Diagnostic performance of CT with Valsalva maneuver for the diagnosis and characterization of inguinal hernias.

PURPOSE: Inguinal hernias are mainly diagnosed clinically, but imaging can aid in equivocal cases or for treatment planning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of CT with Valsalva maneuver for the diagnosis and characterization of inguinal hernias. METHODS: This single-center retrospective study reviewed all consecutive Valsalva-CT studies between 2018 and 2019. A composite clinical reference standard including surgery was used. Three blinded, independent readers (readers 1-3) reviewed the CT images and scored the presence and type of inguinal hernia. A fourth reader measured hernia size. Interreader agreement was quantified with Krippendorff's α coefficients. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of Valsalva-CT for the detection of inguinal hernias was computed for each reader. RESULTS: The final study population included 351 patients (99 women) with median age 52.2 years (interquartile range (IQR), 47.2, 68.9). A total of 381 inguinal hernias were present in 221 patients. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 85.8%, 98.1%, and 91.5% for reader 1, 72.7%, 92.5%, and 81.8% for reader 2, and 68.2%, 96.3%, and 81.1% for reader 3. Hernia neck size was significantly larger in cases correctly detected by all three readers (19.0 mm, IQR 13, 25), compared to those missed by all readers (7.0 mm, IQR, 5, 9; p < 0.001). Interreader agreement was substantial (α = 0.723) for the diagnosis of hernia and moderate (α = 0.522) for the type of hernia. CONCLUSION: Valsalva-CT shows very high specificity and high accuracy for the diagnosis of inguinal hernia. Sensitivity is only moderate which is associated with missed smaller hernias.

Normal width of the linea alba, prevalence, and risk factors for diastasis recti abdominis in adults, a cross-sectional study.

AIM: The prevalence and definition of diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) is under debate. This retrospective cross-sectional study evaluated the interrectal distance and the prevalence of DRA in computed tomography (CT) in an asymptomatic population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients undergoing CT scans for suspected appendicitis or kidney stones from 01/2016 to 12/2018 were screened retrospectively to participate. A study population with equal distribution according to gender and age (18-90 years) was generated (n = 329 patients) and the interrectal distance was measured at six reference points. RESULTS: DRA (defined as > 2 cm at 3 cm above the umbilicus) was present in 57% of the population. The 80th percentile of the interrectal distance was 10 mm at the xiphoid (median 3 mm, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0-19 mm), 27 mm halfway from xiphoid to umbilicus (median 17 mm, 95% CI 0-39 mm), 34 mm at 3 cm above the umbilicus (median 22 mm, 95% CI 0-50 mm), 32 mm at the umbilicus (median 25 mm, 95% CI 0-45 mm), 25 mm at 2 cm below the umbilicus (median 14 mm, 95% CI 0-39 mm), and 4 mm halfway from umbilicus to pubic symphysis (median 0 mm, 95% CI 0-19 mm). In the multivariate analysis, higher age (p = 0.001), increased body mass index (p < 0.001), and parity (p < 0.037) were independent risk factors for DRA, while split xiphoid, tobacco abuse, and umbilical hernia were not. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of DRA is much higher than commonly estimated (57%). The IRD 3 cm above the umbilicus may be considered normal up to 34 mm. To avoid over-treatment, the definition of DRA should be revised.

Blurring the boundary between open abdomen treatment and ventral hernia repair.

PURPOSE: Therapeutic approaches for septic open abdomen treatment remain a major challenge with many uncertainties. The most convincing method is vacuum-assisted wound closure with mesh-mediated fascia traction with a protective plastic sheet placed on the viscera. As this plastic sheet and the mesh must be removed before final fascial closure, such a technique only allows temporary abdominal closure. This retrospective study analyzes the results of a modification of this technique allowing final abdominal closure using an anti-adhesive permeable polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) mesh. METHODS: The outcome of all consecutive patients with septic open abdomen treatment at one academic surgical department from January 2013 to June 2015 was retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Retrospectively, 57 severely ill consecutive patients with septic open abdomen treatment with a 30-day mortality of 26% and a 2-year mortality of 51% were included in the study. In 26 patients, no mesh was implanted; in 31 patients, mesh implantation was done at median third-look laparotomy, median 5 days postoperative. Re-laparotomies after mesh implantation (median n = 2) revealed anastomotic leakage in 16% but no new bowel fistula. In 40% of those patients who had mesh implantation, fascia closure was not achieved and the mesh was left in place in a bridging position avoiding planned ventral hernia. CONCLUSION: The application of an anti-adhesive PVDF mesh for fascia traction in vacuum-assisted wound closure of septic open abdomen is novel, versatile, and seems to be safe. It offers the highly relevant possibility for provisional and final abdominal closure.

Inguinal hernia repair in Switzerland.

PURPOSE: Inguinal hernia repair is one of the most common procedures in visceral surgery, and an important teaching operation for residents during their first years. A variety of surgical approaches is currently available, including open surgery with or without mesh and laparoscopic surgery. Here we assessed the current clinical practice for inguinal hernia surgery in Switzerland and the impact on training of surgical residents. METHODS: An anonymous online survey was performed among surgical clinics of the Swiss Society of Visceral Surgery (SSVS). RESULTS: The overall response rate was 51 %. Nearly all hernia repairs are performed with prosthetic material, and only 3.2 % of the procedures use no mesh. Overall, open surgery is used for 58.5 % of hernias and 41.5 % are operated laparoscopically. In laparoscopic surgery, TEP is the first choice. Overall, the Lichtenstein repair is the classical teaching operation performed by residents in 77.3 % of cases. In contrast to open surgery, laparoscopic hernia repair is not a training operation and residents perform only 9.7 % of laparoscopic hernia repairs. CONCLUSION: The survey confirms the use of prosthetic material as the standard, and the Lichtenstein repair as the first choice for primary inguinal hernia repair. The popularity of laparoscopic hernia surgery is increasing at the price of less teaching operations available for young residents.

Gallbladder perforation by absorbable spiral tacker.

INTRODUCTION: Mesh fixation with tacker systems is common in laparoscopic and open hernia repair. Complications due to absorbable tackers are rare and have not been described in the literature. However, we report a case of gallbladder erosion due to tacker dislocation. METHODS: An open hernia repair was performed using an intraperitoneal onlay mesh for a recurrent parastomal hernia after two previous mesh repairs in a 67-year-old patient. RESULTS: On postoperative day 2, the patient was reoperated because of a dislocated tacker that eroded and perforated the fundus region of the gallbladder. Putatively, tacker dislocation occurred owing to imbalanced traction forces. Initially, the mesh was fixed with absorbable tackers around the stoma on the right and transmuscular suture fixation was carried out on the left abdominal side. On revision surgery, tension forces to the right were therefore neutralised by additional transmuscular sutures on the right side. CONCLUSIONS: Absorbable tackers in open hernia repair provide a safe and effective mesh fixation if tension forces are carefully avoided.

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in acute cholecystitis: indication, technique, risk and outcome.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) has become the treatment of choice for symptomatic cholelithiasis. However, the laparoscopic approach has remained controversial for patients with acute cholecystitis (AC) because of technical difficulties that, compared with open cholecystectomy (OC), might lead to higher complication rates, particularly common bile duct (CBD) injuries and infection. METHODS: We reviewed recent clinical findings on feasibility, safety and potential benefits of LC in patients with AC. An electronic search using the PubMed and MEDLINE databases was performed using the terms laparoscopic cholecystectomy, open cholecystectomy and acute cholecystitis. Pertinent references from articles and books not identified by the search engines were also retrieved. Relevant surgical textbooks were also reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: The early laparoscopic approach has been shown to be technically feasible and at least equally as safe as the open approach. However, extensive inflammation, adhesions and consequent increased oozing can make laparoscopic dissection of Calot's triangle and recognition of the biliary anatomy hazardous and difficult. Therefore, conversion to OC remains an important treatment option to secure patient safety in such difficult conditions. The question of whether intraoperative cholangiography (IOC) should be used routinely or only selectively has never been resolved. Proponents for each side have put forward compelling arguments.

Trans- and retroperitoneal endoscopic adrenalectomy: experience in 26 consecutive adrenalectomies.

OBJECTIVE: To assess our current concept and results of transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy (TPLA) and retroperitoneal endoscopic adrenalectomy (ERA) for a variety of benign disorders of the adrenal glands. BACKGROUND DATA: According to the literature, minimal invasive adrenalectomy has shown to be a safe and effective surgical alternative to open adrenalectomy. Both, transperitoneal and retroperitoneal endoscopic minimal invasive access are currently used for surgical removal of benign adrenal tumors. There is still some debate about the indications and the access used for a minimal invasive approach. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Treatment and clinical outcome of all patients who underwent either transperitoneal laparoscopic or endoscopic retroperitoneal adrenalectomies for benign diseases from February 1997 to August 2002 were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: Twenty-six minimal invasive adrenalectomies were performed in 23 patients with a mean age of 57 years. Whereas 11 patients underwent unilateral right- sided ERA, unilateral TPLA was performed in 9 patients on the left side. Three patients had bilateral TPLA. The mean operating time for unilateral ERA and TPLA was 114 and 79 min, respectively. Bilateral TPLA was prolonged to 223 min operating time. There were only two minor postoperative complications. The mean hospital stay for unilateral TPLA, ERA and bilateral TPLA was 4.7, 5 and 6 days, respectively. There was no mortality. CONCLUSION: Both, ERA and TPLA are safe and clinically effective treatment modalities for benign disorders of the adrenal glands. We currently favor a transperitoneal laparoscopic approach for bilateral and left-sided adrenal tumors, whereas right-sided tumors <8 cm are removed by a retroperitoneal approach. Large right-sided tumors >8 cm are better removed by transperitoneal access.

Alterations on the 5' noncoding region of the BCL-6 gene are not correlated with BCL-6 protein expression in T cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas.

The BCL-6 proto-oncogene is expressed in germinal center B lymphocytes, in their neoplastic counterparts, and in a subpopulation of germinal center and perifollicular T lymphocytes. Rearrangements and/or mutations of the 5' noncoding region of the bcl-6 gene have been demonstrated in a large majority of diffuse large B cell lymphomas. Some, but not all, of these genetic alterations lead to dysregulation of the protein. Recently, anaplastic large cell lymphomas with T and null cell phenotypes, as well as T lymphoblastic lymphomas, have also been reported to exhibit immunoreactivity to the anti-BCL-6 antibody. We collected 33 T cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (T-NHLs) and analyzed their expression of the BCL-6 protein by immunohistochemistry and investigated the organization of the bcl-6 gene by Southern blot and single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP). The expression of BCL-6 was demonstrated in 37.5% of lymphoblastic (LBL), 40% of anaplastic large cell (ALCL), and 33% of peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCL). BCL-6-positive malignant cells exhibited the CD4+ or CD4+/CD8+ phenotype. The bcl-6 gene was in a germline configuration in all T-NHLs examined, and a mutation at the first exon-intron boundary region structure of the wild-type bcl-6 gene was detected in 3 of 12 PTCL. One case of PTCL with mutations of the 5' noncoding region expressed BCL-6. In conclusion, expression of the BCL-6 protein is demonstrable independently of bcl-6 alterations in T-NHLs. This further suggests that molecular mechanisms other than rearrangements and/or mutations of the 5' noncoding region of the bcl-6 gene can result in expression of the protein. Whether these lymphomas arose from T cells expressing BCL-6 or expressed BCL-6 as part of the malignant transformation process needs to be determined. Finally, structural alterations of bcl-6 are rare in T-NHLs, but mutations do occur in the 5' noncoding region. We suggest that expression of BCL-6 in T cells may facilitate lymphomagenesis by repressing critical cytokines and cell cycle regulators.

Effect of methylene blue on the disposition of ethanol.

The effect of methylene blue on the disposition of ethanol was studied in rats and humans. Methylene blue increased the metabolism of [(14)C]ethanol to (14)CO(2) in isolated hepatocytes and in intact rats by 75% and 30%, respectively. In healthy volunteers, methylene blue did not affect the pharmacokinetics of ethanol and did not alleviate the ethanol-induced NAD redox changes as reflected by the increase in the [lactate]/[pyruvate] ratio.

Hodgkin's disease-like lymphoproliferative disorders in patients with different underlying immunodeficiency states.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated lymphoproliferative diseases are a frequent occurrence in immunodeficient patients. Most commonly seen are polymorphic B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders and malignant B-cell lymphomas. Classical Hodgkin's disease (HD), however, is rare in these patients. In the present study, we attempted to characterize cases resembling HD in patients with a variety of underlying immunodeficiency states using clinical aspects, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and polymerase chain reaction. All of the six cases that we investigated presented clinically with B symptoms and a short, devastating course. Histologically, they showed a lymphocytic depletion and multiple cells that resembled HD and Reed-Sternberg cells. Many of those were atypical blast cells that stained positively for B-cell surface antigens, such as CD20 and CD79a, whereas others were of the typical HD and Reed-Sternberg phenotype. Another frequent finding, especially in the extranodal sites, was a perivascular arrangement of large blast cells intermingled with small lymphoid cells. All of the cases were EBV-associated (proved latent membrane protein-1 immunohistochemical analysis, EBV-encoded RNA in situ hybridization, and polymerase chain reaction for subtypes A and B), with a frequent coinfection of type A and B. This was in contrast to ordinary HD, which is characterized by single infection of only one strain, i.e., the subtype A in Western countries. Three cases showed clonal B-cell populations, at least at terminal stages of the disease. We describe a lymphoproliferative disorder in immunodeficient patients with features of HD that, in some respects, resembles an EBV-driven lymphoproliferative disorder seen in cases of fatal infectious mononucleosis. We conclude that clinical and pathologic features of these disorders might cause some problems for histologic differential diagnosis and might represent a separate entity of their own in immunodeficient patients.

[Oral non-Hodgkin lymphomas and Epstein-Barr virus]. / Orale non-Hodgkin lymphome und Epstein-Barr virus.

The oropharynx is the site of primary infection and further propagation of the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). From here, virus is shed to saliva and infects peripheral blood lymphocytes. Eight oral Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) were investigated for the presence of EBV both by immunohistochemistry for the latent membrane protein (LMP) and a PCR-strategy for general and subtype-specific viral sequences. All but one NHL turned out to be negative both by LMP and PCR. EBV general sequences and of the two viral subtypes A and B were found in an HIV-1+ patient. It is concluded that it is not the localisation which predetermines NHLs to EBV-positivity but merely the underlying disease (this study) or the type of tumour (previous studies).