Secondary disseminated intraperitoneal hydatid cyst: A case report.

INTRODUCTION: Hydatidosis is an uncommon zoonotic infection in the Philippines with only a few reported cases. It frequently presents as benign liver cysts with variable symptoms often related to mass effect. CASE PRESENTATION: We present a 49-year-old male with a significant travel history from East and Central Asia, surgically treated twice as a benign liver cyst and now presenting with recurrent multiple intraabdominal cysts. He subsequently underwent surgical excision of multiple hydatid cysts with prolonged albendazole treatment. The patient presently remains disease-free as of most recent follow-up. DISCUSSION: The disease is caused by the tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus and transmission happens when humans acting as intermediate host ingest food contaminated with the parasite eggs, resulting to the liver being the most common location. Frequently, it manifests and is treated as incidental hepatic cysts for the disease is characterized to have a long asymptomatic period. Symptoms are variable and may range from having abdominal pain, increasing abdominal girth, vomiting, fever or myalgia. Ultrasound or CT scan reveals single or multiple cysts however, biopsy of the cyst wall with demonstration of the larval form (protoscoleces) is diagnostic. CONCLUSION: This case highlights the value of history-taking and having a high-index of suspicion particularly for rare cases.

Luteal versus follicular phase surgical oophorectomy plus tamoxifen in premenopausal women with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

PURPOSE: In premenopausal women with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, hormonal therapy is the first-line therapy. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue + tamoxifen therapies have been found to be more effective. The pattern of recurrence risk over time after primary surgery suggests that peri-operative factors impact recurrence. Secondary analyses of an adjuvant trial suggested that the luteal phase timing of surgical oophorectomy in the menstrual cycle simultaneous with primary breast surgery favourably influenced long-term outcomes. METHODS: Two hundred forty-nine premenopausal women with incurable or metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer entered a trial in which they were randomised to historical mid-luteal or mid-follicular phase surgical oophorectomy followed by oral tamoxifen treatment. Kaplan-Meier methods, the log-rank test, and multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess overall and progression-free survival (PFS) in the two randomised groups and by hormone-confirmed menstrual cycle phase. RESULTS: Overall survival (OS) and PFS were not demonstrated to be different in the two randomised groups. In a secondary analysis, OS appeared worse in luteal phase surgery patients with progesterone levels <2 ng/ml (anovulatory patients; adjusted hazard ratio 1.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.89-2.41, p = 0.14) compared with those in luteal phase with progesterone level of 2 ng/ml or higher. Median OS was 2 years (95% CI: 1.7-2.3) and OS at 4 years was 26%. CONCLUSIONS: The history-based timing of surgical oophorectomy in the menstrual cycle did not influence outcomes in this trial of metastatic patients. ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT00293540.

Timing of adjuvant surgical oophorectomy in the menstrual cycle and disease-free and overall survival in premenopausal women with operable breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: For women with hormone receptor-positive, operable breast cancer, surgical oophorectomy plus tamoxifen is an effective adjuvant therapy. We conducted a phase III randomized clinical trial to test the hypothesis that oophorectomy surgery performed during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle was associated with better outcomes. METHODS: Seven hundred forty premenopausal women entered a clinical trial in which those women estimated not to be in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle for the next one to six days (n = 509) were randomly assigned to receive treatment with surgical oophorectomy either delayed to be during a five-day window in the history-estimated midluteal phase of the menstrual cycles, or in the next one to six days. Women who were estimated to be in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle for the next one to six days (n = 231) were excluded from random assignment and received immediate surgical treatments. All patients began tamoxifen within 6 days of surgery and continued this for 5 years. Kaplan-Meier methods, the log-rank test, and multivariable Cox regression models were used to assess differences in five-year disease-free survival (DFS) between the groups. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: The randomized midluteal phase surgery group had a five-year DFS of 64%, compared with 71% for the immediate surgery random assignment group (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91 to 1.68, P = .18). Multivariable Cox regression models, which included important prognostic variables, gave similar results (aHR = 1.28, 95% CI = 0.94 to 1.76, P = .12). For overall survival, the univariate hazard ratio was 1.33 (95% CI = 0.94 to 1.89, P = .11) and the multivariable aHR was 1.43 (95% CI = 1.00 to 2.06, P = .05). Better DFS for follicular phase surgery, which was unanticipated, proved consistent across multiple exploratory analyses. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesized benefit of adjuvant luteal phase oophorectomy was not shown in this large trial.

Antibiotic management of complicated intra-abdominal infections in adults: The Asian perspective.

Regional epidemiological data and resistance profiles are essential for selecting appropriate antibiotic therapy for intra-abdominal infections (IAIs). However, such information may not be readily available in many areas of Asia and current international guidelines on antibiotic therapy for IAIs are for Western countries, with the most recent guidance for the Asian region dating from 2007. Therefore, the Asian Consensus Taskforce on Complicated Intra-Abdominal Infections (ACT-cIAI) was convened to develop updated recommendations for antibiotic management of complicated IAIs (cIAIs) in Asia. This review article is based on a thorough literature review of Asian and international publications related to clinical management, epidemiology, microbiology, and bacterial resistance patterns in cIAIs, combined with the expert consensus of the Taskforce members. The microbiological profiles of IAIs in the Asian region are outlined and compared with Western data, and the latest available data on antimicrobial resistance in key pathogens causing IAIs in Asia is presented. From this information, antimicrobial therapies suitable for treating cIAIs in patients in Asian settings are proposed in the hope that guidance relevant to Asian practices will prove beneficial to local physicians managing IAIs.

Bone mineral density following surgical oophorectomy and tamoxifen adjuvant therapy for breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: In premenopausal women treated for breast cancer, loss of bone mineral density (BMD) follows from menopause induced by chemotherapy or loss of ovarian function biochemically or by surgical oophorectomy. The impact on BMD of surgical oophorectomy plus tamoxifen therapy has not been described. METHODS: In 270 Filipino and Vietnamese premenopausal patients participating in a clinical trial assessing the impact of the timing in the menstrual cycle of adjuvant surgical oophorectomy on breast cancer outcomes, BMD was measured at the lumbar spine and femoral neck before this treatment, and at 6, 12, and 24 months after surgical and tamoxifen therapies. RESULTS: In women with a pretreatment BMD assessment and at least 1 other subsequent BMD assessment, no significant change in femoral neck BMD was observed over the 2-year period (-0.006 g/cm2 , -0.8%, P = .19), whereas in the lumbar spine, BMD fell by 0.045 g/cm2 (4.7%) in the first 12 months (P < .0001) and then began to stabilize. CONCLUSIONS: Surgically induced menopause with tamoxifen treatment is associated with loss of BMD at a rate that lessens over 2 years in the lumbar spine and no significant change of BMD in the femoral neck.

Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on some important aspects of the care of critically ill surgical patients Part II: Surgical intensive care units, implementation of guidelines

The first part of the critical care guidelines of the Philippine College of Surgeons (PCS) and supported by Glaxo Wellcome Philippines, Inc. dealt with resuscitation fluids, blood transfusion, assessment of volume resuscitation, nutritional support and cardiovascular support. The second part deals with the last 2 aspects identified by the Technical Working Group (TWG) namely: surgical intensive care units and implementation of guidelines. The literature search, limited to english publications. Used both electronic and manual methods. Three electronic databases were used: 1) The Cochrane Library, Issue 4, 2000; 2) National Library of Medicine - Medline (PubMed, no time limit): and HERDIN (Health Research and Development Information Network) Version 1, 1997 of DOST-PCHRD. Manual searching of the reference lists of review articles and some important meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was also done. The search terms used were: 1) Cochrane library: surgical intensive care, guidelines implementation, 2) Medline: surgical intensive care, 3) HERDIN: intensive care. Titles of all articles were printed and all members of the TWG went over the list and checked the titles of articles whose abstracts they felt should be read. The abstracts of all checked articles were printed. The printed abstracts were given to the members, who then decided which articles were to be included for full text retrieval. The full texts were obtained from the University of the Philippines Manila Library, and were appraised using standard forms. (Author)

Application of the TRISS method to evaluate trauma care

The TRISS (Revised Trauma Score and Injury Severity Score) method of trauma care evaluation was applied to 476 consecutive trauma patients admitted to our medical center over a 6-month period. Male to female ratio was 8:1, with a mean age of 24.7 years. Penetrating injury was the most common mechanism of injury (62%), with the chest as the most common region injured (36%). Mean probability of survival of 476 patients was 0.9802 and a predicted mortality of 9.4 patients. The overall mortality was 5.4 per cent with 26 actual deaths. As 93 per cent of patients had injuries to isolated anatomic regions, using the TRISS method, assigning numerical values to noninjured anatomic regions mathematically increased their probability of survival, even though the isolated injury was life-threatening. Consideration should be taken before adapting the TRISS method as the gold standard in evaluating trauma care in the local setting

A multicenter randomized clinical trial comparing the clinical efficacy of Imipenem/Cilastin and Ceftazidime plus Metronidazole in surgically treated serious intra-abdominal infections

An open, prostective, randomized multicenter clinical trial randomly allocated successive patient who were scheduled for a surgical procedure for serious intra-abdominal infections to receive either treatment CM (ceftazidine plus metronidazole) or monotherapy with treatment IC (imipenem/cilastatin). Out of 90 eligible patients, 87 were clinically evaluable of which 71 were clinically and bacteriologically evaluable (CBE). Cases allocated to each treatment group were comparable as to age, sex, diagnostic group distribution, mean APACHE II scores, and bacteriologic evaluability. Among the 87 clinically evaluable patients, there were 4 (9.1%) and 2 (4.7%) treatment failures among those who received treatments CM and IC respectively (p=0.486). For all eligible patients, the mean fever days was 2.07, mean treatment days was 6.01, and mean hospital days was 11.57, and was not significantly different between the two treatment groups. Among clinically evaluable cases, the mean APACHE II scores of patients with succesful outcomes (5.8) was very significantly lower (p=0.000) than that of patients whose treatment failed (13.8). This was also true for CBE cases. Logistic regression analysis showed that among six variables (diagnostic group, APACHE II score, antibiotic used, fever days, hospital days and treatment days) only the APACHE II score signficantly contributed to treatment failure (p=0.001).

Scrimp technique in the rapid cytologic diagnosis of surgical specimens - A local experience

A rapid tissue preparation to establish the diagnosis of surgical specimens was reported. The specific reason to request such a preparation usually relates to a suspicion of a neoplastic lesion. This study was conducted to evaluate the role of scrimp technique, a modification of imprint cytology, in the rapid intraoperative diagnosis of tumors as compared with frozen section. Scrape and imprints of tumors were made from 86 unfixed specimens at the time of frozen section. Rapid and permanent staining methods were employed and the accuracy of diagnosis was compared with frozen and paraffin preparations. The results showed that the sensitivity and specificity of scrimp preparation were 95% each as compared with frozen section which has 98% and 100% respectively which manifested a negligible inferiority over frozen section. This technique was simple, fast, easy, and reliable and does not require special instruments or time consuming set-up. While not meant to replace frozen section, it can be an excellent adjunct or alternative especially in remote and secondary hospitals unequipped with sophisticated apparatus. (Author)