Adhesions Detection and Staging Classification for Preoperative Assessment of Difficult Laparoscopic Cholecystectomies: A Prospective Case-Control Study.

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is the treatment of choice for cholelithiasis; however, there are procedural difficulties in determining preoperative detection of a difficult LC. The current methods using clinical and sonographic variables to identify difficult LCs have limitations to identify gallbladder adhesions which form the most common cause. We present a new method of evaluation using acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI)-based virtual touch imaging (VTI) for the detection and classification of these patients. Methods: Fifty consecutive patients of cholelithiasis were evaluated preoperatively using conventional scoring system (CSS) and by new adhesion detection and staging (ADS) system, and patients were classified into three classes (I-III) with class I being easy, II and III being moderate-to-high difficulty LCs. Peroperative classification was done based on the difficulty level during surgery after visualization of gallbladder adhesions. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curves (AUCs) of both systems were compared. Results: Out of 50 patients, 72% and 54% of patients were in class I by CSS and ADS classification, while 28% and 46% were in class II and III, respectively, and were labeled as difficult LC cases; differences being two classifications were statistically significant (P = 0.02). Sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and accuracy for ADS were 91%, 100%, 93.1%, and 96.0%, and for CSS, 60.9%, 100%, 75%, and 82% with AUCs of 1.0 and 0.63, respectively. Conclusion: ARFI-based VTI accurately detects gallbladder adhesions and can determine the difficult cases of LCs preoperatively using ADS classification and shows higher accuracy than CSS classification, which results in lower operative time and risk of complications.

Real-time elastography in the detection of prostate cancer in patients with raised PSA level.

The study was done to evaluate the role of real-time elastosonography (ES) in the detection of prostate cancer (PCa) in 50 consecutive patients with raised PSA level and to determine whether ES can be of use to perform a targeted biopsy. Fifty consecutive patients with raised PSA levels underwent transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) and ES examination. ES images with adequate compression and a quality factor of more than 50% were analyzed for areas of increased glandular stiffness. The ES findings were correlated with the targeted and 10-core biopsy and sensitivity, specificity calculated on per patient and per core basis. ES showed a sensitivity and specificity of 91.7% and 86.8% on per patient basis, respectively, with a false positive rate of 13%. The calculated sensitivity and specificity on per core basis of ES targeted biopsy was 72.5% and 100% compared with 100% and 81% of 10-core systematic biopsy group. The study concludes that combining ES with TRUS significantly improves the sensitivity to detect carcinoma prostate in patients with raised PSA, however, ES is unable to differentiate PCa from chronic prostatitis. The use of ES for targeted biopsy also improves the specificity over a 10-core systematic biopsy.

Real-time elastography in differentiating metastatic from nonmetastatic liver nodules.

The study was designed to evaluate the role of real-time elastography in differentiating metastatic from nonmetastatic liver nodules, which include various benign lesions, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) nodules and lymphoma. Out of 1000 prospective patients who underwent abdominal ultrasound (US) examination, 48 patients had liver nodules. Nodule stiffness was determined by real-time elastography (ES) using color maps and shear wave velocity (SWV) and nodules having marked stiffness or SWV of more than 2.5 m/s were diagnosed as metastatic. The final diagnosis was made on fine needle aspiration cytology. No statistically significant differences were seen on elastomaps in the stiffness of metastatic and nonmetastatic nodules (p = 0.16) while SWV showed statistically significant differences in the strain velocities of benign, metastatic and heptocellular carcinoma nodules p < 0.0001 and < 0.008, respectively. At a cutoff value of SWV 2.5 m/s, the sensitivity, specificity and false positive to detect metastatic nodules by ES were 88%, 83% and 16%, respectively. When the SWV cut off value was set at 2.0 m/s the sensitivity, specificity and false positive were 94%, 70% and 29%, respectively. The study showed that estimation of SWV by ES at a cut off value of 2.5 m/s was a better and a more useful tool in diagnosing both solid and necrotic metastatic liver nodules compared with the color stiffness maps alone.

Evaluation of Lichtenstein's technique of inguinal hernia repair under local analgesia.

Lichtenstein's technique of inguinal hernia repair under local analgesia using polypropylene mesh has been evaluated in 52 cases. The evaluation was done particularly with regard to infective complications, any incidence of the mesh remoal and recurrence. The follow-up period was 2 - 3 years. After usual herniotomy, a piece of polypropylene mesh was used to reinforce the posterior wall of inguinal canal, making a neo-internal ring for spermatic cord and fixing the mesh inferiorly to the shelving part of the inguinal ligament and superiorly to the conjoint muscle and tendon. After a follow-up of 2-3 years, mesh was not required to be removed from any patient or no report of recurrence took place in any case.