Abdominal wall reconstruction for desmoid tumour surgery: Case report.

INTRODUCTION: Desmoid tumours are rare benign neoplasms with strong tendency to local invasion and recurrence. They usually rise from muscles and aponeurosis and could be challenging for medical treatment. We here report the case of a patient requiring the excision of part of the abdominal rectus muscle and an abdominal wall reconstruction. PRESENTATION OF CASE: A 38 years old women referred to our institution complaining of a painful lump in the anterior abdominal wall. She underwent ultrasonography (US), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a computed tomography (CT) biopsy who showed the presence of a desmoid tumour arising in the right abdominal rectus muscle. She underwent surgical excision of the mass and an abdominal wall reconstruction according to the posterior component separation technique, with a large polypropylene mesh reinforcement. The post-operative period was uneventful and at 6 months she shows no clinical nor radiological recurrence. DISCUSSION: Desmoid tumours are rare neoplasms rising in many anatomical spaces and requiring challenging decisions. A radical resection with free margins remains the principal determinant of outcome. Non-surgical approaches and adjuvant therapy may be useful for patients with unresectable lesions. CONCLUSION: The optimal treatment strategy for desmoid tumours still remains unclear. A multidisciplinary approach is always the best strategy to establish the correct treatment.

Zenker diverticulectomy: first report of robot-assisted transaxillary approach.

Standard surgical treatment of Zenker's diverticulum consists of open cricopharyngeal myotomy with diverticulectomy. A rigid or flexible endoscopic approach allowing a cricopharyngeal myotomy without diverticulectomy is currently considered as a less invasive alternative to open surgery with reportedly comparable symptom relief at short term follow-up. In recent years, high safety and efficacy of a transaxillary gasless robotic access to the thyroid gland has been shown. The present study describes the feasibility and preliminary results of robot-assisted transaxillary approach for cricopharyngeal myotomy and excision of Zenker's diverticulum. Patients with troublesome dysphagia and radiological evidence of Zenker's diverticulum underwent a robot-assisted cricopharyngeal myotomy and diverticulum excision using left transaxillary access with the support of endoscopic assistance. One month after intervention, symptoms were reevaluated and a barium swallow study was performed. Four patients with symptomatic Zenker's diverticulum were successfully operated. No adverse event was recorded. One month after intervention, total dysphagia remission was declared by all four patients and there was no evidence of diverticulum recurrence at radiology. According to our preliminary data, left transaxillary robot-assisted approach for the surgical management of Zenker's diverticulum is feasible, safe and effective. Whether our encouraging results will be confirmed in larger patient cohorts with prolonged follow-up, the robot-assisted transaxillary Zenker's diverticulectomy may represent an alternative to traditional open diverticulectomy when endoscopic interventions cannot be performed or have failed.

Modified rives technique (double-breasted alloplasty) in the repair of large incisional hernias.

Prosthetic materials in surgery have been widely used to repair incisional hernias thus reducing the recurrence rate. The wrong use of such prostheses has been the cause of serious postoperative complications. We propose a tension-free technique which allows the best abdominal wall reconstruction with correct positioning of the mesh even for large parietal defects. A retrospective study was conducted in a series of 64 patients treated with our personal technique using a polypropylene mesh for large incisional hernias. Median follow-up was 32 months. We had 1 case of respiratory discomfort (1.5%) and 4 recurrences (6.25%). No prosthesis infections were reported. The proposed surgical procedure allows correct prosthesis implantation and good short-term and long-term results. This versatile, reproducible technique can also be used for minor incisional hernias.