Minimally invasive esophagectomy by video-assisted thoracoscopic approach for esophageal carcinoma. A case report.

Esophageal carcinoma represents a pathological entity with a bad prognosis even if adequate multimodal treatment is applied. Because of the high operative morbidity and mortality, due especially to respiratory and infectious complications, the tendency nowadays is to mobilize the thoracic esophagus and to perform esophagectomy and mediastinal lymphadenectomy by thoracoscopy instead of thoracotomy. We present the case of a 55-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with a mediothoracic esophageal spinocellular carcinoma, in whom we successfully performed subtotal esophagectomy by cervico-thoraco-abdominal approach, the dissection of the thoracic esophagus being performed entirely by thoracoscopy.

Laparoscopic resection of duodenal diverticulum. A case report.

We report the case of a laparoscopic resection of a symptomatic duodenal diverticulum. A 35 year old female with history of pain in the upper abdomen, nausea and regurgitation was diagnosed with a diverticulum of the second portion of the duodenum on the external border at upper gastrointestinal radiography. The diverticulum size was medium (2 cm in diameter). Under general anesthesia, a pneumoperitoneum was created. Four trocars were inserted into the peritoneal cavity for this intervention. After the sectioning of posterior parietal peritoneum on the external border of the second portion of duodenum, the diverticulum was dissected. The resection was performed with an endo-GIA linear stapler at the base of the diverticulum. One subhepatic drain was inserted. The operative time was 30 min. There were no intra- or postoperative complications. Postoperative gastrointestinal series revealed no signs of diverticulum or stenosis on the second portion of the duodenum. The patient was discharged in the fifth postoperative day after a normal course. The follow-up evaluation was normal.