Handlebar hernia: a case report and literature review on traumatic abdominal wall hernia in children.

A rare case of abdominal trauma, a handlebar hernia, is described, as well as a review of the pertinent literature. A 7-year-old boy presented to our emergency room after sustaining blunt force to the abdomen; he fell on the handlebar of his bicycle. Immediately after the accident, a bulge was noticeable at the point of impact. Handlebar hernia is a diagnosis that is easily missed, which can lead to strangulation and incarceration of the bowel. With this case report, we hope to augment the knowledge on traumatic abdominal wall hernia, hopefully leading to early diagnosis and treatment.

[Diagnostic image (305). A boy with a painful and swollen scrotum]. / Diagnose in beeld (305). Een jongen met een pijnlijk en gezwollen scrotum.

Left double testis was diagnosed in a 12-year-old boy with a painful and swollen scrotum.

MR angiography of the lower extremities with a moving-bed infusion-tracking technique.

PURPOSE: To assess the value of MR angiography (MRA) with automatic table movement in a consecutive series of patients with peripheral arterial disease. METHODS: Seventy-two patients underwent both conventional angiography (CA) and MRA for peripheral arterial occlusive disease. Both techniques were scored in a masked way. Consensus scoring for CA was compared with MRA scoring per observer. If there was a discrepancy in scoring of a segment on MRA and CA, the images were reviewed and a consensus arrived at. RESULTS: Observer A found 7.4% and observer B found 6.5% of the segments could not be analyzed on MRA. Observer A scored 11.4% dissimilar on MRA and CA, observer B 15.2%. In the aortoiliac arteries, this was mainly caused by stents and overestimation of stenoses; in the crural arteries it resulted from underestimation of the stenoses on MRA. Overall sensitivity and specificity for the aortoiliac, femoropopliteal and crural vessels were respectively 90% and 91%, 90% and 96%, 59% and 96% for observer A, and 85% and 91%, 84% and 89%, 68% and 85% for observer B. CONCLUSION: Although MRA of the lower extremities is a promising technique, improvements still need to be made. In particular, MRA below the knee is suboptimal for clinical use.

The effects of long-term graft preservation on intraoperative hemostatic changes in liver transplantation. A comparison between orthotopic and heterotopic transplantation in the pig.

UNLABELLED: We compared hemostatic changes during OLT and HLT after various periods of graft storage, to investigate whether the host liver in HLT protects the recipient from hemostatic deterioration induced by severe graft storage damage. In particular, the mechanism of fibrinolytic deterioration was investigated. The effect of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on these parameters was also studied. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 69 pigs underwent either OLT (N = 32) or HLT (N = 37) with a graft stored for 2 hr (N = 31), 24 hr (N = 16), 48 hr (N = 7), or 72 hr (N = 15). PGE1 was given intravenously to both donor and recipient animals and was added to the preservation and flushing solutions. Fibrinolysis (euglobulin clot lysis time, t-PA activity and alpha 2-antiplasmin) and coagulation parameters (activated partial thromboplasmin time, prothrombin time, fibrinogen and platelet count) were measured at several intervals during transplantation. STATISTICS: Univariate non-parametric tests were used for analysis of coagulation and fibrinolysis parameters. For the three main variables- i.e., the type of transplantation, the use of PGE1, and the preservation time, multiple regression analysis was performed. RESULTS: Fibrinolytic activity increased during the anhepatic period of OLT. Graft reperfusion was followed by a rise in t-PA in both OLT and HLT. In HLT, t-PA quickly returned to normal, whereas a continuous increase was found in OLT. The coagulation parameters, in turn, remained unchanged during the anhepatic period and deteriorated in OLT compared to HLT. The duration of graft storage was directly related to the severity of the hemostatic changes, although this effect was more apparent in OLT than in HLT. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in hemostasis are more pronounced in OLT than in HLT. This suggests that the host liver protects the recipient from the effects of graft storage damage, even after long preservation times. Early postreperfusion fibrinolytic activity was presumably due to t-PA release from the graft both in OLT and HLT. The further rise t-PA in OLT might be caused by the release of cytokines from the graft, that subsequently evoke endothelial t-PA release. In HLT, t-PA and cytokines may be cleared by the native liver. No positive or negative effect of PGE1 on coagulation or fibrinolysis parameters was noticed.

The effects of long-term graft preservation and prostaglandin E1 on intraoperative hemodynamic changes in liver transplantation. A comparison between orthotopic and heterotopic transplantation in the pig.

The study aimed to compare the intraoperative hemodynamic changes during orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) with those during heterotopic liver transplantation (HLT) after different durations of cold storage of the graft. The effect of prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) on these parameters was also studied. Sixty-nine female Yorkshire pigs underwent either OLT (n = 32) or HLT (n = 37) with a graft stored for 2 hr (n = 31), 24 hr (n = 16), 48 hr (n = 7), or 72 hr (n = 15). In 16 transplantations in the various groups, PGE1 was given intravenously to both donor and recipient animals and it was added to the preservation and flushing solutions. Univariate nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon rank-sum) were used for analysis of cardiac output (CO), mean arterial pressure (MAP), left and right ventricular minute work (LVMW, RVMW), pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), and systemic and pulmonary vascular resistance (SVR, PVR), at different intervals during the operative procedure. For the three main variables--i.e., the type of transplantation, the use of PGE1, and the preservation time, multiple regression analysis was performed. During HLT, portal vein clamping lowered MAP and CO, while during the anhepatic phase in OLT, SVR increased and CO dropped. After recirculation of the graft, an increase in PVR and a decrease in SVR were found in both OLT and HLT. At different stages of the surgical procedure, longer graft storage time diminished CO and MAP (P less than 0.001), especially in OLT. PGE1 appeared to reduce the cardiovascular reserves needed to compensate the changes after recirculation of the graft. The observed differences in intraoperative hemodynamics between OLT and HLT can partly be attributed to differences in operative techniques. Extension of the graft preservation period resulted in poor cardiac performance, more so in OLT than HLT. The native liver in HLT might be able to metabolize the presumed myocardial depressant factors, released by the graft upon reperfusion. Prostaglandin E1 did not protect against the reperfusion syndrome.