Enhanced recovery after elective colorectal resection outside a strict fast-track protocol. A single centre experience.

INTRODUCTION: Optimising the management of hospitalised patients is a major concern. In colorectal surgery, the concept of enhanced recovery has been popularised by means of "fast-track" protocols, aiming at patient's discharge on the second postoperative day. Nevertheless, a strict fast-track protocol has several limitations. It is very demanding for the patient and therefore applicable only to a limited number of patients. AIM: In order to optimise, in every aspect, the postoperative recovery of each patient undergoing an elective colorectal resection inside our institution, we set up a "soft" enhanced recovery programme. MATERIAL-METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted in 92 patients evaluating the respective impact of protocol application throughout the duration of the hospital stay. RESULTS: When all the required measures of our protocol were correctly implemented, the median discharge day was postoperative day 3 (range 3-5 days). On the contrary, when deviations occurred, they resulted in longer hospital stay (p < 0.001). Patients operated by laparoscopy were discharged earlier than patients operated by laparotomy (p < 0.001). The use of nasogastric tube and postoperative drainage prolonged significantly the length of stay (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001 respectively). When the urinary catheter was not removed or oral feeding not resumed on postoperative day 1, the patients were discharged later (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: There are substantial possibilities of optimising the recovery process after an elective colorectal resection, outside a strict fast-track protocol.

Modified H-pouch as an alternative to the J-pouch for anorectal reconstruction.

AIM: A modification is described of the J-pouch to facilitate ileoanal anastomosis in the presence of an anal or anovaginal fistula. METHOD: The bowel is divided at the level of the apex of the J-pouch, the distal limb is advanced to project beyond the proximal limb by 3-5 cm. The pouch is constructed by a side-to-side anastomosis to form the H-pouch with a distal ileal segment, which is passed through the anal canal to form an ileoanal anastomosis. RESULTS: The modification allows the treatment of anal and rectal disorders not resolvable by a usual J-pouch construction, as in cases where a rectal resection is needed for concomitant fistulation or destruction of the anal mucosa. The functional results are similar to those of the J-pouch, with no added postoperative morbidity. This technique helps to avoid permanent stoma in selected cases. CONCLUSION: The modified pouch is relatively simple to perform and can help the surgeon to address complex anorectal disorders.

Outcome following laparoscopic and open total mesorectal excision for rectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: There are few reports on the oncological quality of resection and outcome after laparoscopic versus open total mesorectal excision (TME) for rectal cancer in everyday surgical practice. METHODS: Between January 2006 and October 2011, data for patients with mid or low rectal adenocarcinoma who underwent elective TME were recorded in the PROCARE database. A multivariable model and the propensity score as a co-variable in Cox or logistic regression models were used for adjustment of differences in patient mix and non-random assignment of surgical approach. RESULTS: Data for 2660 patients from 82 hospitals were recorded. Implementation of laparoscopic TME was highly variable. The oncological quality of resection was similar in the laparoscopic and the open group: incomplete mesorectal excision in 13·2 and 11·4 per cent respectively, circumferential resection margin positivity in 18·1 per cent, and a median of 11 lymph nodes examined per specimen in both groups. The hazard ratio for survival after laparoscopic versus open TME was 1·05 (95 per cent confidence interval 0·88 to 1·24) after correction for differences in patient mix, and 1·06 (0·89 to 1·25) after correction for the propensity score. The definitive colostomy rate was similar in the two groups: 31·0 per cent after open and 31·4 per cent after laparoscopic TME. Postoperative morbidity was lower and length of stay was shorter after laparoscopic TME compared with open TME. Survival was not negatively affected by converted laparoscopic resection, whereas postoperative morbidity, mortality and length of stay after converted laparoscopy were comparable with those after open TME. CONCLUSION: Oncological outcome is comparable after laparoscopic and open TME in everyday surgical practice.

Short course chemotherapy followed by concomitant chemoradiotherapy and surgery in locally advanced rectal cancer: a randomized multicentric phase II study.

BACKGROUND: Induction chemotherapy has been suggested to impact on preoperative chemoradiation efficacy in locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). To evaluate in LARC patients, the feasibility and efficacy of a short intense course of induction oxaliplatin before preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with T2-T4/N+ rectal adenocarcinoma were randomly assigned to arm A-preoperative CRT with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) continuous infusion followed by surgery-or arm B-induction oxaliplatin, folinic acid and 5-FU followed by CRT and surgery. The primary end point was the rate of ypT0-1N0 stage achievement. RESULTS: Fifty seven patients were randomly assigned (arm A/B: 29/28) and evaluated for planned interim analysis. On an intention-to-treat basis, the ypT0-1N0 rate for arms A and B were 34.5% (95% CI: 17.2% to 51.8%) and 32.1% (95% CI: 14.8% to 49.4%), respectively, and the study therefore was closed prematurely for futility. There were no statistically significant differences in other end points including pathological complete response, tumor regression and sphincter preservation. Completion of the preoperative CRT sequence was similar in both groups. Grade 3/4 toxicity was significantly higher in arm B. CONCLUSIONS: Short intense induction oxaliplatin is feasible in LARC patients without compromising the preoperative CRT completion, although the current analysis does not indicate increased locoregional impact on standard therapy.

Risk adjusted benchmarking of clinical anastomotic leakage rate after total mesorectal excision in the context of an improvement project.

AIM: Anastomotic leakage (AL) after total mesorectal excision (TME) is a major adverse event. This study evaluates variability in AL between centres participating on a voluntary basis in PROCARE, a Belgian improvement project, and how further improvement of the AL rate might be achieved. METHOD: Between January 2006 and March 2011, detailed data on 1815 patients (mean age 65.5 years, 63% male) who underwent elective TME with colo-anal reconstruction for rectal cancer were registered by 48 centres. Variability in early clinical AL rate was analysed before and after adjustment for gender, age > 60 years, American Society of Anesthesiologists score of 3 or more and body mass index > 25 kg/m(2). RESULTS: The overall AL rate was 6.7% (95% CI 5.6%-7.9%). Early AL required reoperation in 86.8% of patients. It increased length of hospital stay from 14.7 days to 32.4 days and in-hospital mortality from 1.1% to 4.8%. Statistically significant variability in AL rate between centres was not observed, either before or after risk adjustment. Nonetheless, further improvement may be achievable in some centres by targeting the adjusted performance of better performing centres. These centres used neoadjuvant treatment, rectal irrigation, mobilization of the splenic flexure, resection of the sigmoid colon, side-to-end colo-anastomosis with or without pouch and defunctioning stoma at primary surgery in a significantly higher proportion of patients than less well performing centres. CONCLUSION: The overall AL rate was low but needs to be interpreted with caution because of incomplete registration. Further improvement might be achieved by adopting the approach of better performing centres.

Elective colorectal surgery without bowel preparation: a historical control and case-matched study.

BACKGROUND: Although full bowel preparation, including mechanical washout and non-absorbable antibiotherapy, has been considered for decades as a prerequisite to any elective colorectal surgery, recent literature has suggested that this habit was perhaps unjustified. The aim of this study was to assess the safety of ileocolic, colocolic and colorectal anastomosis in the absence of pre-operative mechanical bowel preparation. METHODS: During a 1-year period, 59 consecutive patients underwent elective colorectal surgery with ileocolic, colocolic or colorectal anastomosis without any pre-operative preparation. This "non-prepared group" (NPG) was compared to a "control group" (CG) composed of the previous 127 consecutive cases of classically managed patients. To improve the statistical power we also compared the NPG to a "match-controlled group" (MCG) of 59 patients within the CG. Primary end-points were anastomotic leakage and abdominal infections. Secondary end-points were oral diet resume time and hospital stay. RESULTS: There were no differences between the 3 groups for age, gender, BMI, immunodepression status, anastomosis site and suture technique. There were no differences between NPG and CG or MCG for anastomotic leakage (3.5%, 4.7% and 6.8% respectively, NPG/CG p = 0.68 and NPG/MCG p = 0.4) or for infectious abdominal complications. Mean diet resume time was 1.4 (1-5) days in the NPG versus 3.4 (1-19) days in the CG and 3.1 (1-6) days in the MCG (p < 0.00001). Median length of postoperative hospital stay was 5 (2-81) days in the NPG versus 8 (4-100) and 8 (4-100) in the CG and the MCG respectively. CONCLUSIONS: In accordance with the recent literature, the present experience does not show any benefit of mechanical bowel preparation in elective colorectal resection. This suggests that bowel preparation could be omitted before this type of surgery.

[Organized colorectal screening in French Community of Belgium and polyp surveillance]. / Le dépistage organisé du cancer colorectal en Communauté française de Belgique et surveillance des polypes.

Colorectal cancer is an important health care problem in Belgium and screening is now widely recommendend. The French Community has launched in March 2009, a campaign to build public and professional awareness of the importance of screening for colorectal cancer. With the goal of encouraging all persons age 50 to 74 to actively gain information and seek screening with the active participation of their house doctors, the campaign will work to clarify any myths or fears about screening options and ensure that the importance of screening and early detection will be understood. The program in the French Community propose guaiac-based fecal occult blood testing for average risk people and, in case of positivity a colonoscopy must be performed. A high quality colonoscopy should be offered first in case of significant personal and familial history of adenomas, colorectal cancer and some specific extracolonic neoplasia. Several strategies will be used to ensure follow up of this program and encourage wide participation of the population.

Tailgut cyst associated with a carcinoid tumor: case report and review of the literature.

We report the case of a 49-year-old woman who presented a tailgut cyst lined by a variety of epithelium including squamous, columnar and transitional. Fortuitously a microscopic carcinoid tumor expressing immunohistochemically neuroendocrine markers was identified in the cystic wall. Tailgut cysts are congenital abnormalities located in the presacrococcygeal area occurring usually in adult patients. Clinical diagnosis is difficult because they are often asymptomatic. Patients may present symptoms resulting from local mass effects or complications. The differential diagnoses include rectal duplication cysts, cystic sacrococcygeal teratomas, epidermal cysts, epidermoid cysts, anal duct or gland cysts. Magnetic resonance imaging has recently become the modality of choice to image the cyst. Malignant transformation is rare; 23 cases including 10 carcinoid tumors have been reported in the literature. To our knowledge, this is the eleventh case of carcinoid tumor arising in a tailgut cyst.

Long-term results after excision haemorrhoidectomy versus stapled haemorrhoidopexy for prolapsing haemorrhoids; a Belgian prospective randomized trial.

PURPOSE: To compare the postoperative evolution and the long-term efficacy after stapled haemorrhoidopexy (PPH) and Milligan-Morgan haemorrhoidectomy (MM). METHODS: In a prospective randomized study, 40 patients requiring surgical treatment for prolapsing haemorrhoids grade II or III were assigned to either MM or PPH (20 each). Postoperative pain, wound healing were evaluated, as well as anal pressures and sphincter anatomy. Mean follow-up is 46 months. RESULTS: Postoperative pain at rest and during defecation was less important after PPH if no resection of external piles or skin tags was associated (P < 0.0001). Healing time was shorter after PPH (P < 0.0001). Endoanal ultrasound remained unchanged postoperatively. Resting and squeeze pressures decreased after MM, but not after PPH (P < 0.01). After a mean follow-up of 46 months (12-56), persistent or recurrent symptoms, mostly mild and temporary, were observed after both MM and PPH, in 7 and 11 patients respectively (NS). After PPH, five patients (25%) complained of recurrent external swelling and/or prolapse (P = 0.047 vs. MM) requiring redo surgery in four of them, after 10, 13, 14 and 21 months. No redo-surgery was required after MM. Long term patient satisfaction after PPH was not better than after MM. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative pain is less important after PPH. This advantage disappears if any resection is associated with the stapling. At medium to long-term follow-up, PPH seems to carry a higher risk of symptomatic external haemorrhoidal disease, needing further surgery.

Circadian rhythms of blood pressure after liver transplantation.

Twenty-four-hour systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate profiles were recorded in 17 liver-transplanted patients by noninvasive ambulatory monitoring and were analyzed with the periodogram method. These recordings were compared with those of control subjects matched for age, sex, and daytime ambulatory blood pressure. Abnormal blood pressure patterns were found in seven of the 17 patients, whereas the other 10 patients had circadian blood pressure profiles that were not different from those of control subjects. These two groups of liver-transplanted patients did not differ in age, sex, oral dose of cyclosporine, specific serum cyclosporine level, and proportion of patients receiving azathioprine and antihypertensive medications. In contrast, the daily oral dose of prednisolone was significantly higher (p < 0.001) in the seven patients with abnormal circadian blood pressure patterns. Moreover, only the daily oral dose of prednisolone was inversely correlated with the magnitude of the nighttime systolic and diastolic blood pressure decrease (r = -0.64 and r = -0.66, p < 0.01). In contrast to blood pressure, patients and control subjects had similar circadian heart rate variations. We conclude that exogenous glucocorticoid administration may have a dose-dependent effect on the nighttime blood pressure fall and may play an important role in the pathogenesis of the abnormal circadian blood pressure profiles observed in liver-transplanted patients.

Discordant heart xenografts in the rat. Additional effect of plasma exchange and cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, or splenectomy in delaying hyperacute rejection.

Natural antidonor antibodies are known to play a prominent role in hyperacute xenograft rejection. The aim of this work was to devise an experimental protocol to prolong the survival time of guinea pig heart xenografts transplanted into rats. A technique of continuous plasma exchange adapted to small animals was used to remove the natural cytotoxic antibodies from the recipient prior to the transplantation. In some experiments, cyclosporine (CsA), cyclophosphamide (CY), or splenectomy were associated with the plasma exchange. In this highly discordant xenogenic donor-recipient combination, the mean graft survival time in nontreated rats was 16 min. When an exchange of 1.5 plasma volume was performed 24 hr before the transplantation, no prolongation of the graft survival time was observed. When CsA, CY, or splenectomy were associated with the plasma exchange, the graft survival time was significantly increased by more than 2500% (up to 418 min with CsA). When used isolately, none of these 3 immunosuppressive methods was able to prolong the graft survival time. Natural cytotoxic antibodies were monitored by a complement-mediated cytotoxicity assay. After a plasma exchange, the titers decreased from 1:16-1:32 to 1:1-1:2. When no immunosuppressive method was associated with the plasma exchange, the antibodies returned to their initial level within the 24 hr that preceded the transplantation, and the graft was rejected as in nontreated animals. When an immunosuppressive method was associated with the plasma exchange, and particularly in the case of CsA, the titers remained low, and the hyperacute rejection was delayed. Therefore, it can be concluded that plasma exchanges, associated with CsA, are an efficient experimental protocol in the rat to increase the survival time of guinea pig heart xenografts. The effect of the treatment is correlated with the decrease in natural cytotoxic antidonor antibodies.

Synergistic necrotizing cellulitis after pneumonectomy.

Synergistic necrotizing cellulitis is a rapidly progressive infection of subcutaneous tissues and muscles. We report a rare case of synergistic necrotizing cellulitis of the chest wall occurring after a pneumonectomy in a patient without any predisposing factors. Despite rapid and aggressive treatment, the patient died in acute respiratory failure 28 h after the first signs of sepsis.

Mycoplasma hominis infection of perihepatic hematomas in a liver transplant recipient.

We report the case of a recipient of liver transplantation in whom postoperative perihepatic hematomas were infected by Mycoplasma hominis. Etiologic diagnosis was delayed because this organism is a rare cause of postoperative infection and usually does not grow on standard bacteriologic media. The role of M. hominis in postoperative infections and the diagnostic problems of this organism are discussed.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of Bartholin's gland: what is the optimal approach?

AIMS AND METHODS: We report the case of a locally advanced adenoid cystic carcinoma of Bartholin's gland which required posterior pelvic exenteration, radical vulvectomy and ablation of the ischiorectal fossa in order to obtain tumour clearance with negative margins. Including this case, only three pelvectomies have been performed for this disease. This is the first reported case in which a controlateral unsuspected intravulvar metastasis was found on histology. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: No consensus exists on the adequate surgical management of this particular disease. Nevertheless, a review of the literature and this reported case suggest that radical vulvectomy with negative margins should be preferred to wide local excision as the primary surgical procedure. It also suggests that inguinofemoral lymph-node dissection should only be performed when suspect lymph nodes are found at clinical examination.

Lymphangiomyoma.

A case report is presented of the incidental finding of a lymphangiomyoma in a 50-year-old woman who underwent total hysterectomy for squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. The condition seems to occur only in women after puberty and so far, has been mainly reported in association with chylothorax or chylous ascites. There is no evidence of any clinical complication more than 2 years after removal of the lesion. The lesion is most likely a hamartoma although the term lymphangiomyoma is acceptable. The term lymphangiomyomatosis is best reserved for the fully developed clinico-pathological syndrome.

Extended extradural spinal arachnoid cyst: an unusual cause of progressive spastic paraparesis.

A 15-year old girl presented with a slowly progressive spastic paraparesis since the age of 12. Creatine kinase was slightly increased. Muscle biopsy carried out during tendon surgery for severe toe-walking showed 'myopathic' changes. Subsequent neurological evaluation and radiological studies revealed a large extradural arachnoid cyst extending from the 11th thoracic vertebra to the first lumbar vertebra. Her condition improved after operation. The 'myopathic' features turned out to be the result of chronic spinal compression. MRI is the method of choice to examine patients with non-hereditary progressive spastic paraparesis. Muscle biopsy and tendon surgery should not be performed, without careful neurological examination.

Kikuchi's lymphadenitis: report of a Yersinia enterocolitica-associated case and an overview of aetiology and clinical outcome.

Kikuchi's lymphadenitis (KL; histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis without granulocytic infiltration) is a generally benign, febrile disorder of unknown aetiology with distinct histological features. To date, a minority of cases reported have been associated with infectious agents. A typical pathological case of KL is described where involvement of Yersinia enterocolitica was shown by an indirect immunofluorescent assay applied to lymphatic tissue. The case is discussed with emphasis on recent insight into the course and aetiology of KL.

Liver transplantation for fulminant and subacute viral hepatic failure in adults.

In our early experience, orthotopic liver transplantation was found to be successful in fulminant and subacute hepatic failure due to viral hepatitis in adults, with 66% 1-year survival rate. In the future, more accurate prognostic criteria would probably improve overall survival rate in acute hepatic failure, by allowing better and earlier selection of patients requiring liver transplantation.