Small bowel volvulus due to a large intestinal lipoma: A rare case report.

INTRODUCTION: A lipoma of the small bowel mesentery is a uncommon clinical entity. It rarely causes obstruction and volvulus of the small bowel. CASE REPORT: A 63 year old man was admitted to the emergency department with acute abdominal pain. Contrast-enhanced CT abdominal scan revealed small bowel obstruction due to a large fat density lesion suspected to be a lipoma. We performed a laparotomy in urgent setting that confirmed a small bowel volvulus secondary to a large antimesenteric lipoma. En-bloc resection with antiperistaltic side-to-side ileal anastomosis was done. DISCUSSION: Mesenteric lipoma is rare. They are usually asymptomatic but when have large sizes can cause several symptoms related to small bowel obstruction or volvulus. The diagnosis is difficult and is rarely made prior to exploratory laparoscopy or laparotomy. CT scan is the gold-standard imaging technique. It can shows the typical characteristics of tumor and may demonstrate the typical "vortex" pattern of a volvulus. In patients with acute clinical presentation en-bloc resection of the lipoma with the affected small bowel loops is often necessary. This treatment may also be reserved in asymptomatic patients with large mesenteric lipomas to avoid future complications. CONCLUSION: Volvulus of the small bowel caused by an antimesenteric lipoma is a very rare entity. It is diagnosed by CT scan and surgery represents the standard treatment.

Innovation in endocrine surgery: robotic versus laparoscopic adrenalectomy. Meta-analysis and systematic literature review.

Several studies in the last years demonstrated the better surgical outcome of laparoscopic approach to adrenal gland. Laparoscopic surgery is more difficult to learn and requires different psychomotor skills than open surgery, especially with regard to complex maneuvers requiring precision and dexterity. The development of robotic platform with three-dimensional vision and increased degrees of freedom of the surgical instruments has the aim to overcome these problems. We performed a systematic literature review with meta-analysis to evaluate preoperative data and surgical outcomes of robotic adrenalectomy compared with laparoscopic technique. In September 2016 we performed a systematic literature review using the Pubmed, Scopus and ISI web of knowledge database with search term "robotic adrenalectomy". We identified 13 studies with eligible criteria that compared surgical outcomes. This present systematic review with meta-analysis includes 798 patients: 379 underwent to robotic adrenalectomy (cases group) and 419 to laparoscopic adrenalectomy (controls group). There were no significant differences between the two groups of patients respect to age, gender, laterality and tumor size. BMI instead was significant lower in the robotic group. In this group we found also patients with higher incidence of previous abdominal surgery. The results from operative time demonstrated lower operative time for laparoscopic group but there were no significant differences with robotic group. Robotic adrenalectomy showed a significant lower blood loss. Robotic adrenalectomy is a safe and feasible technique with reduced blood loss and shorter hospital stay than laparoscopic adrenalectomy. Laparoscopic approach seems to be a more rapid technique when comparing to robotic technique, although recent studies demonstrate a significant operative time reduction in robotic group with the learning curve improvement and the development of new surgical technology.