Chylous ascites: analysis of 24 patients.

OBJECTIVES: Chylous ascites is the pathologic accumulation of lymphatic fluid in the peritoneal cavity. Patients who underwent surgery for gynecologic malignancy and had postoperative chylous ascites were evaluated retrospectively. METHODS: We reviewed 1514 patients who had staging surgery for gynecologic malignancy at our institution from January 2003 to February 2012. We analyze the patients who develop chylous ascites and who didn't. RESULTS: Twenty-four (2%) patients had postoperative chylous ascites. In the patients with chylous ascites, the median number of removed para-aortic lymph nodes was 26 (range 8-54), while this number was 17 (range 1-76) for the patients who didn't develop chylous ascites (p=0.001). Among the patients with chylous ascites, nine patients took chylous diet and 15 patients took TPN as the initial treatment. Totally seven (29%) patients required surgical correction, since 17 (71%) responded to conservative treatment. In the TPN group, the time from staging surgery to the diagnosis of chylous ascites was significantly longer in the group who required surgery compared with the group who did not (20 days vs 8 days, p:0.037). In addition this time wasn't statistically different from the patients' time in the diet group who didn't require surgery. CONCLUSION: The aggressiveness of para-aortic lymphadenectomy should be individualized and the lymphatics should be controlled with suture ligation or hemoclips, since the extent and method of para-aortic lymphadenectomy has a determinative role in the development of chylous ascites. It may be logical to treat chylous ascites with diet rather than TPN initially in case the symptoms occur later.

Removal of boron from aqueous solutions by batch adsorption on calcined alunite using experimental design.

In the present paper, boron removal from aqueous solutions by batch adsorption was investigated and 2(3) full factorial design was applied. Calcined alunite was used as adsorbent. In the study, three parameters affected the performance and two levels of these parameters were investigated. The chosen parameters were temperature (25 and 45 degrees C, respectively), pH (3 and 10) and mass of adsorbent (0.5 g adsorbent per 25 mL solution and 1g adsorbent per 25 mL solution). The significance of the effects was checked by analysis of variance (statistical software, MINITAB-Version 15). The model-function equation for boron adsorption on calcined alunite was obtained. The results showed that temperature, pH and mass of adsorbent affected boron removal by adsorption. Boron removal increased with increasing pH and adsorbent dosage, but decreased with increasing temperature. The optimum conditions were found as pH 10, adsorbent dosage=1g of calcined alunite per 25 mL solution and temperature=25 degrees C by using factorial design. In addition, the effects of parameters such as calcination temperature, pH, temperature, adsorbent dosage and initial boron concentration on boron removal were investigated. The adsorption isotherm studies were also performed. Maximum adsorbent capacity (q(0)) was calculated as 3.39 mg/g. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in free energy (DeltaG degrees), enthalpy (DeltaH degrees) and entropy (DeltaS degrees) were also determined.

Adsorption of boron from aqueous solutions using fly ash: batch and column studies.

In the present paper, boron removal from aqueous solutions by adsorption was investigated. Fly ash particle size used in adsorption experiments was between 250 and 400 microm. During the experimental part of this study, the effect of parameters such as pH, agitation time, initial boron concentration, temperature, adsorbent dosage and foreign ion on boron removal were observed. In addition, adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherm studies and column studies were made. Maximum boron removal was obtained at pH 2 and 25 degrees C. Thermodynamic parameters such as change in free energy (DeltaG degrees), enthalpy (DeltaH degrees), entropy (DeltaS degrees) were also determined. As a result of the kinetic studies, it was observed that the adsorption data conforms to the second degree kinetics model. In the isotherm studies, Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models were applied and it was determined that the experimental data conformed to Langmuir isotherm model. Batch adsorbent capacity (q(o)) was calculated as 20.9 mg/g. The capacity value for column study was obtained by graphical integration as 46.2 mg/g. The Thomas and the Yoon-Nelson models were applied to experimental data to predict the breakthrough curves and to determine the characteristics parameters of the column useful for process design.