Inflammatory pseudotumor of the liver: case report and review of the literature.

Inflammatory pseudotumors of the liver (IPL) are extremely rare focal lesions of the parenchyma. Up to now, the ethology of IPL has not been completely understood. Usually the clinical presentation is with fever, chills, hepatic mass. The fine needle biopsy shows a large amount of inflammatory cells, while the most common imaging techniques are not specific and do not reach a definitive preoperative diagnosis between a benign and a malignant tumor. From the examination of the Literature, the Authors found a mortality rate of 40% among patients treated by antibiotic therapy, while surgical procedures were successful in all but one case. Moreover, in Authors' case, successfully treated by hepatic resection, the preoperative diagnostic procedures were not helpful in differential diagnosis with a malignant lesion. For these reasons, the Authors believe surgery is the best therapeutic choice in case of a suspected IPL without an early clinical resolution after antibiotic therapy.

[Role of surgical splanchnicectomy in the treatment of pancreatic carcinoma]. / Il ruolo della splancnicectomia chirurgica nel trattamento del carcinoma pancreatico.

Palliative surgical procedures offer considerable benefit for the patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer: surgical splanchnicectomy performed in conjunction with biliary-enteric by-pass offers good results as regard pain relief without increased morbidity and mortality. We treated 25 patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer by mean of biliary-enteric by-pass plus bilateral splanchnicectomy performed through different surgical approaches. In this series of patients postoperative mortality was nil, mean survival time was 7.2 months (range 3-14 months). Preoperatively, we assessed all patients as affected by visceral pain: Scott-Huskisson 10 mark-scale value in quantitative assessment of pain was equal or above the 7th mark in 87.5% of patients. One month later in the postoperative follow-up, 96% of the patients had a significant reduction in pain intensity from a preoperative median of 7 mark to a postoperative median of 1.5 mark (p = 0.0001). The mean period free of pain recurrence was 4.8 months. However, after 6 months only 46% of survivors were pain-free with such rate decreasing further to a 10% of survivors after 8 months. Nevertheless, the patients had around 70% of their survival span free of pain. We strongly believe that failure in relief of pain is due to a mistake in preoperative evaluation of the type of pain (somatic and not visceral, or both) and to the onset of somatic pain in the course of the disease rather than to surgical technical errors. Recurrence of pain has been considered inevitable in the biological progression of unresected cancer, and would be treated by combination of therapies, such as non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, transaortic coeliac plexus block, narcotics and cervical cordotomy.

Fetus in fetu removal in a 47-year-old man.

A case of removal of a fetus in fetu in a 47-year-old man is reported. The patient had an upper abdominal mass since birth that had never caused any subjective symptoms. A preoperative computed tomographic scan was useful to confirm the diagnosis. The operative specimen consisted of a cystic mass about 20 cm in diameter, situated in the upper retroperitoneal space. The cyst was full of a yellowish fluid and hairs. A bony structure, about 10 cm in diameter, contained a vertebral axis connected to the ribs and was adherent to the cystic wall. To our knowledge this is the first reported case of fetus in fetu described in an adult man. The tumor, present for 47 years, did not grow or cause any complications and did not show any sign of malignancy.