No-touch isolation technique in emergency pancreaticoduodenectomy for neoplastic hemorrhage: Two case reports and review of literature.

BACKGROUND: Emergency pancreaticoduodenectomy (EPD) is a rare event for complex periampullary etiology. Increased intraoperative blood loss is correlated with poor postoperative outcomes. CASE SUMMARY: Two patients underwent EPD using a no-touch isolation technique, in which all arteries supplying the pancreatic head region were ligated and divided before manipulation of the pancreatic head and duodenum. The operative times were 220 and 239 min, and the blood loss was 70 and 270 g, respectively. The patients were discharged on the 14th and 10th postoperative day, respectively. Thirty-two patients underwent EPD for the treatment of neoplastic bleeding. The mean operative time was 361.6 min, and the mean blood loss was 747.3 g. The complication rate was 37.5%. The in-hospital mortality rate was 9.38%. CONCLUSION: The no-touch isolation technique is feasible, safe, and effective for reducing intraoperative blood loss in EPD.

Successful treatment of pseudoaneurysm rupture after pylorus preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy by covered stent placement.

Serious complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) include pseudoaneurysm formation andABSTRACT rupture accompanying pancreatic fistula, and pancreatojejunostomy leakage, which is commonly associated with mortality or liver failure. We report a case of the successful treatment of pseudoaneurysm rupture after pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (PPPD) by covered stent placement. A 70-year-old man underwent PPPD for ampullary carcinoma. After the procedure, a pancreatic fistula was detected, and suction drainage was continued. The patient was discharged on the twenty-first post-operative day. On the same day, arterial bleeding was detected from the pancreatojejunostomy drain, and emergency abdominal angiography showed a pseudoaneurysm of 3-cm diameter at the proper hepatic artery (PHA). Multiple embolization coils were placed in a pseudoaneurysm. However, bleeding still continued, so hemostasis with coils was considered unfeasible. The next strategy was to place a covered stent, but the PHA was thick; thus, a biliary covered stent was implanted. Angiographic examination subsequently revealed that hepatic arterial flow was maintained, and there were no aneurysms. However, a few days later, a coil that had migrated into a peripheral branch of the right hepatic artery caused multiple hepatic abscesses, and percutaneous transhepatic abscess drainage was performed before the patient was discharged. Although coils were initially sufficient for hemostasis, repeatedly recurrent bleeding led to the consideration of a covered stent.

Proposed new simple scoring system to identify indications for urgent ERCP in acute cholangitis based on the Tokyo Guidelines.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: The Tokyo Guidelines (TG) have enabled more accurate diagnosis of acute cholangitis (AC). This study was undertaken to develop a new prognostic scoring system to predict the need for urgent endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) based on the clinical findings on admission. METHODS: We prospectively reviewed 40 consecutive cases of AC and divided them into an urgent-ERCP group and an elective-ERCP group. RESULTS: Univariate analysis identified four factors that predicted the need for urgent ERCP: serum albumin level below 3.0 g/dl, blood urea nitrogen level above 20 mg/dl, platelet count below 120,000/µl, and the presence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome. These four predictors plus four predictors of organ dysfunction in the TG: shock, consciousness disturbance, respiratory failure, and prothrombin time/international normalized ratio >1.5, were used to devise a scoring system in which 1 point was assigned for the first four predictors and 2 points were assigned for the latter four predictors (maximum score possible: 12 points). The receiver-operator characteristic curve of the scores showed good test performance for predicting the need for urgent ERCP and for predicting a positive blood culture, and the areas under the concentration curves (AUCs) were 0.96 and 0.97, respectively. The optimal cut-off value for urgent ERCP was 2 points. CONCLUSIONS: This new simple scoring system allows identification of high-risk AC patients soon after admission to hospital.

Advanced gastric cancer associated with nodular gastritis in a young patient.

A 20-year-old female underwent an endoscopy for epigastralgia that revealed many small, elevated nodules in the antrum that were diagnosed as nodular gastritis. The endoscopy also showed an ulcerative lesion with an uneven round wall at the greater curvature of the middle corpus. Biopsy of the ulcerative lesion yielded a diagnosis of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma. A distal gastrectomy was performed on the basis of a diagnosis of gastric cancer associated with nodular gastritis. The intraoperative findings revealed serosal invasion of the gastric cancer and the patient tested positive for peritoneal cytology. The pathological findings revealed poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma showing invasive growth with fibrosis on the corpus and large and superficial lymphoid follicles on the miliary nodules at the antrum. The patient was positive for Helicobacter pylori infection by both the serum Helicobacter pylori antibody and histopathological findings.