Factors influencing prognosis in gastric cancer.

In a group of 322 patients with adenocarcinoma of the stomach, 158 underwent resection. The only 5 year survivors came from the resection group. Increasing age, lymph node metastases and increasing depth of invasion of the gastric wall were all adverse prognostic features. There was a high incidence (19%) of resected patients who had suture line involvement. In spite of this there were 5 year survivors among those patients with suture line involvement and also those with lymph node involvement. The judicious implementation of an aggressive resection policy will give patients with favourable tumours the chance of a 5 year cure without involving patients with widespread neoplasm in radical surgery. Patients who had undergone previous gastric surgery for any cause had an extremely bad prognosis. Improvement in 5 year survival rates in patients undergoing resection for gastric cancer could be attributed to the increase in the number of patients with early gastric cancer.

Hypercalcaemia. The case of the missing adenoma.

A case of severe hypercalcaemia is described. The biochemical picture strongly suggested primary hyperparathyroidism, yet no adenoma could be found in the neck or upper mediastinum. The tumour was eventually demonstrated by computerized tomographic scan and was removed at surgery from the posterior mediastinum beneath the arch of the aorta. Preoperative and postoperative problems of the case are discussed.

Long-term experience of Thomas shunts on the iliac vessels.

Thomas shunts have been utilized 24 times in 20 patients to provide secondary vascular access in an often poor-risk group of patients, including children. Twenty of the shunts were on the iliac vessels. Five shunts are in current use, the longest having been in situ for 83 months. Another 13 shunts provided access until renal transplantation or death of the patient. Six shunts developed deep infection which usually extended to the Dacron-arterial anastomosis; the management of these infected iliac shunts was difficult and hazardous. No definite advantage for the iliac placement of shunts has been established, and its use at this site cannot be recommended. Although the Thomas shunt can provide good long-term access, our experience suggests that its use should be limited to that of a "shunt of last resort".

Skin cancer in Caucasian renal allograft recipients living in a subtropical climate.

Between September, 1969, and December, 1978, 290 patients received 325 cadaveric renal allografts; 11 others transplanted elsewhere were also observed. Cancers developed in 28 patients (9.3%); 26 of these (93%) had skin cancers. The incidence of skin cancer increased by 5% annually after the first year of graft function, to a cumulative 44% in those surviving 9 years with functioning grafts. This represents an incidence of 4,356/100,000 person years of post-transplant risk--20.6 times the annual incidence of skin cancer in the general population of Southern Queensland. Half of the patients had multiple tumors when the first skin cancer was diagnosed, after a mean latent interval of 34 months. A total of 138 skin cancers occurred in 26 patients (average, 5.3 per patient), with a maximum of 19 in one individual. The ratio of basal to squamous cell carcinoma was reversed from 4:1, in the general population, to 1:1.7. Conventional surgical excision gave satisfactory results, with the one local recurrence being controlled by reexcision. Two patients (7%) died of melanoma and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma, respectively, whereas two of the other four patients who died from cancer had coincidental skin cancer. The two skin cancer deaths represent only 2% of all deaths in allograft recipients. These results suggest that the problem of skin cancer in these patients can be controlled and thus is not a significant contraindication to the continued clinical use of cadaveric renal transplantation.

Gastrointestinal complications following renal transplantation.

Gastrointestinal complications occurred in 19 of 290 recipients (6.6%) of the 325 cadaveric renal allografts undertaken between September 1969 and December 1978. The mortality was 42.1%. Upper gastrointestinal complications, principally haemorrhage, occurred in 12 patients (4.1%), 11 of whom were males, usually within four months of transplantation, and often associated with acute rejection and its treatment. Surgery was required in five patients. The overall mortality was 16.7%. Colonic complications occurred in five patients (1.7%), four of whom died, the absence of specific signs having led to a significant delay in diagnosis. One patient died from abdominal vascular disease, and one from carcinoma of the gallbladder. To decrease the high morbidity and mortality, both medical and appropriate surgical prophylaxis for peptic ulceration and diverticular disease are necessary, as is an awareness of the transplant recipient's propensity to develop a gastrointestinal complication at any time, up to years after transplantation. Early recognition and treatment of such complications are essential.

Further experience with an external ureterovesical anastomosis in renal transplantation.

Review of the results of the use of an external ureterovesical anastomosis in 266 renal transplantations showed that urinary fistulae occurred in 34 patients (12.8%), and ureteric obstruction in six (2.3%). The fistulae were due to technical failure of the anastomosis in 13 patients, to distal ureteric necrosis in 13, to total ureteric necrosis in six, and to other causes in two. Fistula management was successful in 26 cases (76.5%), but multiple operations were often necessary and wound complications frequent (41.2%). The continuing high incidence of urological complications following ureterovesical anastomosis has resulted in increasing use of ureteroneocystostomy as the primary form of urinary reconstruction after transplantation in this unit.

The use of an indwelling peritoneal catheter in the treatment of chronic renal failure.

Thirty-seven patients with end-stage renal failure were treated by dialysis by the peritoneal route, with a Tenckoff catheter. The basic regime was 30 2-litre exchanges twice a week. Two patients died while receiving peritoneal therapy, and 7 patients were transferred to haemodialysis because of catheter failure. Four patients received transplants directly from peritoneal dialysis, 22 were transferred electively to haemodialysis, and 2 are still being treated by peritoneal dialysis. Fourteen (1-2%) of the 1,161 dialyses were complicated by peritoneal infection. This was controlled in 13 instances by the addition of gentamicin to the dialysate, but removal of the catheter was required in one case. The mean duration of peritoneal dialysis was 14-4 weeks; 4 patients underwent this type of therapy for 78, 63, 41 and 40 weeks respectively.