[Inguinal hernia surgery. Review of a caseload and description of a technique variation]. / Chirurgia dell'ernia inguinale. Revisione casistica e presentazione di una variante tecnica.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy of the tension free surgical technique for the treatment inguinal hernia. METHODS: The authors propose personal experience of 172 patients, treated for inguinal hernia in the period from 1986 to 1993, selecting two patients groups. In the first group the patients (80 cases) were treated with traditional hernioplasty, in the second group (92 cases) hernioplasty tension-free was performed. RESULTS: In the first group 6 cases of recurrence (6.7%), have been observed and in the second group only one case. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained, and literature survey show the advantages of hernioplasty tension-free.

[Laparoscopic appendicectomy. Personal experience and results]. / L'appendicectomia per via laparoscopica. Esperienza personale e risultati.

The paper discusses the indications, limits and basic technical principles of laparoscopic appendicectomy, comparing the costs and benefits to the laparotomic method. The authors review the Literature on this subject and report their personal experience of 11 cases with a nil morbidity and mortality rate.

[The experience of an outpatient service of breast pathology. I. The diagnostic procedure for screening]. / Esperienza di un servizio ambulatoriale di patologia della mammella. Nota I: iter diagnostico per lo screening.

The authors underline the importance of correct screening in the female population in order to achieve as early a diagnosis as possibly of malignant breast tumours. In view of the high frequency of this neoplasia, as well as the encouraging results of numerous tested diagnostic protocols in terms of their positive influence on the progress of this disease, the authors prepared a screening protocol within a breast pathology service, and report the results achieved during the course of about seven years. Out of a total of 5000 patients aged between 30 and 90 years old, a total of 261 cases were diagnosed with pathologies requiring surgery with a 57.9% incidence of carcinoma, among which, in compliance with reports in the literature, a net predominance was found of initial stage tumours with diameter of less than 2 cm (58.3%).

[Cystic disease of the breast. Ten-year experience]. / Malattia cistica della mammella. Esperienza di dieci anni di attività.

Cystic breast disease is a relatively widespread pathological condition in the female sex, it has an incidence of around 7% and predominantly affects women aged between 40 and 50 years old. The authors report their experience based on the observation of 1046 cases taken from a series consisting of over 30,000 examinations. Patients were studied following a standardised diagnostic protocol including breast examination, breast scan and, depending on the patient's age or the presence of pathological findings, mammography. The protocol examines the distribution according to age, the number of cysts, their localization and diameter, as well as parameters concerning reproductive or sexual life, age at first pregnancy, the use of oral contraceptives, the number of abortions and menopausal status. Moreover, the efficacy of diagnostic tests, such as ecography, mammography, cytology and the assay of electrolytes using fine needle aspiration, was evaluated. The authors conclude that, when the patient follows a complete and valid diagnostic iter, breast cystic disease is an easily dominable pathology that can be simply controlled periodically without the need for therapeutic surgery.