Congenital intestinal malrotation presenting in octogenarians: a report of two cases.

Malrotation is part of a spectrum of small and large bowel positional and fixational abnormalities caused by the failure of the fetal intestine to complete a 270-degree rotation around the superior mesenteric artery axis. Rarely, it presents in the adult as a cause of acute small bowel obstruction. Chronic symptoms of malrotation in adults are subtle, and include intermittent abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. We present two cases of malrotation in octogenarian men presenting acutely with small bowel obstruction. Both patients were treated with emergency surgery. In one case the chronic symptoms resolved postoperatively. Malrotation and midgut volvulus should be considered as a rare differential diagnosis for small bowel obstruction in adults. Suspicions should be increased when there is a history of recurrent presentations with similar symptoms.

Massive bleeding from an arteriovenous malformation in the gastric fundus following gastric biopsy treated by embolisation.

A 60-year-old male was admitted with massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding following a gastric biopsy. Repeat gastroduodenoscopy failed to identify the source. Angiography identified bleeding from an arteriovenous malformation at the fundus of the stomach. This was controlled by embolisation.

Laparoscopic removal of an autoamputated ovarian cyst in an infant.

Ovarian cysts autoamputation is an extremely rare complication. All reported cases were removed by laparotomy. A successful laparoscopic removal is presented.

Ultrasound detection rate of childhood urolithiasis.

A retrospective study of 42 children with 45 proven urinary tract stones who had had intravenous urography (IVU), ultrasound examination and a plain abdominal X-ray (KUB) was undertaken in order to evaluate the prediction rate of each method. Ultrasound was more sensitive than KUB (91% vs 80%) in detecting stones. All renal stones were detected by ultrasound. KUB was superior to ultrasound in detecting ureteral stones (66.6% vs 55.5%). All stones were detected by the combination of ultrasound and KUB. Two renal radiolucent stones were missed by IVU. The results of this study suggest that the combination of ultrasound examination and KUB is more sensitive in detecting stones than IVU and is more convenient and less invasive.

Uncommon scintigraphic findings of multiple hepatic hemangiomas.

Tc-99m labeled red blood cell scintigraphy is a valuable, noninvasive technique for differentiating hepatic hemangioma from other lesions by demonstrating a "perfusion blood pool mismatch." The characteristic finding on dynamic CT scan of peripheral and subsequent central enhancement is not usually seen on Tc-99m RBC angiography, probably due to rapid mixing and dilution of the radionuclide and low resolution of the gamma camera. A case of multiple hepatic hemangioma is presented in which Tc-99m RBC dynamic angiography demonstrated peripheral enhancement with subsequent central filling. In addition, delayed static images showed more hepatic lesions.

Carotid angiography in a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.

The carotid angiographic studies performed in a teaching hospital (King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh) in Saudi Arabia were reviewed, and the incidence of lesions demonstrated was analysed. Intracranial tumours accounted for 50% of the lesions, with meningiomas being 40%, whilst arteriovenous malformations accounted for 5.9% of lesions. It was noted that the incidence of atherosclerosis and arteritis was low, and the examination was almost without complications. Some lesions supplied by vertebral arteries were missed. In view of this, vertebral angiography is advocated in those cases with suspected supratentorial tumour especially when the carotid angiograms are normal.

Horseshoe lung: differential diagnosis.

A detailed radiologic and anatomic study of one horseshoe lung syndrome has already been published from this centre. A further case of horseshoe lung, which was also diagnosed prospectively by radiology, is described. Alongside, this is a set of a group of three conditions: we describe a right accessory lung with a peculiar feeding arterial branch originating from the left basal pulmonary artery. The bronchogram and oesophagogram of this case were normal. The other is a case of bridging bronchus where the left lower lobe bronchus originates from the right main stem bronchus. This was discovered at post mortem bronchogram performed on a 19 weeks foetus. Finally, in the dog, we found that the pulmonary angiogram and bronchogram display close similarity to human horseshoe lung though the dog has two separate lungs. The common denominator of all above cases is the presence of a pulmonary arterial branch or bronchus crossing the midline from the ipsi to the contralateral side. Therefore, it may be concluded "in contradiction to the common belief" that pulmonary angiography or bronchography alone is not sufficient for the diagnosis of horseshoe lung. When only one of these investigations is available, computerized tomography is necessary to show the isthmic lung tissue before the diagnosis of horseshoe lung is confirmed.