An Insight on Current Clubfoot Management: A Reported Data From Lebanon.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Clubfoot, which has been reported in the literature since the time of Hippocrates in 400 BC, is regarded as one of the most difficult congenital orthopedic anomalies, with a high relapse incidence of 16.87 infants per 10,000 births. The Lebanese region holds limited data concerning the evolution of clubfoot management. Herein, we aim to present novel findings in the treatment of clubfoot without surgical intervention. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This single-center, cross-sectional research included 300 patients with virgin idiopathic clubfoot treated at our facility from 2015 to 2020. The Pirani and DiMeglio Scores were used to determine the severity of the illness prior to treatment, and the DiMeglio Score was used to determine the severity of the disease after treatment. For data analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, IBM-Version 26; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) was used and results with p-value < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Our study included 300 patients, with 188 boys (62.7%) and 112 girls (37.3%). The mean age of the patients' onset was 32 days. We recorded an average initial Pirani score of 4.27 ± 0.65 and an average initial DiMeglio score of 11.58 ± 2.56 (62 out of 300) while the average final DiMeglio score was 2.17 ± 1.82. The mean number of casts was 5 ± 0.8, with a minimum of four and a maximum of six casts. The prevalence of relapse was 20.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Clubfoot remains a challenging deformity with a high rate of treatment failure and recurrence. While the superiority of Ponseti's technique in terms of success rate could not be disputed, tailored therapy based on the patient's socioeconomic status is considered critical for compliance and treatment success.

Unexpected Gastric Ectopic Pancreas During Sleeve Gastrectomy: A Case Report.

BACKGROUND Ectopic or heterotopic pancreas is relatively rare pathology described as pancreatic tissue lacking communication with the normal pancreas. Ectopic pancreatic tissue can be found along the gastrointestinal tract, with the most common location the stomach along the greater curvature. This congenital condition could be identified incidentally, or present with symptoms that range from pain and bleeding to obstruction and malignant transformation. CASE REPORT We report a case of a 30-year-old female, who underwent laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy for morbid obesity of body mass index (BMI) of 46 kg/m², and who was found to have a 3 cm submucosal mass at the lesser curvature while dividing the stomach. The sleeved stomach tube's intraoperative gastroscopy showed a submucosal mass at the posterior stomach wall towards the lesser curvature, increasing the suspicion of gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) tumor. The choice was to continue with a secure margin and conversion to roux-en-y gastric bypass with gastric tumor resection. It turned out that the final pathology was submucosal ectopic pancreas. Despite being a rare pathology, for any submucosal gastric mass, ectopic pancreas should be on the differential diagnosis list. During the sleeve surgery, the mass was found, and the approach was changed to intraoperatively subtotal gastrectomy and roux-en-y gastric bypass. CONCLUSIONS Before any bariatric operation, even in asymptomatic young patients, it is worth doing routine upper endoscopy to prevent surprising intraoperative pathology.

Chest Wall Reconstruction with a Bilayered Wound Matrix Mesh Following Toilet Mastectomy.

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is still the most common malignancy in women. Though management of local disease has been thoroughly studied, management of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is still under much debate. Modern diagnostic tools allow the detection of early metastatic disease, which may be more responsive to treatment than late metastatic disease. Source control of MBC by "toilet mastectomy" is being studied in many case reports and studies. CASE REPORT We present the case of a 43-year-old woman presenting with MBC and complaining of a recurrent breast fungating disease, aiming to highlight the importance of palliative surgical treatment in systemic breast malignancy and to report our experience with the effectiveness of the 'Integra" mesh. CONCLUSIONS Chest wall reconstruction using bilayered wound matrix mesh following "toilet mastectomy" offers excellent reconstructive results and local control of disease, and is a low-morbidity procedure.