Movement of target organs and anatomical landmarks caused by body position change during urological laparoscopic surgery.

INTRODUCTION: The aim of our study was to elucidate the impact of patients' physical characteristics on the movement of target organs and anatomical landmarks by comparing supine and lateral CT images. METHODS: This study consisted of 55 patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery in the lateral position. CT images of the area between the abdomen and pelvis were taken preoperatively with patients in both supine and lateral positions. We measured the moving distance of target organs and anatomical landmarks on the body surface used for access port settings. We investigated which covariates from patients' body composition most affected moving distance in correlation analysis. Then, using multiple linear regression analysis, we examined whether we could predict the movement of target organs and anatomical landmarks solely based on information obtained from supine CT images. RESULTS: The moving distance of both the hilum of the kidney and the outer edge of the rectus abdominis muscle were significantly associated with some physical characteristics. Multiple regression analysis showed that a larger visceral fat area could be a useful index for predicting the movement of the kidney toward the counter side. Lower CT density of back muscles and higher BMI could be useful indexes for predicting the movement of the rectus abdominis muscle. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that body composition characteristics obtained from preoperative CT images can help predict the movement of target organs and anatomical landmarks used to determine proper port-site placement for laparoscopic surgery performed with the patient in the lateral position.

The mechanism responsible for accommodation after living-related kidney transplantations across the blood barrier.

The mechanism responsible for accommodation in renal transplantations across the blood barrier remains unclear. We recently encountered two patients with accommodated status after living-related kidney transplantations across the blood barrier. Both developed elevations of anti-blood-group antibodies to titers over 128x after transplantation, despite excellent renal function. We investigated the serum samples after the establishment of accommodation bound to the erythrocyte membrane of the donors or the third party with the same blood group. After the establishment of accommodation, the serum samples from both accommodated patients demonstrated a significant decrease in binding to the donors' erythrocyte membrane, but did not show any decrease in binding to the erythrocyte membrane of the third party. By contrast, serum samples from patients with graft loss after unsuccessful accommodation showed high anti-blood-type antibody activity directed towards both the donor's and the third party's erythrocytes. The result of this study suggests the difference of quality in antibodies produced by accommodated and nonaccommodated recipients.