Completely Intracorporeal Handsewn Laparoscopic Anastomoses During Whipple Procedure.

BACKGROUND: Whipple procedure has been described since 1935,1 using classic open surgery. With the advent of minimally invasive surgery (MIS), it has been described to be feasible using the latest technology.2 , 3 In this video the authors report a full laparoscopic Whipple procedure, realizing the three anastomoses by intracorporeal handsewn method. VIDEO: A 70-year-old man who presented with adenocarcinoma of the ampulla of Vater, infiltrating the pancreatic parenchyma underwent to a laparoscopic Whipple. Preoperative work-up shows a T3N1M0 tumor. RESULTS: No perioperative complications were registered. The pancreatico-jejunostomy was created in end-to-side fashion using two PDS 3/0 running sutures (Fig. 1), the hepatico-jejunostomy in end-to-side method using two PDS 4/0 running sutures (Fig. 2), and the gastro-jejunostomy in end-to-side method using two PDS 1 running sutures (Fig. 3). Total operative time was 8 h 20 min. Time for the dissection was 6 h 20 min, time for the specimen's extraction was 20 min, and time for the three laparoscopic intracorporeal handsewn anastomoses was 1 h 40 min. Operative bleeding was 350 cc. Patient was discharged on postoperative day 9. Pathologic report confirmed the moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma of the ampulla of Vater, with perinervous infiltration and lymphovascular emboli, free margins, 2 metastatic lymphnodes on 23 isolated; 8 edition UICC stade: pT3bN1. CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic Whipple remains an advanced procedure to be performed by laparoscopy as well as by open surgery. All the advantages of MIS, such as reduced abdominal trauma, less postoperative pain, shorter hospital stay, improved patient's comfort, and enhanced cosmesis are offered using using laparoscopy.

Surgical management of duodenal stump fistula after elective gastrectomy for malignancy: an Italian retrospective multicenter study.

BACKGROUND: Duodenal stump fistula (DSF) is a severe complication of gastrectomy. Although nonsurgical therapy is preferred, surgery is still mandatory in one third of DSF patients. The aim of this article is to analyze the surgical management of DSF and factors related to its outcome. METHODS: We performed a retrospective multicenter study using data from January 1990 to November 2011 in 16 Italian surgery centers. We collected 8,268 elective gastrectomies for malignancies, 7,987 by the laparotomic and 281 by the laparoscopic approach. Two hundred five patients developed a DSF, 75 of whom underwent surgery for DSF. We analyzed mortality and DSF healing time as well as the impact of clinical, oncological, and surgical characteristics. RESULTS: The laparoscopic approach increased the risk of DSF development (odds ratio 5.6, 95% confidence interval 2.7-10.6, P < 0.001). The indication for first DSF surgery was intra-abdominal sepsis; the failure rate was over 30%, associated with the appearance of fistulas of neighboring organs, bleeding, and the need for reoperations. The mortality rate was 28% and was related to the presence of vascular disease (P = 0.04), more than one reoperation (P = 0.05), sepsis (P < 0.001), and renal failure (P < 0.001). Fifty-four patients recovered after a median of 39 days (interquartile range 22-68 days); the need to perform more reoperations (P < 0.01) and the presence of an abdominal abscess (P < 0.01) led to an increase in healing time. CONCLUSIONS: Surgery for DSF has a poor prognosis. Our data will help to identify patients at risk of death, but unfortunately could not establish the best surgical procedure applicable to all cases of DSF.

The impact of colorectal screening program on the detection of right-sided colorectal cancer. A 5-year cohort study in the Mantua District.

BACKGROUND: High rates of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) are still diagnosed in the right side of the colon. This study aimed to investigate whether screening programs increase CRC detection and whether tumor location is associated with survival outcome. METHODS: Patients affected by CRC, aged from 50 to 69 years and operated on from 2005 to 2009 were reviewed. Other than patient-, disease-, and treatment-related factors, detection mode and tumor location were recorded. Overall (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were investigated, using univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: Mean age of 386 patients included was 62.0 years, 59 % were males. CRC was detected by screening in 17 % of cases, and diagnosis was made from symptoms in 67 % and emergency surgery for 16 %. Screen-detected CRCs were located in the left colon (59 %), then in rectum (25 %) and in proximal colon (16 %) (p = 0.02). Most of CRC patients urgently operated on had cancer located in proximal colon (45 %), then in the left colon (36 %) and in rectum (18 %) (p = 0.001). Right-sided CRC demonstrated higher pTNM stage (p = 0.001), adequate harvest count nodes (p = 0.0001), metastatic nodes (p = 0.02), and poor differentiation grading (p = 0.0001). With multivariate analysis, poor differentiation grade was independently associated with both worse OS (HR 3.6, p = 0.05) and worse DFS (HR 8.1, p = 0.0001), while distant recurrence was associated with worse OS (HR 20.1, p = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Low rates of right-sided CRC are diagnosed following screening program. Proximal CRC demonstrates aggressive behavior without impact on outcome. These findings prompt concern about population awareness for CRC screening.

The CHOLEGAS study: multicentric randomized, blinded, controlled trial of gastrectomy plus prophylactic cholecystectomy versus gastrectomy only, in adults submitted to gastric cancer surgery with curative intent.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of gallstones and gallbladder sludge is known to be higher in patients after gastrectomy than in general population. This higher incidence is probably related to surgical dissection of the vagus nerve branches and the anatomical gastrointestinal reconstruction. Therefore, some surgeons perform routine concomitant cholecystectomy during standard surgery for gastric malignancies. However, not all the patients who are diagnosed to have cholelithiasis after gastric cancer surgery will develop symptoms or require additional surgical treatments and a standard laparoscopic cholecystectomy is feasible even in those patients who underwent previous gastric surgery. At the present, no randomized study has been published and the decision of gallbladder management is left to each surgeon preference. DESIGN: The study is a randomized controlled investigation. The study will be performed in the General and Oncologic Surgery, Department of Oncology-Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Careggi-Florence-Italy, a large teaching institution, with the participation of all surgeons who accept to be involved in, together with other Italian Surgical Centers, on behalf of the GIRCG (Italian Research Group for Gastric Cancer).The patients will be randomized into two groups: in the first group the patient will be submitted to prophylactic cholecystectomy during standard surgery for curable gastric cancer (subtotal or total gastrectomy), while in the second group he/she will be submitted to standard gastric surgery only. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID. NCT00757640.