Comparison between two different reconstruction techniques after pancreatic head resection. Technical feasibility and clinical benefits.

BACKGROUND: The study aim was to evaluate if diverting drainage of bile and pancreatic secretions with an isolated Roux loop technique helps to decrease the rate of postoperative morbidity and mortality, in particular postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF). METHODS: A prospectively maintained database between 2006 and 2018 was reviewed. Patients who underwent primary elective pancreaticoduodenectomy were included. Two types of reconstruction methods were compared: single loop (SJL) reconstruction (28 patients) and isolated Roux-en-Y (DJL) reconstruction (36 patients). Demographic characteristics and perioperative results were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: This study includes 64 patients. The average duration of surgery was 308 mins; it was longer for DJL (P<0.0001). Major postoperative complications were seen in 24 patients (9 in SJL; 15 in DJL) without statistically significant difference. The most frequent complication that occurred was PJ anastomosis failure (4 in SJL; 6 in DJL). The choice of postoperative complication management was not related to surgical reconstruction technique (P=0.389). Length of hospital stay in DJL was significantly longer than in SJL (P=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: No significant advantage of one technique over the other was found. In our opinion, surgeons should choose the approach with which they have the most experience and ease.

Reliability and validity assessment of administrative databases in measuring the quality of rectal cancer management.

PURPOSE: Measurement and monitoring of the quality of care using a core set of quality measures are increasing in health service research. Although administrative databases include limited clinical data, they offer an attractive source for quality measurement. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to evaluate the completeness of different administrative data sources compared to a clinical survey in evaluating rectal cancer cases. METHODS: Between May 2012 and November 2014, a clinical survey was done on 498 Lombardy patients who had rectal cancer and underwent surgical resection. These collected data were compared with the information extracted from administrative sources including Hospital Discharge Dataset, drug database, daycare activity data, fee-exemption database, and regional screening program database. The agreement evaluation was performed using a set of 12 quality indicators. RESULTS: Patient complexity was a difficult indicator to measure for lack of clinical data. Preoperative staging was another suboptimal indicator due to the frequent missing administrative registration of tests performed. The agreement between the 2 data sources regarding chemoradiotherapy treatments was high. Screening detection, minimally invasive techniques, length of stay, and unpreventable readmissions were detected as reliable quality indicators. Postoperative morbidity could be a useful indicator but its agreement was lower, as expected. CONCLUSIONS: Healthcare administrative databases are large and real-time collected repositories of data useful in measuring quality in a healthcare system. Our investigation reveals that the reliability of indicators varies between them. Ideally, a combination of data from both sources could be used in order to improve usefulness of less reliable indicators.

Diaphragmatic rupture: A single-institution experience and literature review.

BACKGROUND: Diaphragmatic rupture (DR) is a rare and potentially life-threatening event caused by trauma or spontaneously. DR occasionally occurs several months after the injury. Chest X-ray and computed tomography are the most effective diagnostic methods. Delay in DR diagnosis occurs frequently. This study aimed to examine and improve our understanding of the etiology, clinical presentation, and management of DR. METHODS: This study was performed at the Emergency and General Surgery Department of Fondazione I.R.R.C.S. Cà Granda, Ospedale Policlinico in Milan (Italy). Patients diagnosed with DR between 2001 and 2011 who underwent surgery were included, and their data were retrospectively collected. RESULTS: Fourteen patients were diagnosed with DR, mainly left-sided DR. Road traffic collisions were the main causes (86%). DR diagnosis was preoperatively established in eight patients (57%). Chest X-ray was diagnostic in 50% of the patients and computed tomography in three patients (60%). Twelve patients had a diaphragmatic hernia. DR was repaired with a mesh in two patients. Mean hospital stay was 16.6 days. CONCLUSION: Difficulty in achieving early diagnosis of DR is due to its nonspecific presentation. High index of suspicion is needed. Its treatment is using surgery involving reduction of the viscera and repair of the diaphragm defect.

Open, laparoscopic, and robotic surgery for rectal cancer: medium-term comparative outcomes from a multicenter study.

PURPOSE: Several studies have demonstrated the oncologic equivalence of laparoscopic (LS) and open (OS) rectal cancer surgeries and have shown how challenging LS may become. Robotic surgery (RS) has emerged as a practical alternative, offering interesting advantages in comparison to both LS and OS. The aim of this study is to resolve the clinicopathologic outcome advantages of RS with respect to OS and LS techniques. METHODS: Patients with rectal cancer undergoing OS, RS, or LS were evaluated within the period from April 2009 to August 2011. The evaluations were carried out in 4 Italian hospitals. Perioperative clinicopathologic data, postoperative complications, and 3-year overall and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 160 patients (94 male, 66 female) were included. A total of 105 patients underwent mini-invasive procedure (40 LS; 65 RS), whereas OS was performed in 55 patients. Anterior resection of rectal cancer was the most performed surgical procedure (139; 87%). Median operation time was significantly longer in the RS group (p<0.01). Regarding complication rates and quality of the surgical specimen evaluation, no statistical difference was found among the 3 groups. The shortest hospital stay (p<0.01) was obtained from the LS and RS groups. The median follow-up was 33 months without any significant difference in overall and DFS rates. CONCLUSIONS: Although RS for rectal cancer requires more time to be performed than LS and OS techniques, the analysis shows comparatively the feasibility and safety of RS in terms of perioperative clinicopathologic and medium-term outcomes.

Treatment principles for peritoneal surface malignancies.

A paradigm shift has recently occurred in the clinical management of peritoneal surface malignancies (PSM). Once regarded as end-stage disseminated conditions only to be palliated, PSM are now increasingly recognized as local-regional disease entities amenable to potentially curative therapies. Better knowledge of the natural history and patterns of disease-progression has evolved into a novel treatment approach combining aggressive cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and perioperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy, to treat the microscopic residual disease. Such a complex comprehensive treatment has reportedly resulted in a survival improvement over historical controls, and it is gaining an increasing acceptance as standard of care for selected patients with peritoneal metastases from gastrointestinal and gynecological tumor and rare primary peritoneal malignancies. This article addresses the rational bases supporting the comprehensive treatment of PSM. The biology and patho-physiology of peritoneal tumor dissemination, with their implication on surgical and local-regional management are reviewed. The cytoreductive surgical procedures and intraperitoneal chemotherapy administration techniques are described, together with the theoretical principles from which have originated. The main controversial issues in the operative management of PSM are discussed, focusing on the technical variants adopted in our institution. The most recent literature data on both patient selection and appropriate indications for combined treatment are presented. Additionally, a brief overview of treatment results and long-term outcomes following cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in the different PSM is provided.

Abdominosacral resection for locally recurring rectal cancer.

AIM: To investigate feasibility and outcome of abdominal-sacral resection for treatment of locally recurrent rectal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: A population of patients who underwent an abdominal-sacral resection for posterior recurrent adenocarcinoma of the rectum at the National Cancer Institute of Milano, between 2005 and 2013, is considered. Retrospectively collected data includes patient characteristics, treatment and pathology details regarding the primary and the recurrent rectal tumor surgical resection. A clinical and instrumental follow-up was performed. Surgical and oncological outcome were investigated. Furthermore an analytical review of literature was conducted in order to compare our case series with other reported experiences. RESULTS: At the time of abdomino-sacral resection, the mean age of patients was 55 (range, 38-64). The median operating time was 380 min (range, 270-480). Sacral resection was performed at S2/S3 level in 3 patients, S3/S4 in 3 patients and S4/S5 in 4 patients. The median operating time was 380 ± 58 min. Mean intraoperative blood loss was 1750 mL (range, 200-680). The median hospital stay was 22 d. Overall morbidity was 80%, mainly type II complication according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Microscopically negative margins (R0) is obtained in all patients. Overall 5-year survival after first surgical procedure is 60%, with a median survival from the first surgery of 88 ± 56 mo. The most common site of re-recurrence was intrapelvic. CONCLUSION: Sacral resection represents a feasible approach to posterior rectal cancer recurrence without evidence of distant spreading. An accurate staging is essential for planning the best therapy.

Successful open abdomen treatment for multiple ischemic duodenal perforated ulcers in dermatomyositis.

INTRODUCTION: Dermatomyositis is an autoimmune disease characterized by proximal myopathy, cutaneous Gottron papules and heliotrope rash; intestinal involvement associated to acute vasculitis is less common but could be a life-threatening condition. METHODS: A 21-year-old woman, affected by dermatomyositis, presented to our attention with a three-day story of severe abdominal pain, no bowel movement and biliary vomit. She was diagnosed with acute abdomen. A CT scan with bowel contrast demonstrated the presence of a leakage from the retroperitoneal aspect of duodenum. The surgical and clinical management in the light of literature review is presented. RESULTS: Our first approach consisted in primary repair of the duodenal perforation with omentopexy. Post-operative course was complicated by hemorrhage. A reintervention showed a new perforation associated with multiple ischemic intestinal areas. We performed a gastroenteric anastomosis with functional exclusion of the damaged duodenum and positioning of drainages to create a biliary fistula. A nutritional enteric tube and an open abdomen vacuum-assisted closure system to monitor the fistula creation and to prevent abdominal contamination and collections were positioned. To reduce the amount of biliary leakage, a percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage was placed, with progressive fistula flow disappearance in four months. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with dermatomyositis, when clinical findings and symptoms suggest abdominal vasculitis, it is very important to be aware of the risk of bowel and particularly duodenal perforations. Open abdomen treatment favors control of contamination by gastrointestinal contents, offers temporary abdominal closure, helps ICU care and delays definitive surgery.

Multicentric GISCoR Study "intensive clinical follow-up versus surgical radicalization after complete endoscopic polypectomy of a malignant adenoma" (SEC-GISCoR).

Colorectal cancer screening programs result in an early diagnosis of the disease. In 2007, 250 malignant polyps were identified in Lombardy, out of 1,329 screen-detected colorectal carcinomas. The Italian Group for Colorectal Cancer (GISCoR) promoted the multicentric study "Endoscopic Follow-up versus Surgical Radicalization of Malignant Polyps after Complete Endoscopic Polypectomy" (SEC-GISCoR). The protocol was a multicentric, prospective, observational, non-randomized study. It included patients diagnosed a colorectal malignant adenoma, after complete endoscopic removal. From November 2005 to September 2009, three participating centers enrolled 120 patients with malignant polyps after "complete" endoscopic polypectomy; malignant polyps were classified as "low risk" or "high risk". The study had two arms: "Intensive follow-up" (42 patients: 32 with low-risk and 10 with high-risk polyps) and "Surgical radicalization" (78 patients: 5 with low-risk and 73 with high-risk polyps). Data were collected using an online CRF. Overall, 37/120 polyps (30.8%) were low risk and 83/120 (69.2%) were high risk. 42 out of 120 patients (35%) were enrolled in the "clinical follow-up" arm, while 78/120 (65%) entered the surgery arm. In 15 cases, patients were not enrolled in the correct arm, according to the criteria agreed upon before starting the study. There still is a high incidence (11.5%) of pathological mismatches. No clinical event was reported in 2.9 years of follow-up. In conclusion, some differences emerged in the management of patients with malignant polyps among participating centers (p < 0.001), mismatches can be explained by high surgical risk or patient's choice. Only in 5 cases (4.2%), did data analysis not allow to exactly determine the reason for a choice different from protocol criteria. The availability of new risk factors and the evidence of pathological mismatches confirmed the need for future studies on this issue.

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by hepatectomy for primarily resectable colorectal cancer liver metastases.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatic resection in metastatic disease from colorectal cancer offers the best chance in selected cases for long-term survival. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) has been advocated in some cases initially deemed irresectable with few reports of the efficacy of such a strategy and the influence of the response to chemotherapy on the outcome of radical hepatic resection. METHODOLOGY: Between December 1995 and May 2005, 88 patients with colorectal liver metastases underwent hepatic resection with curative intent. Twenty-five of these patients, (7 males, 18 females, mean age: 58+/-9 years; range: 40-75 years) deemed as resectable cases at the time of diagnosis were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A 7-year survival analysis was performed. Chemotherapy included mainly oxaliplatin or irinotecan containing regimens for a median of 6 courses. RESULTS: Fifteen patients (60%) had synchronous and 10 (40%) metachronous metastases. During preoperative chemotherapy tumor regression occurred in 8 cases (32%); stable disease (SD) in a further 10 patients (40%) and progressive disease (PD) developed in 7 cases (28%). The 5-year overall survival for NACT responders was 71% and only 15% for non-responders (p=0.026). CONCLUSIONS: The response to chemotherapy is likely to be a significant prognostic factor affecting overall survival after radical hepatic resection for colorectal metastases.