lessons learnt and recommendations from the experience of a large district general hospital.

Introduction Sporadic renal angiomyolipomas, although benign in natural can cause life-threatening spontaneous haemorrhage. Surveillance of smaller lesions is recommended but there is no guidance on the surveillance interval or modality. Our aim was to study our sporadic angiomyolipoma population to determine the growth rate, factors that were associated with a higher growth rate and design a surveillance programme. Materials and methods All sporadic renal angiomyolipomas diagnosed between September 2009 and March 2015 were included. Patients with a diagnosis of tuberous sclerosis were excluded. Results A total of 217 sporadic renal angiomyolipomas were diagnosed. The median follow-up was 24 months (range 10-118 months). The median size at diagnosis was 9.00 mm with a mean growth rate of 0.13 mm/year (standard deviation 0.88). One hundred and fifty angiomyolipomas (69%) were shown to have negative or zero growth. In the remaining 67, 59 had a growth rate of less than 2.00 mm/year. Size of angiomyolipoma, tumour burden and age were not associated with a higher growth rate on multivariate analysis. Conclusion The majority of sporadic angiomyolipomas are small and do not grow. Our practice is to perform surveillance for those greater than 20 mm, with five-yearly ultrasound scans for 21-29 mm, and two-yearly surveillance for 30-39 mm tumours.

Surgical placement of rectus sheath catheters in a cadaveric cystectomy model.

Introduction Surgically inserted rectus sheath catheters (RSCs) are used increasingly for analgesia after cystectomy and other abdominal surgery. Currently, there is little information on the optimal positioning of RSCs to allow maximal spread of local anaesthetic. This study sought to assess the spread of dye injected via RSCs and to highlight the extent of its coverage in a fresh unembalmed cadaveric cystectomy model in order to confirm the nerve endings that are likely to be anaesthetised with RSCs. Methods Four cadavers underwent lower midline incision with limited bladder mobilisation. A RSC was inserted into the eight hemiabdomens. The RSCs were positioned either anterior (n=5) or posterior to the rectus muscle (n=3). Dye was injected down the RSCs to evaluate spread. The eight hemiabdomens were dissected anatomically to determine the surface area of dye spread and nerve root involvement. Results The mean surface area of dye spread with anteriorly placed RSCs was 30.6cm2 anterior and 25.9cm2 posterior to the rectus muscle. The mean surface area of dye spread with posteriorly placed RSCs was 11.3cm2 anterior and 37.3cm2 posterior to the rectus muscle. The mean number of nerve roots stained with anteriorly and posteriorly placed RSCs was 3.8 and 2.7 respectively. Subcutaneous spread of dye was seen with one anterior RSC insertion. Peritoneal spread was seen with one anteriorly positioned RSC. Conclusions This study has demonstrated efficient nerve root infiltration with anteriorly and posteriorly positioned RSCs. It appears that dye spreads between the fibres of the rectus muscle rather than out laterally to the nerve roots when spreading from its initial compartment.