Outcomes after stenting for malignant large bowel obstruction without radiologist support.

AIM: To assess outcomes after colonic stent insertion for obstructing colorectal malignancies performed by an endoscopist without radiologist support. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of all stents inserted by a single surgeon in a District General Hospital over an eight year period. All stents were inserted for patients with acute large bowel obstruction secondary to a malignant colorectal pathology either for palliation or as a bridge to surgery. Procedures were performed by a single surgeon endoscopically with fluoroscopic control in the X-ray department but without the support of an interventional radiologist. Data was collected prospectively on a pre-designed database. RESULTS: The indication for all stent procedures was an obstructing colorectal malignancy. Out of 53 patients, the overall success rate was 90.6%. Eight patients had a stent intended as a bridge to surgery and 45 as a palliative procedure. Technical success was achieved in 50 out of 53 procedures (94.3%) and clinical success in 48 of those remaining 50 (96.0%). Those with unsuccessful technical or clinical procedures went on to have defunctioning stomas to treat their obstruction. There were six complications from the technically successful stents (12.0%). These included one migration, one persisting obstructive symptoms and four cases of tumour overgrowth of the stents at a later date. Haemorrhagic complications, perforation or mortality were not observed in our series. Our results are comparable to several other studies assessing stent outcomes for obstructing bowel cancer. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests that colorectal stents can be inserted without radiologist support by an adequately trained individual with good outcomes.

Review of Cisplatin and Oxaliplatin in Current Immunogenic and Monoclonal Antibodies Perspective.

Platinum-based chemotherapy made a paradigm shift in the treatment of different cancers initially; however, the success of these agents may have reached the peak as researchers have tried different combination regimes in different trials without having major differences in the end results. New frontiers of research were opened up firstly with this discovery that conventional chemo-radiation therapy can induce immunological cell death by recruiting high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) protein which triggers the T cell immunity and secondly monoclonal antibodies agents which were regrettably not effective as "monotherapy"; however, the combination with conventional chemotherapy had demonstrated good results. Different monoclonal antibodies and conventional chemotherapeutic combination regimes are currently in use and researchers are trying different other combinations as well to glean the maximum benefits from them. Several strategies conferring resistance to platinum compounds have been identified, but there is still significant research required to achieve full understanding of these resistance mechanisms to overcome the ineffectiveness or toxicities of platinum compounds. It seems reasonable in the current perspective when conventional chemotherapeutic agents exhibited immunogenic cell death and they are currently in use with monoclonal antibodies to revisit the platinum agent's pharmacology. This may discover new basis for combination chemotherapy with monoclonal antibodies which may improve the current cancer treatments by opening new vistas for newer combination regimes with less toxicity and better efficacy. In this article we review the pharmacologies of both cisplatin and oxaliplatin in the drug development perspectives and explore the possible association of these drugs with monoclonal antibodies.

Giant colonic lipoma presenting with intermittent intestinal obstruction.

Lipomas of gastrointestinal (GI) tract are the common benign tumours. They are usually small and asymptomatic; however, large colonic lipoma is a rare tumour and may cause intestinal obstruction. A similar rare case of large lipoma, treated with laparoscopic right hemicolectomy, is reported here.

Upper gastrointestinal bleeding: gallstone-induced auto-sphincterotomy.

A 67-year-old gentleman with no significant medical history of note presented with sudden onset of epigastric pain, coffee ground vomiting and passing black tarry stool. A series of investigations including blood tests, ultrasound scan, CT abdomen and pelvis with contrast and endoscopy failed to reveal any site of active bleeding. The mystery remained and the patient continued to have upper gastrointestinal bleeding. A second CT abdomen and pelvis with contrast was carried out and showed evidence of contrast extravasation into the duodenum (figure 3). An exploratory laparotomy showed no obvious site of haemorrhage and a loop jejunostomy was performed. The diagnosis of gallstone-induced auto-sphincterotomy was only made, using gastroscope via jejunostomy, when a big gallstone was found in the third part of the duodenum and the papilla was ruptured (figure 5).

Duodenal gastric metaplasia and Helicobacter pylori infection in high and low duodenal ulcer-prevalent areas in India.

BACKGROUND: Previous reports, based on surgery, showed duodenal ulcer (DU) to be more common in the rice-eating areas of southern India than in the northern wheat-eating areas. AIMS: Does this difference persist? Can it be explained by risk factors other than diet? METHODS: A total of 20 053 records from patients undergoing endoscopy for dyspepsia, and 590 endoscopy patients from two northern and two southern centers in India were studied prospectively. Records were scrutinized to determine the relative incidence of DU and non-ulcer dyspepsia in wheat- and rice-eating areas. Age, sex, length of history, smoking and medication were recorded. Three antral biopsies and one from each duodenal quadrant were taken. A rapid urease test was carried out on one of the antral biopsies; the others were examined for Helicobacter pylori, gastritis, duodenitis and duodenal gastric metaplasia. RESULTS: The difference in diet-associated prevalence persisted. No differences in smoking, Helicobacter pylori infection or duodenal gastric metaplasia were found between the two regions, but all three were more common in DU than in non-ulcer dyspeptic patients from both dietary areas. CONCLUSIONS: The dietary differences between the regions remain the only factor to account for the differences in DU prevalence. A strong interrelationship between duodenal gastric metaplasia and cigarette smoking is demonstrated.