Downstaging unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma by radioembolization using 90-yttrium resin microspheres: a single center experience.

BACKGROUND: Only one third of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma can benefit from curative treatments at the time of first diagnosis. Tumor downstaging by radioembolization may enable initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to be treated with surgery lengthening survival. METHODS: From June 2011 through June 2014, all patients with a first diagnosis of unresectable HCC with intrahepatic portal vein thrombosis were treated in our center with radioembolization using 90-yttrium resin microspheres. A 3-year enrollment period and a 5-year follow-up were planned to adequately investigate survivals. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients were enrolled, five were downstaged to surgery, eight did not reach downstaging but achieved partial response or stable disease, and eleven showed HCC progression despite radioembolization. High tumor absorbed radiation doses (454 vs. 248 and 138 Gy, P=0.005) and low serum AFP levels (53 vs. 1,447 and 4,603 ng/mL, P=0.05) were the variables significantly associated with successful downstaging. Mean and median survivals were 54, 30 and 11 months and 70, 24 and 11 months in the three groups respectively. No severe side effects were registered. CONCLUSIONS: In our center, about 20% of patients with locally advanced unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma were successfully downstaged to surgery after radioembolization. This strategy increases survival and is associated with an excellent safety profile.

Acute Pancreatitis After Percutaneous Biliary Drainage: An Obstacle in Liver Surgery for Proximal Biliary Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage (PTBD) has a crucial role in treatment of proximal biliary cancer (PBC). We assessed the incidence, risk factors, and impact of acute pancreatitis (AP) post-PTBD. METHODS: Forty patients with PBC scheduled for PTBD from January 2005 to December 2015 were enrolled. Exclusion criteria were missing clinical data, PTBD performed in other institutions, and palliative PTBD. RESULT: The 40 patients comprised 8 (20%) with gallbladder cancer, 6 (15%) with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and 26 (65%) with perihilar cholangiocarcinoma. A median of 1 PTBD procedure was performed per patient; 16 (40%) patients underwent PTBD more than once. PTBD was left-sided in 14 (35.0%) patients, right-sided in 21 (52.5%), and bilobar in 5(12.5%). Seventeen (42.5%) patients had one or more drainage-related complications. Five (12.5%) patients developed AP. A significantly higher percentage of patients with than without AP developed sepsis (60.0 vs. 11.4%, respectively) and did not undergo the planned liver resection [2 (40.0%) vs. 0 (0.0%), respectively]. Significantly more patients with than without AP underwent left-sided PTBD [10 (28.6%) vs. 4 (80.0%), respectively]. CONCLUSION: PTBD is frequently complicated by AP. AP plays a key role in the development of sepsis. Nearly half of patients with AP lose the opportunity for surgical treatment.

Disconnection of multilayer stents 2 years after treatment of a hepatic artery aneurysm.

PURPOSE: To report midterm failure of tandem peripheral multilayer stents used to treat a common hepatic artery aneurysm (HAA) that had a good early result. CASE REPORT: A 71-year-old man with multiple comorbidities had a 3.4-cm HAA treated with 2 Cardiatis peripheral multilayer stents (8×100 and 9×60 mm) that overlapped by 3 cm. At the 12-month follow-up, the stents were patent, with signs of collateral patency and full thrombosis of the aneurysm sac without expansion. At the 18-month visit, the sac had expanded to 4.5 cm without signs of revascularization, but there was an initial stent dislocation; a wait and watch approach was elected. On the 24-month imaging, the HAA had enlarged to 6 cm, with disconnection of the 2 stents. A new multilayer stent (9×100 mm) was positioned to "bridge" the gap; however, the proximal part of the new stent did not correctly expand despite multiple attempts to overcome the infolding. The 3 stents became completely thrombosed, but thanks to rich mesenteric collaterals, perfusion of the proper hepatic artery was adequate. CONCLUSION: The multilayer peripheral stent appears to be an alternative for the treatment of visceral aneurysms in patients with a high surgical risk, but it is not a conventional stent. There are unknowns about its function, behavior, and application. Therefore, more experience is needed to validate the effectiveness of the multilayer stent.

Discriminative hypomania checklist-32 factors in unipolar and bipolar major depressive patients.

BACKGROUND: Although manic or hypomanic episodes define bipolar disorder (BD), most patients show a predominance of depressive symptomatology, often associated with delayed or disregarded BD diagnosis. The Hypomania Checklist-32 (HCL-32) has therefore been developed and tested internationally to facilitate BD recognition. SAMPLING AND METHODS: Five hundred seventy-one (563 eligible) patients diagnosed with a major depressive episode according to DSM-IV criteria were consecutively enrolled in a cross-sectional, multicenter, observational study (Come To Me). Lifetime manic or hypomanic features were assessed by the HCL-32, and severity of depressive and anxious symptomatology was assessed using the Zung's self-report questionnaires for depression and anxiety. RESULTS: Among the patients diagnosed with BD (n = 119), either type I or type II, the occurrence of (hypo)manic symptoms was significantly higher compared to major depressive disorder (MDD) symptoms according to HCL-32 total and subscale scores obtained using a score of 14, which ensured an optimal discrimination between BD and MDD with a sensitivity of 0.85 and a specificity of 0.78. CONCLUSIONS: Although some false positives might occur, the HCL-32 was confirmed to be a useful instrument in the detection of past hypomania in MDD patients, finally contributing to proper therapeutic choices.

Symptomatic aneurysm of a perforating peroneal artery after a blunt trauma.

A 48-year-old woman was referred to us for a pulsatile and painful mass on the right leg after a trauma occurred 2 months earlier. The duplex scan revealed the presence of an aneurysm of the perforating peroneal artery. The patient underwent an endovascular coil embolization of the aneurysm. The duplex-scan follow-up showed the patency of the peroneal vessel and the complete aneurysm thrombosis. The patient was discharged in good condition without pain. In literature, only four cases of aneurysm of perforating peroneal artery aneurysm, all with a clear traumatic etiology, are reported. In this case, the endovascular treatment was safe and effective.

Visceral artery aneurysms, an experience on 32 cases in a single center: treatment from surgery to multilayer stent.

Between 2000 and 2010, 32 patients (17 males; mean age: 64.7 [range: 18-85] years) with visceral artery aneurysms (VAAs) were treated in our center. The site of aneurysmal disease was: splenic artery (18), hepatic artery (5), superior mesenteric artery (3), pancreaticoduodenal artery (3), celiac axis (2), and gastroduodenal (1). Six patients (18.75%) presented with an aneurysm rupture. Nine cases received an endovascular treatment. Primary technical success was achieved in six patients. Failures included one case of immediate stent occlusion, one stent migration, and one failed attempt of embolization. In 24 cases, the surgical treatment was performed successfully. The total survival rate was 90.6% (in urgency: 75%; in election: 95.8%). A follow-up period of 34.7 months (range: 2-117 months) showed good results. Because of the potential risk of rupture, VAAs should be treated. A new endovascular technology based on a multilayer stent could provide us with a new alternative to VAA treatment, guaranteeing both aneurysmatic sac thrombosis and the correct perfusion of the organs. However, this new technology is not suitable for all aneurysms and requires a specific training and learning curve. In subjects with a low surgical risk, surgery guarantees a definitive and long-lasting repair with a good organ perfusion.

Endovascular treatment of a symptomatic mycotic aneurysm of the peroneal artery.

A 69-year-old man was referred to our facility owing to the sudden onset of a compression-like pain in the right leg, without limb-threatening acute ischemia. The duplex scan examination, followed by a selective leg angiography, showed the presence of a peroneal artery aneurysm. A diagnosis of mycotic aneurysm was made on the basis of the patient's clinical condition, positive blood cultures, and the unusual location of the lesion. Endovascular repair was performed by using a coil embolization and covered stent release. The patient was discharged in good general condition with complete pain relief. In previously published data, only four cases of peroneal artery aneurysm with a mycotic etiology have been reported. In this case, the endovascular treatment was safe and resolutive.

Aneurysm of the aberrant right subclavian artery: surgical and hybrid repair of two cases in a single center.

The aberrant right subclavian artery (ARSA) aneurysm is rare; however, the risk of rupture and thromboembolism is high, with a postrupture mortality rate of 50%. In this report, we have described two cases of this anomaly. In the first case, a 62-year-old male patient presented with a symptomatic aneurysm of ARSA (maximum diameter of 4 cm) causing chest pain with dyspnea during moderate physical effort. Surgical treatment was performed with aneurysmal exclusion and direct anastomosis of the two heads of the subclavian artery. In the second case, a 72-year-old male patient presented with a symptomatic aneurysm (maximum diameter of 5.1 cm) of ARSA causing dysphagia and dysphonia. In this case, a one-stage hybrid treatment was performed: a bilateral carotid-subclavian bypass was associated with intentional occlusion of both subclavian arteries (by plug positioning) during thoracic endovascular stent-grafting procedures. In both cases, the peri/postoperative course was uneventful and the technical results in our series were excellent at long-term follow-up. Surgical treatment can be safely performed in patients with low operative risk or whenever endovascular technique is not suitable. The ARSA aneurysm, with appropriate anatomy, can be successfully treated by hybrid treatment (combined surgical and endovascular approach). We reckon that this minimally invasive technique helps avoid thoracotomy and could be the treatment of choice in high-risk patients.

Prevalence and diagnostic distribution of medically unexplained painful somatic symptoms across 571 major depressed outpatients.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence and distribution of medically unexplained painful somatic symptoms (PSSs) versus nonpainful somatic symptoms (NPSSs) in patients diagnosed with major depressive episode (MDE). METHOD: A total of 571 outpatients diagnosed with MDE according to DSM-IV-TR criteria were consecutively enrolled into a cross-sectional, multicentric, observational study over a period of 7 months. Subjects were evaluated by means of the ad hoc validated 30-item Somatic Symptoms Checklist (SSCL-30) and Zung's questionnaires for depression and anxiety. The 32-item Hypomania Checklist (HCL-32) was also administered in order to explore any eventual association of PSSs or NPSSs with sub-threshold (DSM-IV-TR [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision] not recognized) bipolar disorder (BD). RESULTS: In our sample, just 183 patients (32%) did not report painful somatic symptoms (NPSSs). Of these, 90 patients (15.76%) had no somatic symptoms at all. The remaining 388 (68%) had at least one PSS being subdivided as follows: 248 (43%) had one or two PSSs, while 140 (25%) experienced two or more. Patients with at least one PSS also reported a greater number of nonpainful somatic symptoms than NPSS. Bipolar patients (associated with higher HCL-32 scores) were less represented across PSS cases than NPSS subjects. Conversely, females were more prone to having a higher number of total somatic symptoms (and bipolar features). CONCLUSION: PSSs are common in patients with MDE, especially among those patients reporting fewer somatic symptoms in general as opposed to those patients who exhibit more somatic symptoms (both PSSs and NPSSs) with lower relative number of PSSs. A major therapeutic implication is that antidepressant monotherapy could be used with more confidence in unexplained PSS patients than in NPSS patients because of the latter group's lower frequency of (sub)-threshold bipolar features.

Parkes-Weber syndrome and giant superficial femoral artery aneurysm. Treatment by endovascular therapy and follow-up of 8 years.

Congenital vascular malformations represent a wide number of diseases with a great variability of clinical features. The association between congenital vascular malformations and peripheral aneurysms is very rare. The present study reports a case of giant superficial femoral artery aneurysm (7-cm-long) associated with Parkes-Weber syndrome (capillary malformation, multiple arteriovenous fistulas [AVFs], skeletal hypertrophy of the affected limb) treated by positioning two covered self-expandable endoprostheses after embolization of AVFs with Gianturco coils. The peri- and postoperative course was uneventful and the postprocedural angiography showed the complete exclusion of the aneurysm sac. At last follow-up, after 87 months, the duplex scan and computed tomography scan showed regular patency of the vessels with thrombosis of the aneurysm sac and the presence of a large number of AVFs. The association between Parkes-Weber syndrome and peripheral aneurysms represents a very unusual entity. The lack of evidence does not allow the establishment of the most suitable treatment for this disease. Endovascular approach associated with previous embolization of AVFs may represent a valid alternative to traditional surgical repair, which is still burdened by a high percentage of complications and failures.

[Wunderlich syndrome. Clinical and therapeutic aspects of a long-term experience]. / Sindrome di Wunderlich. Aspetti clinici e terapeutici di una esperienza pluriennale.

INTRODUCTION: Wunderlich's syndrome is defined as a clinical manifestation secondary to sudden spontaneous rupture of renal parenchyma in the absence of injury, resulting in hemoretroperitoneum. This syndrome may occur in patients with benign or malignant neoplasm of the kidney, arterial venous fistulae, immunovasculitis and other phlogosis of the kidney. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We present 19 cases of acute spontaneous hemoretroperitoneum or Wunderlich's syndrome diagnosed from 1996 to 2009, related to the following conditions: 7 renal carcinomas, 4 angiomyolipomas, 2 adrenal hemorrhages, 1 bleeding polycystic kidney, 2 hemorrhagic renal cysts and three cases of immunovasculitis. Overall, 6 patients were treated with acetylsalicylic acid and 4 with dicumarolics for cardiovascular disease, while 13 patients were suffering from hypertension? RESULTS: In 19 cases there was no mortality and the following treatment was performed: 11 nephrectomy, 4 partial nephrectomy, 2 adrenalectomy, 2 selective embolization of intrarenal branches as single treatment, while in three other cases, the embolization was carried out from a surgical procedure, conservative (partial nephrectomy) in one case, ablative (nephrectomy) in two other cases. CONCLUSIONS: The spontaneous hemoretroperitoneum is a rare syndrome associated with acute kidney disease often unknown to the patient and only in selected cases with small hematoma; it is possible to perform arteriography with selective embolization of branches avoiding renal access surgery. So far, it is unknown to which extent anti-platelet and anticoagulant drug treatment contributes to this syndrome but, in our experience, they have increased the morbidity of the clinical condition.

Interventional treatment of iatrogenic lesions and hepatic arteries.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the angiographic findings and the results of interventional treatment in iatrogenic lesions of the hepatic artery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twelve patients (6 men and 6 women), aged 46 to 75 years (mean age 56.3 years), with acute hepatic bleeding secondary to percutaneous, surgical or laparoscopic procedures, were diagnosed using angiography and treated with endovascular percutaneous procedures. RESULTS: Angiography revealed 7 pseudoaneurysms, 3 arterial lacerations, 1 arterio-portal fistula e 1 arterio-biliary fistula that were treated by Trans-catheter Arterial Embolization (TAE) (n=11) and stentgraft placement (n=1). Only one patient had a relapse two days after TAE and died of haemorrhagic shock. The other patients had a benign clinical course with an average follow-up of 9.6 months. CONCLUSIONS: Interventional radiological procedures are effective in the management of iatrogenic lesions of the hepatic arterial vessels since they are minimally invasive, have a high success rate, and a low incidence of complications compared to the more complex and dangerous surgical or laparoscopic options.

Nonoperative management of iatrogenic lesions of celiac branches by using transcatheter arterial embolization.

We present our experience in the nonoperative management of iatrogenic lesions of celiac branches by using transcatheter arterial embolization. We treated 6 pseudoaneurysms (5 intrahepatic and 1 of the gastroduodenal artery), 6 vessel lacerations (1 common hepatic artery, 1 right hepatic artery, 1 gastroduodenal artery, 2 pancreatoduodenal, 1 polar intrasplenic artery), 1 arterioportal fistula, and 1 arteriobiliary fistula; all the bleeding lesions were secondary to surgical, endoscopic, or interventional radiologic procedures.