Laparoscopic and open liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis: multicentre propensity score-matched study.

BACKGROUND: Laparoscopic liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in Child-Pugh A cirrhosis has been demonstrated as beneficial. However, the role of laparoscopy in Child-Pugh B cirrhosis is undetermined. The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to compare open and laparoscopic resection for HCC with Child-Pugh B cirrhosis. METHODS: Data on liver resections were gathered from 17 centres. A 1 : 1 propensity score matching was performed according to 17 predefined variables. RESULTS: Of 382 available liver resections, 100 laparoscopic and 100 open resections were matched and analysed. The 90-day postoperative mortality rate was similar in open and laparoscopic groups (4.0 versus 2.0 per cent respectively; P = 0.687). Laparoscopy was associated with lower blood loss (median 110 ml versus 400 ml in the open group; P = 0.004), less morbidity (38.0 versus 51.0 per cent respectively; P = 0.041) and fewer major complications (7.0 versus 21.0 per cent; P = 0.010), and ascites was lower on postoperative days 1, 3 and 5. For laparoscopic resections, patients with portal hypertension developed more complications than those without (26 versus 12 per cent respectively; P = 0.002), and patients with a Child-Pugh B9 score had higher morbidity rates than those with B8 and B7 (7 of 8, 10 of 16 and 21 of 76 respectively; P < 0.001). Median hospital stay was 7.5 (range 2-243) days for laparoscopic liver resection and 18 (3-104) days for the open approach (P = 0.058). The 5-year overall survival rate was 47 per cent for open and 65 per cent for laparoscopic resection (P = 0.142). The 5-year disease-free survival rate was 32 and 37 per cent respectively (P = 0.742). CONCLUSION: Patients without preoperative portal hypertension and Child-Pugh B7 cirrhosis may benefit most from laparoscopic liver surgery.

Training value of laparoscopic colorectal videos on the World Wide Web: a pilot study on the educational quality of laparoscopic right hemicolectomy videos.

INTRODUCTION: Instructive laparoscopy videos with appropriate exposition could be ideal for initial training in laparoscopic surgery, but unfortunately there are no guidelines for annotating these videos or agreed methods to measure the educational content and the safety of the procedure presented. Aim of this study is to systematically search the World Wide Web to determine the availability of laparoscopic colorectal surgery videos and to objectively establish their potential training value. METHODS: A search for laparoscopic right hemicolectomy videos was performed on the three most used English language web search engines Google.com, Bing.com, and Yahoo.com; moreover, a survey among 25 local trainees was performed to identify additional websites for inclusion. All laparoscopic right hemicolectomy videos with an English language title were included. Videos of open surgery, single incision laparoscopic surgery, robotic, and hand-assisted surgery were excluded. The safety of the demonstrated procedure was assessed with a validated competency assessment tool specifically designed for laparoscopic colorectal surgery and data on the educational content of the video were extracted. RESULTS: Thirty-one websites were identified and 182 surgical videos were included. One hundred and seventy-three videos (95%) detailed the year of publication; this demonstrated a significant increase in the number of videos published per year from 2009. Characteristics of the patient were rarely presented, only 10 videos (5.4%) reported operating time and only 6 videos (3.2%) reported 30-day morbidity; 34 videos (18.6%) underwent a peer-review process prior to publication. Formal case presentation, the presence of audio narration, the use of diagrams, and snapshots and a step-by-step approach are all characteristics of peer-reviewed videos but no significant difference was found in the safety of the procedure. CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic videos can be a useful adjunct to operative training. There is a large and increasing amount of material available for free on the internet, but this is currently unregulated.

Confocal laser endomicroscopy in ulcerative colitis: beyond endoscopic assessment of disease activity.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) in the assessment of disease activity in ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: Consecutive patients with UC referred to our inflammatory bowel disease unit for colonoscopy were enrolled. Patients without UC were used as controls. UC activity was evaluated by white light endoscopy and classified according to the Mayo Ulcerative Colitis Endoscopic Score of Severity. Endoscopic biopsies were also taken for histological assessment of disease activity and then assessed with CLE. Three parameters were evaluated; crypt architecture (crypt diameter, inter-crypt distance, presence of fused crypts, crypts regularity), microvascular pattern (regular, dilated, irregular and deformed), fluorescein leakage. RESULTS: Fifty patients with UC and 10 controls were enrolled. At colonoscopy, 11 patients (22%), 19 patients (38%), 12 patients (24%) and 8 patients (16%) presented a Mayo score of 0, 1, 2 and 3, respectively. At CLE, fused crypts were present in all the patients with UC and absent in controls. Crypt diameter and inter-crypt distance showed a parallel increase with the Mayo score. Fluorescein leakage and irregular vessels were more frequently found in case of a high level of endoscopic severity, but were also identified in about 20% of UC patients with normal mucosa. Biopsies also demonstrated the presence of histological activity in 4 patients with endoscopically inactive colitis. CONCLUSIONS: CLE might be a useful tool to determine inflammatory activity in UC. Fused crypts appeared to be a CLE marker of UC, while other abnormalities, like microvascular alteration and fluorescein leakage, have also been identified in patients with mucosal healing at endoscopy. Larger series are required to validate these results and the advantages of a CLE-based assessment of UC activity.

Meta-analysis of drain amylase content on postoperative day 1 as a predictor of pancreatic fistula following pancreatic resection.

BACKGROUND: Drain amylase content in the days immediately after major pancreatic resection has been investigated previously as a predictor of postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF). Its accuracy, however, has not been determined conclusively. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of drain amylase content on the first day after major pancreatic resection in predicting the occurrence of POPF. METHODS: A literature search of the MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus(®) databases to 13 May 2015 was performed to identify studies evaluating the accuracy of drain amylase values on day 1 after surgery in predicting the occurrence of POPF. The area under the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUChSROC ) was calculated as an index of accuracy, and pooled estimates of accuracy indices (sensitivity and specificity) were calculated at different cut-off levels. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses were performed to test the robustness of the results. RESULTS: Thirteen studies involving 4416 patients were included. The AUChSROC was 0·89 (95 per cent c.i. 0·86 to 0·92) for clinically significant POPF and 0·88 (0·85 to 0·90) for POPF of any grade. Pooled estimates of sensitivity and specificity were calculated for the different cut-offs: 90-100 units/l (0·96 and 0·54 respectively), 350 units/l (0·91 and 0·84) and 5000 units/l (0·59 and 0·91). Accuracy was independent of the type of operation, type of anastomosis performed and octreotide administration. CONCLUSION: Evaluation of drain amylase content on the first day after surgery is highly accurate in predicting POPF following major pancreatic resection. It may allow early drain removal and institution of an enhanced recovery pathway.

In vivo assessment of tumour angiogenesis in colorectal cancer: the role of confocal laser endomicroscopy.

AIM: Tumour neoangiogenesis is a key factor in tumour progression and metastatic spread and the possibility to assess tumour angiogenesis might provide prognostic information. The aim of this study was to establish the role of probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (p-CLE) in the identification of vascular architecture and specific morphological patterns in normal colorectal mucosa and malignant lesions during routine endoscopy. METHOD: Fourteen consecutive patients with colorectal cancer were included. The following features were identified and then compared between normal and neoplastic mucosa on p-CLE images: vessel shape (straight vs irregular) vessel diameter the 'branching patterns' vessel permeability (fluorescein leakage) and blood flow (normal vs defective flux). Immunohistochemistry was used to confirm the presence and to study the morphology of vascular structures (CD-34 staining) and 'neo-vessels' (WT-1 staining) on tumour and normal mucosal sections. RESULTS: Tumour vessels appeared as irregular, ectatic and with a highly variable calibre and branching patterns on p-CLE images. The mean diameter of tumour vessels was significantly larger than those in normal mucosa (weighted mean difference 3.38, 95% CI 2.65-4.11, P = 0.01). Similarly, 'vessel branching' (OR 2.74, 95% CI 1.23-6.14, P = 0.01), fluorescent dye 'extravasation' (OR 3.46, 95% CI 1.39-8.57, P = 0.01) were significantly more frequent in colorectal cancer than in normal colorectal mucosa. Immunohistochemistry corroborated the p-CLE findings, showing higher vascularity in tumour sections due to neoformed vessels, presenting irregular patterns. CONCLUSION: Probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy provides a noninvasive characterization of the microvascular architecture of colonic mucosa. Different morphological patterns have been described, discriminating normal and malignant microvascular networks in colorectal mucosa.

Madelung disease : report of a case and review of the literature.

Madelung disease is a rare disorder characterized by the presence of multiple, symmetric, nonencapsulated fatty accumulations diffusely involving the cheeks, the neck, the upper trunk, the shoulder girdle area, and the upper extremities. The cause of this syndrome is unknown, but it has been associated with alcoholism in 60% to 90% of -patients. The long-term lipomatous deposits are often large and cosmetically deforming, and the upper aerodigestive tract and great veins may be compressed. We report the case of a man with MD, involving the cervical and upper dorsal -regions, who underwent surgical treatment at our Department.

"Masked" Philadelphia chromosome resulting from a t(X;22) in chronic myeloid leukemia.

A rare cytogenetic finding in chronic myeloid leukemia is reported. It consisted in a "masked" Philadelphia chromosome, resulting from an unusual translocation between chromosomes #22 and X. The t(X;22) was present in 100% of direct and cultured bone marrow cell preparations. Chromosome #9 did not seem to be involved in the formation of the Ph marker. Involvement of the X chromosome in karyotypic changes of hematologic diseases, with particular respect to chronic myeloid leukemia, is discussed.

Translocation t(8;16)(p11;p13) in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia (M4) possibly secondary to Hodgkin's disease.

Simultaneous involvement of bands 8p11 and 16p13 in a primary, even though rare, chromosomal translocation recently described in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia may be of crucial interest in some subtypes of this acute leukemia, particularly in the monocytic form. In the present report we describe this translocation in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia FAB M4, possibly secondary to Hodgkin's disease, though it is also possible that the leukemia may have developed de novo. The aberration t(8;16)(p11;p13) was present in 100% of direct and cultured bone marrow cell preparations. A very high frequency of cells with nonclonal structural chromosome aberrations was also observed in peripheral blood cultures (more than 53%). Random translocations and deletions constituted most of the observed alterations. These findings are discussed with regard to the relationships between secondary leukemias and intensive polychemotherapeutic treatments of primary neoplasias.

Cytogenetic findings in secondary acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

We have report the results of cytogenetic studies carried out in eight patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia developed after primary neoplasias. In seven of the reported cases, clonal chromosome aberrations were found, some being specific of de novo acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL). Numerical abnormalities were detected, such as the total monosomy of chromosomes 5, 7, 21, trisomy of chromosomes 8, 11, 15, and duplication of chromosome Y. Structural changes were also observed: a del(12)(p12), a del(16)(q22), the translocations t(3;5)(p21;q35),t(3;7)(p21;q35), and t(12;14)(p12;q32) and other changes involving chromosome 8. The finding of a hypertetraploid karyotype with complex structural chromosome aberrations in a patient with erythroleukemia, developed after non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, is of particular interest. Data reported in this work are discussed with regard to the relationship between secondary and de novo ANLL and the finding of chromosome aberrations other than total or partial monosomy of chromosomes 5 and 7 is emphasized.

Clastogenic and aneuploidizing effects of antiblastic busulphan revealed by kinetochore immunofluorescence in CHO cells.

We utilized, in CHO cells, the cytoplasm preservation technique to evaluate the micronucleus frequency at different busulphan concentrations, and the indirect immunofluorescence technique, using sera obtained from patients with scleroderma (CREST variant), to analyze if busulphan-induced micronuclei have kinetochores. Results show that this alkylating agent is capable of causing a significant increase of micronuclei in vitro, a great part (40%) of them having CREST-positive kinetochores. These findings confirm the clastogenic effect of busulphan and reveal a considerable capability of this agent to induce aneuploidy. These results are examined taking into account the high incidence of secondary neoplasias induced by chemotherapy with alkylating agents utilized against primary neoplasias.

t(1;2), inv(1) and trisomy 1q during the blastic phase of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia.

Several karyotype changes observed during the blastic phase in 2 patients with Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are reported. Rearrangements involving chromosome 1, i.e., translocations, a pericentric inversion and trisomies of its long arm, are described. In the first patient whose chronic phase was very long (17 years), the uncommon association between i(17q) and Ph duplication has been observed during the blastic phase, beside the involvement of chromosome 1. In the second patient, additional abnormalities involving chromosomes 1, 2, 4, 8, 18 and 21 were present. Of particular interest is the finding of a t(1;2). In this case, the presence of hyperdiploid cells with 49-50 chromosomes, prevailing at the blastic crisis, was due to the evolution of the hypodiploid clone with the 45,XX,t(9;22),-21 karyotype found during the chronic phase. The occurrence of chromosomal changes involving chromosome 1 during the blastic phase of CML is emphasized.