[Therapeutic and diagnostic protocol for mild acute biliary pancreatitis: our experience and review of the literature]. / Protocollo diagnostico terapeutico della pancreatite acuta biliare lieve: nostra esperienza e revisione critica della letteratura.

Through a critical review of the literature, the authors analyze and re-assess the current diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms used in the treatment of mild acute biliary pancreatitis, reporting their experience with 27 cases observed in the Policlinico Umberto I Emergency Department (Rome) over the period from March 2003 to May 2005. All patients were treated with the same diagnostic and therapeutic protocol: once the diagnosis of acute biliary pancreatitis had been made and the severity evaluated, patients presenting clinical or ultrasonographic signs of main biliary duct stones underwent ERCP within 72 hours of onset of symptoms. All patients then underwent a standard-technique laparoscopic cholecystectomy during the same hospital stay, and whenever ERCP had not been performed preoperatively, an intraoperative cholangiography was performed at the time of surgery. No intra- or postoperative complications were observed, with a mean hospital stay of 10.6 days (range: 5-25 days).

The best timing of surgery in laparoscopic cholecystectomy for acute cholecystitis: when and how is to be performed.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: In the treatment of acute cholecystitis the optimal timing of operation, regardless of whether performed laparoscopically or conventionally, is of major importance and not yet well defined feature among the different authors. We report our study on the timing of surgery in a consecutive series of 133 patients. METHODOLOGY: The surgical technique consists in a partially downwards cholecystectomy from the infundibulum to the cystic duct. The dissection never involves the Calot Triangle's structures; this provides a safe and effective way to prevent major complications procedure related. Length of time interval from the onset of symptoms to surgery (ST measured in hours) and operating time (OT measured in minutes) have been recorded and analyzed to find out how these two variables are each other linked and what is the best timing for surgery. We also split the series taking a progressively increasing of ST as a cut off point and analyzed the two derived subgroups to outline which was the time of surgery (period of ST) that provided the best result in term of worsening of laparoscopic procedure difficulty. RESULTS: 51.3 hrs of average time between the onset of symptoms and surgery has been reported, with minimum of 24 hrs and maximum of 90 hrs, and median value of 48 hrs. The curve fit analysis on the scatterplot of the variable ST (independent) and OT (dependent) shows that these two variables are directly each other linked. The best division of the series was at the cut off of 57 hrs; each subgroup reached a statistical correlation coefficient: the late subgroup (the one over the cut off time of 57 hrs) had a twofold operating time increasing respect to the early group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results outline that there is a linear relationship between the technical difficulties, expressed in term of operating time, and time intervals from the onset of symptoms to surgery. At the cut off time of 57 hrs of interval from the onset of symptoms to surgery, the linear regression coefficient that links the dependent variable OT to the independent variable ST changes increasing up to 1,92. Over 60 hrs from the onset of symptoms the pathological changes of the surgical target becomes more and more quickly a troublesome challenge to the surgeon, letting the laparoscopic cholecystectomy for AC more difficult and less safe than that performed early.

Large size, villous content and distal location are associated with severe dysplasia in colorectal adenomas.

UNLABELLED: Adenomatous polyps are precursor lesions for colorectal carcinoma. The risk of cancer development has been associated with age and size, amount of villous component and high-grade dysplasia of adenomas. The subject-related and adenoma-related risk factors for severely dysplastic lesions were further investigated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was performed in 474 men and 339 women undergoing endoscopic removal at index colonoscopy of 1217 polyps. RESULTS: The male gender, cases aged over 55 and cases examined for rectal bleeding, showed an increased risk of colorectal polyps (odds ratios, OR = 1.95, 5.1 and 2.99, respectively). Adenomas synchronous with hyperplastic polyps of larger diameter (>10 mm) showed an increased risk of severe dysplasia (OR = 6.94). Severe dysplasia occurred more significantly in younger subjects harbouring villous growths (OR = 4.28, p < 0.03) and in larger adenomas (OR = 3.91, p < 0.001). The risk for severe dysplasia in relation to gender, age, multiplicity and location was higher in adenomas of larger diameter and with villous content. Multivariate analysis showed that distal site (p < 0.02), large size (p < 0.001) and villous content (p < 0.001) were the independent risk factors for severe dysplasia. CONCLUSION: Large size, villous content and distal location are associated with severe dysplasia in colorectal adenomas. The risk for severe dysplasia does not appear to be correlated with age.