[The Caroli's disease. Report of 16 cases]. / La maladie de caroli. A propos de 16 cas.

BACKGROUND: Caroli's disease is a congenital dilatation of the intrahepatic biliary duct. AIM: To analyse and discuss diagnostic and therapeutics difficulties through 16 patients with Caroli's disease. METHODS: Between January 1990 and September 2010, 16 patients underwent surgical procedure for Caroli's disease. Data recorded for each patient included clinical symptoms, biologic findings, previous biliary procedures, and the presenting symptoms. The distribution of the biliary lesions, the surgical procedure and the postoperative outcomes and follow up were detailed. RESULTS: The mean age was 55 years. The mean interval between the first symptoms and diagnosis was 27 months. Five of 16 patients had undergone 12 surgical or endoscopic procedures prior to liver resection. Before the definitive diagnosis, 9 patients presented 15 episodes of acute cholangitis. The diagnosis was established preoperatively in 13 cases, 5 among them underwent previous biliary surgical procedures. The diagnosis was documented peroperatively in 2 cases and postoperatively in 1 case. The distribution of the biliary lesions was monolobar in 13 and bilobar in 3 patients. 13 patients underwent liver resection, in two cases we perfomed biliojejunostomy and the last one had endoscopic sphincterotomy. There was no mortality and the overall postoperative morbidity is about 43%. The follow-up shows that 12 patients still alive with a mean follow up for 53 months, from whom only one patient have intrahépepatic lithiasis. CONCLUSION: The clinical course of Caroli's disease is often complicated by recurrent episodes of angiocholitis and requires iterative surgery. The hepatectomy witch prevented septic complications and degenerescence is possible only in a restricted number of patients.

Focal xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis: success of conservative treatment. A case report.

BACKGROUND: Focal xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis is an atypical form of chronic renal infection. It is frequently misdiagnosed preoperatively because of its resemblance to malignancy. CASE REPORT: We report on a fifty-year-old woman who presented with a right kidney mass. The CT scan showed a solid renal mass with a lithiasis of the upper ureter. The diagnosis of focal xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis was suspected by clinical and radiological findings and confirmed by histopathologic examination of percutaneous biopsy specimens of the lesion. Successful treatement of the patient was achieved with removal of the lithiasis and antibiotic therapy during eight weeks. Three months later the CT scan was completely normal. CONCLUSION: The conservative treatment of focal xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis makes possible to avoid a needless nephrectomy usually on young patients. However a close follow-up must be undergone on these patients because of the possible association of focal xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis and renal cell carcinoma of the kidney.

Role of laparoscopic surgery in the etiologic diagnosis of exsudative ascites: a prospective study of 90 cases.

PURPOSE: Peritoneal tuberculosis and carcinomatosis are the most frequent etiologies of exsudative ascitis and require rapid diagnosis and treatment. The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the predictive value of clinical and complementary data for the etiologic diagnosis of exsudative ascites and to assess the results of laparoscopic surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We report a prospective long-term study conducted over 10 years, having included all cases of exsudative ascites of unidentified etiology. We excluded patients with a history of anterior laparotomy and patients having a contraindication for laparoscopic surgery. Clinical signs, results of the cytochemical and bacteriological exam of the ascetic liquid and findings from radiological exams and endoscopic investigations were noted. Open laparoscopic exploration noted the macroscopic aspect and many peritoneal biopsies were obtained as well as a liver biopsy when possible. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS10.0 software. The degree of statistical significance was set for P<0.05. RESULTS: We included 90 cases of isolated exsudative ascites. There were 59 cases of tuberculosis and 31 of carcinomatosis. Mean patient age was 47 years with a sex ratio of 0.5. Bowel transit disorders were significantly in favor of a carcinomatosis (P=0.04) while fever and nocturnal sweats were suggestive of tuberculosis (P=0.04) but in both instances, the positive predictive value (PPV) of these two signs was weak, respectively 29% and 43%. Relative to chemical and cytologic study of ascitic fluid, hemorrhagic fluid, low white cell count, low lymphocyte differential and presence of atypical cells were significantly linked with the carcinomatosis (P=0.01) but with a PPV<85%. Radiological exams were not very contributive for the etiologic diagnosis. The laparoscopic peritoneal aspect was typical of tuberculosis in 90% of proved cases and in 29% of carcinomatosis cases, underlying the importance of peritoneal biopsies for histological study. Hepatic tuberculosis was associated with peritoneal localisation in 48% of cases. We had no surgical mortality and the morbidity was about 1%. CONCLUSION: Etiological diagnosis of exsudative ascitis remains difficult to establish. Peritoneal biopsies under videolaparoscopy are currently the "gold standard" for diagnosis.