Salvage repair of anastomotic dehiscence following colon surgery using an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene graft.

Anastomotic dehiscence is a serious complication of colorectal surgery that causes death in up to 40% of cases in which it occurs. Edema and inflammation due to abdominal sepsis can prevent the use of standard management (i.e., colostomy, ileostomy or Hartmann's procedure), in which case alternative salvage repair methods are required. The present report describes the treatment of a 73-year-old female patient at high risk of mortality because of intraabdominal sepsis due to suture dehiscence following a right hemicolectomy and ileo-transversostomy. Several surgical repair procedures were tried, but all failed. We then used an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) graft in salvage repair, and this approach proved successful. This is the first report to describe clinical, macroscopic and histopathological findings, following use of an ePTFE graft in colorectal repair in humans.

Management of intrabiliary ruptured hydatid disease of the liver.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Intrabiliary rupture of hydatid cyst is an important complication of hydatid disease of the liver. The purpose of this study was to evaluate outcomes of patients with intrabiliary ruptured hydatid disease of the liver. METHODOLOGY: Two hundred and eleven patients were operated upon for hydatid cyst of the liver between 1990 and 1998 in our hospital. Twenty-four patients with intrabiliary rupture of hepatic hydatid cyst were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Diagnosis of hydatid cyst was principally made using ultrasonography. We performed partial cystectomy + omentoplasty + transduodenal sphincteroplasty for 18 patients (75%). Daughter cysts and hydatid debris were found in common bile duct in 8 patients (33%). Internal opening of biliary fistula was found in 21 patients (87.5%). Morbidity rate was 12%. One patient died of unrelated causes. The average postoperative hospitalization period for the sphincteroplasty group was 7.6 days. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative radiologic examination and laboratory values were not helpful to exclude an intrabiliary rupture of hydatid cysts in our patients. If bile stained cystic fluid is found, it is clear that a communication between hydatid cysts and the biliary tree exist. Transduodenal sphincteroplasty can be preferred in the management of intrabiliary ruptured hydatid disease because of short hospitalization, low morbidity, and ability to decompress intrabiliary pressure.

Hemodynamic stability is the most important factor in nonoperative management of blunt splenic trauma.

Since January 1998, non-operative management of blunt splenic trauma has become the preferred method for the selected paediatric and adult patients in our clinic. Of the 26 patients who were admitted to our clinic because of blunt splenic trauma between January 1998 and May 2000, 20 were elected for non-operative management according to our protocol which was primarily based on hemodynamic status regardless of the age and grading of the injury. Diagnostic computed tomography (CT) was obtained in the patients with non-operative management. Non-operative management rate was 76.9% for patients with blunt splenic trauma (83.3% and 71.4% for the paediatric and adult patients, respectively). All of these cases were managed conservatively without any complication and no mortality was observed. Six patients required emergent surgical exploration based on preoperative evaluation. In all of these 6 cases, associated injuries were present. No significant differences were found with regard to the age of operative and non-operative management groups (p = 0.421). The mean operative splenic injury grade was 3 in the patients who underwent surgery, and the mean injury grade based on CT scan was 2.6 in the patients who were managed conservatively (p = 0.572). The mean duration of hospitalisation in the patients with operative and non-operative management groups were 7.6 and 8.6 days, respectively (p = 0.572). The mean unit of blood transfusion in the patients with operative and non-operative management groups were 1.1 and 0.6, respectively (p = 0.453). Our data revealed that hemodynamic stability is the most important factor which could effect the selection of patients for non-operative management outcome regardless of the patient age and computed tomography scan grading of the injury.