Intrathoracic gastric volvulus as a severe, delayed surgical complication after left subphrenic peritonectomy and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for advanced ovarian cancer.

Patients with extensive peritoneal spread from advanced ovarian cancer often undergo several upper abdominal surgical procedures including subphrenic peritonectomy to obtain optimal cytoreduction. The most common complications are pleural effusions, pancreatic leakage and endoabdominal collections. This case report describes an unusual complication, a diaphragmatic hernia with an intrathoracic gastric volvulus developing four months after the patient underwent left subphrenic peritonectomy during interval debulking surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy for advanced ovarian cancer.

Imaging of stone disease in pregnancy.

Renal colic is the most frequent non-obstetric cause for abdominal pain and subsequent hospitalization during pregnancy. Intervention is necessary in patients who do not respond to conservative treatment. Ultrasound (US) is widely used as the first-line diagnostic test in pregnant women with nephrolithiasis, despite it is highly nonspecific and may be unable to differentiate between ureteral obstruction secondary to calculi and physiologic hydronephrosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should be considered as a second-line test, when US fails to establish a diagnosis and there are continued symptoms despite conservative management. Moreover, MRI is able to differentiate physiologic from pathologic dilatation. In fact in the cases of obstruction secondary to calculi, there is renal enlargement and perinephric edema, not seen with physiological dilatation. In the latter, there is smooth tapering of the middle third of the ureter because of the mass effect between the uterus and adjacent retroperitoneal musculature. When the stone is lodged in the lower ureter, a standing column of dilated ureter is seen below this physiological constriction. MRI is also helpful in demonstrating complications such as pyelonephritis. In the unresolved cases, Computed tomography remains a reliable technique for depicting obstructing urinary tract calculi in pregnant women, but it involves ionizing radiation. Nephrolithiasis during pregnancy requires a collaboration between urologists, obstetricians, and radiologists.

Treatment of peritoneal carcinomatosis from breast cancer by maximal cytoreduction and HIPEC: a preliminary report on 5 cases.

Although peritoneal carcinomatosis from breast cancer is a rare event it frequently causes morbidity and mortality. Current literature provides scarce information on its management. We report outcomes in 5 patients (mean age 59.4 years) with peritoneal carcinomatosis from breast cancer treated with maximal cytoreduction and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) by the closed technique, at 40 °C for 1 h with cisplatin 75 mg/m(2). The primary breast cancer was a ductal carcinoma in 3 patients and a lobular carcinoma in 2. Mean peritoneal cancer index was 20.2. In 4 of the 5 patients surgery achieved macroscopic complete cytoreduction. One patient died of disease at 56 months, 4 are alive and disease-free at 13, 45, 74 and 128 months. These encouraging outcomes suggest that cytoreduction and HIPEC is a promising approach to offer to highly selected patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from breast cancer and that this approach merit investigation in a larger series.