Preoperative Diagnosis and Medical Treatment of Pelvic Actinomycosis

The diagnosis of the pelvic actinomycosis is seldom made preoperatively because of no reliable or specific clinical manifestation which has tendency to mimic advanced gynecological malignancy and the relative infrequency of the disease. To explore the method for improvement of preoperative diagnosis and possibility of avoiding the surgical management of pelvic actinomycosis, we collected and summarized the data of age, parity, state of menopause, history of intrauterine device (IUD) use, symptoms, laboratory findings, radiologic findings, provisional diagnosis and treatment from 14 cases diagnosed pathologically and treated in Hanyang University Hospital from 2000 to 2007. Eleven (78.6%) of 14 cases were IUD users. Most common complaints were lower abdominal pain (71.4%) and vaginal discharge (57.1%) which were followed by fever (28.6%) and back pain (28.6%). Four cases (28.6%) were identified as pelvic actinomycosis before operation and in 3 cases (21.4%) malignancy was provisional preoperative diagnosis. Pelvic actinomycosis was suspected via abdominal computed tomography (CT) or cervicovaginal cytology and confirmed via endometrial biopsy or fine needle aspiration biopsy. Two cases that were diagnosed before operation and received only antibiotics therapy had no recurrence. It was suggested that pelvic actinomycosis could be suspected via abdominal CT and cervicovaginal cytology in IUD users, and endometrial biopsy and fine needle aspiration biopsy may help establish the diagnosis before the operation. Adequate preoperative antibiotics therapy could make extensive exploratory surgery avoided or conservative surgery feasible.

Vesicovaginal fistula repaired by laparoscopic surgery: A case report / 대한산부인과학회지

Vesicovaginal fistula may be a complication of gynecologic and obstetric procedures, of which abdominal hysterectomy remains as the most common cause. Although there are a number of transvaginal or transabdominal surgical techniques for the correction of this condition, we performed a laparoscopic repair to reduce the morbidity of the transabdominal approach. A 44-year-old woman presented with urinary incontinence after undergoing Cesarean hysterectomy for uterine atony eight years ago. After confirming her vesicovaginal fistula, laparoscopic repair was performed. The bladder and vaginal walls were mobilized by meticulous dissection and repaired by intracorporeal stitches in 2 layers followed by omental interposition. Total operative time was 3 and half hours and estimated blood loss was about 400 ml. Foley catheter was removed at 23rd day after operation. Patient was discharged at 26th day after confirming the complete correction of the fistula by cystogram. Laparoscopic repair of a vesicovaginal fistula appears to be a safe and effective procedure. We report this case with a brief review of literature.

The peripatetic placenta(II) / 대한주산의학회잡지

No abstract available.