Changing concepts in surgical management of renovascular hypertension.

As newer surgical techniques and concepts have emerged, including revascularization of the totally occluded renal artery and alternatives to aortorenal bypass (hepatic, splenic, or iliac artery to renal artery grafts), our patient population has changed. Patients with diffuse atherosclerotic disease, bilateral renal artery stenosis, totally occluded renal arteries, and azotemia are being referred for renal revascularization, thereby changing the indications for operation and the results that can be anticipated. Although our results in patients operated on solely for uncontrollable hypertension or renal failure have been successful, much work needs to be done to improve the results obtained when patients have a combination of uncontrollable hypertension and renal failure.

Resection of cavoatrial renal cell carcinoma employing total circulatory arrest.

Intracaval extension of renal cell carcinoma to the right atrium is a life-threatening presentation that may result in fatal tricuspid valve obstruction or pulmonary embolization. From 1981 to 1989 we treated 10 patients with such extension of tumor, the last 7 of whom underwent resection in which hypothermic circulatory arrest was used. No postoperative deaths, myocardial infarctions, or strokes occurred. Four patients were alive with no evidence of disease at 4, 10, 16, and 39 months after resection, and 1 patient was alive with pulmonary and spine metastases at 34 months after resection. Two patients died of metastatic disease at 7 and 12 months. In the absence of diffuse metastatic disease, lymph-node involvement, or invasion of contiguous organs, radical resection of cavoatrial hypernephroma may result in excellent palliation and possibly a cure.

Regression of large pelvic desmoid tumor by tamoxifen and sulindac.

A 54-year-old man was evaluated for symptoms of bladder outlet obstruction. Evaluation revealed a 10 by 9.8-cm tumor composed of bland, fibroblastic, poorly cellular material adjacent to the prostate. Administration of a course of antiestrogen (tamoxifen) and a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent (sulindac) resulted in prompt relief of symptoms and a slow decrease in the size of the tumor as measured by computed tomography. After 54 months of therapy, the tumor was undetectable clinically and dramatically reduced in size as seen on computed tomography. Data on the natural history of desmoid tumors and the efficacy of various therapeutic strategies are reviewed.

Radiolabeled monoclonal antibody indium 111-labeled CYT-356 localizes extraprostatic recurrent carcinoma after prostatectomy.

OBJECTIVES: The sites of recurrent carcinoma of the prostate were localized with radiolabeled monoclonal antibody, and these sites were correlated with the response of patients treated with pelvic radiation after prostatectomy. METHODS: Radionuclide scans were performed with indium 111-labeled CYT-356, a monoclonal antibody that binds to prostate epithelial cells, in 48 men diagnosed with recurrent carcinoma detected by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening after radical retropubic prostatectomy. RESULTS: In 48 patients with recurrent carcinoma detected by PSA screening following radical retropubic prostatectomy, 73% had monoclonal antibody activity beyond the prostatic fossa, and only 3 patients (6%) had activity in the prostatic fossa alone; 65% had monoclonal antibody activity in pelvic lymph nodes despite the fact that lymph node dissections were pathologically negative at the time of prostatectomy in 90% of the patients; and 23% of patients had monoclonal antibody activity in abdominal and extrapelvic retroperitoneal nodes. Of 48 patients, 13 underwent external beam radiation therapy after monoclonal antibody scans. Six patients had scans showing activity beyond the field of radiation, and radiation therapy failed in 4 of these patients. Seven patients had scans with no activity beyond the field of radiation therapy, and radiation therapy failed in only 2 of these patients. CONCLUSIONS: The scans frequently show monoclonal antibody uptake in pelvic, abdominal, and extrapelvic retroperitoneal sites beyond the region of limited obturator node dissections and may account for the understaging and subsequent failure of radical prostatectomy in some patients. The monoclonal antibody scan seems to be a good predictor of which patients will respond to radiation therapy after radical prostatectomy, but because these patients often have nodal activity beyond the radiated field, this initial response may not be curative.

Stomal construction, complications, and reconstruction.

This article reviews stomal complications and their management. To accomplish this goal, the authors review techniques used for planning and creating the stomas for both continent reservoirs and incontinent conduits.

Surgery of the renal artery: hepato and spleno renal bypass.

Hypertension is a devastating disease that affects an estimated 20 million Americans per year and predisposes them to cardiac, cerebral and renal disease. The need to discover and treat the surgically curable forms of hypertension is underscored by the lethal effects of this entity. Restoration of renal blood flow to a stenotic or occluded renal artery for the management of poorly controlled renovascular hypertension or deteriorating renal function is a proven therapeutic modality. The technical advances of digital subtraction angiography, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor challenge, balloon angioplasty and alternative surgical bypass procedures have inspired a more aggressive approach to the diagnosis and treatment of higher risk patients with atherosclerotic disease and the application of bench surgery for difficult branch segmental disease. The indications for surgical correction of patients with atherosclerosis are more limited, owing to the presence of commonly associated diseases of senescence, and the presence of extrarenal vascular disease. Treatment with more effective new potent antihypertensive drugs is warranted initially in this population and may, in fact, be preferred in patients with generalized atherosclerosis. Our own poor results with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for atherosclerotic lesions has prevented us from offering this option to patients with classic renal ostial lesions which are in essence an aortic disease that does not respond to this modality. The less common short mid-renal artery disease without a significant aortic component frequently responds to balloon dilatation if skillfully applied.

[Reconstruction of the posterior urethra]. / Rekonstruktion der hinteren Urethra.

The posterior prostatomembranous urethral stricture or distraction defect has historically been the most formidable challenge of stricture surgery. This uncommon lesion occurs most often as the sequelae of pelvic fracture injuries, or straddle trauma, and is associated with serious urethral disruption and separation--an injury that is often complicated by inappropriate initial management using substitution skin flap techniques with the development of recurrent stenosis, irreversible impotence, and occasional incontinence. Management by endoscopic techniques may be possible in patients with short strictures or in those after prostatectomy, but they rarely play a role in resolving the complex obliterated urethra with a significant defect [1]. Resolution of post-traumatic posterior urethral distraction defects and other posterior urethral pathologic conditions has dramatically improved over the past two decades despite an inaccessible subpublic location involving exposed sphincter-active and erectile neurovascular anatomy. The contemporary, perineal, one-stage bulboprostatic anastomotic operation as popularized by Turner-Warwick [20] with selective scar excision is a versatile procedure with a high patent lumen success. Patients undergoing anastomotic urethroplasty have a substained patent urethral lumen success rate approaching 100% versus those who have undergone urethral skin flap or patch repair, where the restricture rate in 5 and 10 years increases twofold to threefold [1, 20]. A patent urethra after an anastomotic urethroplasty at 6 months is free from further recurrent stricture and gives credence to Mr. Turner-Warwick's admonition that "urethra is the best substitute for urethra".

Management of invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the bulbomembranous male urethra with co-ordinated chemo-radiotherapy and genital preservation.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the success of chemo-radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the bulbar male urethra, an uncommon but aggressive cancer usually treated by radical deforming surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two men, aged 42 and 49 years, with locally advanced SCC of the proximal deep urethra were treated with a modified Nigro chemo-radiation protocol. The initial treatment was by suprapublic cystotomy urinary diversion followed by 45 Gy in 25 fractions over 5 weeks to the penis, perineum and regional lymphatics. Chemotherapy consisted of a single intravenous dose of mitomycin C (10 mg/m2) and an intravenous infusion of 5-fluorouracil (1 g/m2/day) for 96 h starting on the first day of radiation therapy and repeated 28 days later. RESULTS: Follow-up evaluation with urethral biopsies, retrograde urethrography, computed tomography of the pelvis and cysto-urethroscopy under anaesthesia showed no residual tumour in either patient but the development of a proximal urethral stricture at 1.5 and 4 years, respectively. CONCLUSION: This report presents the first evidence of a successful reduction of tumour stage with the local eradication of invasive SCC and penile preservation with no recurrence of the tumour or the need to excise the urethra.

Predictability of surgical cure of renovascular hypertension.

Seventy-five patients with renal artery stenosis were studied; 50 patients had unilateral lesions and 25 had bilateral lesions. Divided renal vein renins and peripheral renins were collected under strict salt intake, drug intake, and postural conditions. Divided renal vein renin ratios and a scoring system that included peripheral renin and affected and contralateral renal secretion of renin were applied to each patient and compared in each to the patient's ultimate surgical result. Both methods, if positive, are highly predictive of cure in patients with renal artery disease. Both methods are plagued by significant false-negative rates, 20% for renal vein ratio, 33% for the scoring system in patients with unilateral stenosis, and 35% and 48%, respectively, in patients with bilateral renal artery stenosis. For these reasons, surgical selection should be based on evaluation of a combination of the clinical presentation, angiographic findings, and renin data.