Synchronous colorectal neoplasias: our experience about laparoscopic-TEM combined treatment.

Synchronous colorectal neoplasias are defined as 2 or more primary tumors identified in the same patient and at the same time. The most voluminous synchronous cancer is called "first primitive" or "index" cancer. The aim of this work is to describe our experience of minimally invasive approach in patients with synchronous colorectal neoplasias.Since January 2001 till December 2009, 557 patients underwent colectomy for colorectal cancer at the Department of General and Emergency Surgery of the University of Perugia; 128 were right colon cancers, 195 were left colon cancers while 234 patients were affected by rectal cancers. We performed 224 laparoscopic colectomies (112 right, 67 left colectomies and 45 anterior resections of rectum), 91 Transanal Endoscopic Microsurgical Excisions (TEM) and 53 Trans Anal Excisions (TAE). In the same observation period 6 patients, 4 males and 2 females, were diagnosed with synchronous colorectal neoplasias. Minimal invasive treatment of colorectal cancer offers the opportunity to treat two different neoplastic lesions at the same time, with a shorter post-operative hospitalization and minor complications. According to our experience, laparoscopy and TEM may ease the treatment of synchronous diseases with a lower morbidity rate.

Efficacy of surgery and imatinib mesylate in the treatment of advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor: a systematic review.

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: In patients with localized gastrointestinal stromal tumors, surgery remains the elective treatment. Nowadays, imatinib therapy has been standardized in advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors, showing continuous improvements in progression-free and overall survival. A combination of imatinib therapy and surgery may also be effective in a subset of patients with metastatic or unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors. In this review, the authors analyzed the role of imatinib mesylate associated to surgery in unresectable and/or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: We searched for all published and unpublished randomized controlled clinical trials and controlled clinical trials. We conducted the review according to the recommendations of The Cochrane Collaboration. We used Review Manager 5 software for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: There are currently no randomized controlled clinical trials or controlled clinical trials on this issue. We performed a subgroup analysis in the patients preoperatively treated with imatinib mesylate. This subgroup revealed a minor incidence of recurrent or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors and a greater incidence of locally unresectable gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the responsive disease group (P = 0.001). In this patient group, more complete resections were observed (P = 0.00001). Furthermore, in the same patient group we observed a more significant 12 and 24-month disease-free survival after imatinib treatment and complete resection (respectively P= 0.06 and P= 0.003) and also a better 24-month overall survival (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: There is actually only one ongoing European randomized study evaluating surgery of residual disease in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors responding to imatinib mesylate. Imatinib mesylate represents the standard treatment as preoperative supplement for locally unresectable and/or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and a trial to compare the approach versus surgery alone is not necessary. For patients responding to imatinib or patients with prolonged stable disease, resection of residual disease should be considered. A phase III randomized study evaluating surgery of residual disease in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor responding to imatinib mesylate, EORTC 62063, has been opened. Moreover, surgery should be considered for patients at higher risk of complications during pharmacological debulking. In advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors, the advantages of the integrated treatment are significant in the complete or partial response disease group in terms of more complete resections and better disease-free and overall survival.

The sigmoid volvulus: surgical timing and mortality for different clinical types.

BACKGROUND: In western countries intestinal obstruction caused by sigmoid volvulus is rare and its mortality remains significant in patients with late diagnosis. The aim of this work is to assess what is the correct surgical timing and how the prognosis changes for the different clinical types. METHODS: We realized a retrospective clinical study including all the patients treated for sigmoid volvulus in the Department of General Surgery, St Maria Hospital, Terni, from January 1996 till January 2009. We selected 23 patients and divided them in 2 groups on the basis of the clinical onset: patients with clear clinical signs of obstruction and patients with subocclusive symptoms. We focused on 30-day postoperative mortality in relation to the surgical timing and procedure performed for each group. RESULTS: In the obstruction group mortality rate was 44% and it concerned only the patients who had clinical signs and symptoms of peritonitis and that were treated with a sigmoid resection (57%). Conversely none of the patients treated with intestinal derotation and colopexy died. In the subocclusive group mortality was 35% and it increased up to 50% in those patients with a late diagnosis who underwent a sigmoid resection. CONCLUSIONS: The mortality of patients affected by sigmoid volvulus is related to the disease stage, prompt surgical timing, functional status of the patient and his collaboration with the clinicians in the pre-operative decision making process. Mortality is higher in both obstructed patients with generalized peritonitis and patients affected by subocclusion with late diagnosis and surgical treatment; in both scenarios a Hartmann's procedure is the proper operation to be considered.

Emergency treatment of complicated incisional hernias: a case study.

BACKGROUND: The emergency treatment of incisional hernias is infrequent but it can be complicated with strangulation or obstruction and in some cases the surgical approach may also include an intestinal resection with the possibility of peritoneal contamination. Our study aims at reporting our experience in the emergency treatment of complicated incisional hernias. METHODS: Since January 1999 till July 2008, 89 patients (55 males and 34 females) were treated for complicated incisional hernias in emergency. The patients were divided in two groups: Group I consisting of 33 patients that were treated with prosthesis apposition and Group II, consisting of 56 patients that were treated by performing a direct abdominal wall muscles suture. RESULTS: All the patients underwent a 6-month follow up; we noticed 9 recurrences (9/56, 16%) in the patients treated with direct abdominal wall muscles suture and 1 recurrence (1/33, 3%) in the group of patients treated with the prosthesis apposition. CONCLUSIONS: According to our experience, the emergency treatment of complicated incisional hernias through prosthesis apposition is always feasible and ensures less post-operative complications (16% vs 21,2%) and recurrences (3% vs 16%) compared to the patients treated with direct muscular suture.

Fibrin glue in the treatment of anal fistula: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: New sphincter-saving approaches have been applied in the treatment of perianal fistula in order to avoid the risk of fecal incontinence. Among them, the fibrin glue technique is popular because of its simplicity and repeatability. The aim of this review is to compare the fibrin glue application to surgery alone, considering the healing and complication rates. METHODS: We performed a systematic review searching for published randomized and controlled clinical trials without any language restriction by using electronic databases. All these studies were assessed as to whether they compared conventional surgical treatment versus fibrin glue treatment in patients with anal fistulas, in order to establish both the efficacy and safety of each treatment. We used Review Manager 5 to conduct the review. RESULTS: The healing rate is higher in those patients who underwent the conventional surgical treatment (P = 0,68), although the treatment with fibrin glue gives no evidence of anal incontinence (P = 0,08). Furthermore two subgroup analyses were performed: fibrin glue in combination with intra-adhesive antibiotics versus fibrin glue alone and anal fistula plug versus fibrin glue. In the first subgroup there were not differences in healing (P = 0,65). Whereas in the second subgroup analysis the healing rate is statistically significant for the patients who underwent the anal fistula plug treatment instead of the fibrin glue treatment (P = 0,02). CONCLUSION: In literature there are only two randomized controlled trials comparing the conventional surgical management versus the fibrin glue treatment in patients with anal fistulas. Although from our statistical analysis we cannot find any statistically significant result, the healing rate remains higher in patients who underwent the conventional surgical treatment (P = 0,68), and the anal incontinence rate is very low in the fibrin glue treatment group (P = 0,08). Anyway the limited collected data do not support the use of fibrin glue. Moreover, in our subgroup analysis the use of fibrin glue in combination with intra-adhesive antibiotics does not improve the healing rate (P = 0.65), whereas the anal fistula plug treatment compared to the fibrin glue treatment shows good results (P = 0,02), although the poor number of patients treated does not lead to any statistically evident conclusion. This systematic review underlines the need of new RCTs upon this issue.

A severe case of hemobilia and biliary fistula following an open urgent cholecystectomy.

BACKGROUND: Cholecystectomy has been the treatment of choice for symptomatic gallstones, but remains the greatest source of post-operative biliary injuries. Laparoscopic approach has been recently preferred because of short hospitalisation and low morbidity but has an higher incidence of biliary leakages and bile duct injuries than open one due to a technical error or misinterpretation of the anatomy. Even open cholecystectomy presents a small number of complications especially if it was performed in urgency. Hemobilia is one of the most common cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding from the biliary ducts into the gastrointestinal tract due to trauma, advent of invasive procedures such as percutaneous liver biopsy, transhepatic cholangiography, and biliary drainage. METHODS: We report here a case of massive hemobilia in a 60-year-old man who underwent an urgent open cholecystectomy and a subsequent placement of a transhepatic biliary drainage. CONCLUSION: The management of these complications enclose endoscopic, percutaneous and surgical therapies. After a diagnosis of biliary fistula, it's most important to assess the adequacy of bile drainage to determine a controlled fistula and to avoid bile collection and peritonitis. Transarterial embolization is the first line of intervention to stop hemobilia while surgical intervention should be considered if embolization fails or is contraindicated.

Virtual colonoscopy in stenosing colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Between 5 and 10% of the patients undergoing a colonoscopy cannot have a complete procedure mainly due to stenosing neoplastic lesion of rectum or distal colon. Nevertheless the elective surgical treatment concerning the stenosis is to be performed after the pre-operative assessment of the colonic segments upstream the cancer. The aim of this study is to illustrate our experience with the Computed Tomographic Colonography (CTC) for the pre-operative assessment of the entire colon in the patients with stenosing colorectal cancers. METHODS: From January 2005 till March 2009, we observed and treated surgically 43 patients with stenosing colorectal neoplastic lesions. All patients did not tolerate the pre-operative colonoscopy. For this reason they underwent a pre-operative CTC in order to have a complete assessment of the entire colon. All patients underwent a follow-up colonoscopy 3 months after the surgical treatment. The CTC results were compared with both macroscopic examination of the specimen and the follow-up coloscopy. RESULTS: The pre-operative CTC showed four synchronous lesions in four patients (9.3% of the cases). The macroscopic examination of the specimen revealed three small sessile polyps (3-4 mm in diameter) missed in the pre-operative assessment near the stenosing colorectal cancer. The follow-up colonoscopy showed four additional sessile polyps with a diameter between 3-11 mm in three patients. Our experience shows that CTC has a sensitivity of 83,7%. CONCLUSION: In patients with stenosing colonic lesions, CTC allows to assess the entire colon pre-operatively avoiding the need of an intraoperative colonoscopy. More synchronous lesions are detected and treated at the time of the elective surgery for the stenosing cancer avoiding further surgery later on.

Gastric adenocarcinoma cutaneous metastasis arising at a previous surgical drain site: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Skin metastasis from internal carcinoma rarely occurs. It has an incidence of 0.7 to 9% and it may be the first sign of an unknown malignancy. However, it can also occur during follow-up. CASE PRESENTATION: A 90-year-old female patient was admitted to our surgical division with a diagnosis of anemia from a bleeding gastric adenocarcinoma. She underwent a gastric resection and Billroth II retrocolic Hofmeister/Finsterer reconstruction. She developed an enteric fistula, which needed a permanent abdominal drain until the 60th postoperative day. After 12 months she was readmitted to our division with subacute small bowel obstruction and an erythematous swelling on the right side of the abdomen. Biopsies characterized it as a cutaneous metastasis from the gastric adenocarcinoma. No surgical therapy was performed given her poor clinical condition. CONCLUSION: Skin metastasis from carcinomas of the upper gastrointestinal tract is very rare. Persisting erythematous nodules must be biopsied in order to diagnose cutaneous metastases and to recognize them early and start prompt therapy with anti-tumour agents before the occurrence of massive visceral metastases.

Feasibility of laparoscopy for small bowel obstruction.

BACKGROUND: Adherential pathology is the most common cause of small bowel obstruction. Laparoscopy in small bowel obstruction does not have a clear role yet; surely it doesn't always represent only a therapeutic act, but it is always a diagnostic act, which doesn't interfere with abdominal wall integrity. METHODS: We performed a review without any language restrictions considering international literature indexed from 1980 to 2007 in Medline, Embase and Cochrane Library. We analyzed the reference lists of the key manuscripts. We also added a review based on international non-indexed sources. RESULTS: The feasibility of diagnostic laparoscopy is high (60-100%), while that of therapeutic laparoscopy is low (40-88%). The frequency of laparotomic conversions is variable ranging from 0 to 52%, depending on patient selection and surgical skill. The first cause of laparotomic conversion is a difficult exposition and treatment of band adhesions. The incidence of laparotomic conversions is major in patients with anterior peritoneal band adhesions. Other main causes for laparotomic conversion are the presence of bowel necrosis and accidental enterotomies. The predictive factors for successful laparoscopic adhesiolysis are: number of previous laparotomies