[Biliary ileus: pros and cons of the most current diagnostic methods]. / Ancora sull'ileo biliare: luci e ombre delle metodiche diagnostiche più attuali.

The authors, on the basis of their recent experiences in treating biliary ileus, discuss diagnostic problems of serious side effects and talk about more recent diagnostic techniques. Above all ecography, CT, and Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiography are able to offer, in a lot of cases, a correct preoperative diagnosis. Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiography is a real progress even if it needs a more extensive use and, presents some doubts about its utility like all diagnostic techniques in biliary ileus.

[Benign giant ovarian cystadenoma. Description of a clinical case]. / Cistoadenoma benigno gigante dell'ovaio. Considerazione su di un caso clinico.

The authors describe a case of giant benign cystadenoma of the ovary in a 55 year old woman. The patient came to their observation complaining of severe abdominal pain which started right after she was treated with a paracentesis, because of the suspicion of cirrhosis with ascites. The authors briefly outline the two goals of the diagnostic strategy: the diagnosis of the disease and the diagnosis of the nature of the disease. They stress the utmost importance of ultrasound and computerized tomography scans in the diagnosis of disease. For the diagnosis of the nature of the disease the authors counted on Ca 125, CEA, LDH levels and on Ca 19.9 and ACE levels as well. The surgical management of abdominal mass, which is the only possible treatment, led to the removal of a 60 cm in diameter and 30 kg mucinous cystadenoma. After the viscera of the higher abdomen (liver and stomach) had been repositioned, a plastic closure of the enormously expanded anterior abdominal walls was performed.

[Gynecomastia in chronic renal insufficiency. Presentation of a clinical case]. / Ginecomastia in corso di insufficienca renale cronica. Presentazione di un caso clinico.

Gynecomastia may occur in men with chronic renal failure, developing in the course of complex endocrine abnormalities. It is often associated with aberration in the hypothalamo-pituitary-testicular axis even producing a severe hypogonadism. A case of monolateral gynecomastia in a hemodialyzed young man, without other clinical and endocrine signs, is described.

[Recurrence of Crohn disease, complicated by intestinal perforation, during pregnancy. Discussion of a clinical case]. / Morbo di Crohn riacutizzato nel corso della gravidanza e complicato da perforazione intestinale libera. Discussione di un caso clinico.

We describe a case of Crohn's disease which came up before pregnancy and which is responsible of an acute abdomen picture caused by intestinal reacutation and perforation to the 38th week of amenorrhea. The relations between the disease and the pregnancy state are analyzed from the clinical, diagnostic and therapeutical aspect.