Laparoscopically Assisted Total Colectomy with J-pouch Formation for Intractable Chronic Constipation due to Hypoganglionosis: A Case Report / 대한내시경복강경외과학회지

Chronic constipation has been successfully treated with specific medications and bio-feedback therapy. Surgical manipulation for this condition can be an option when non-surgical interventions fail. We report here on a patient who was diagnosed as having intractable chronic constipation with hypoganglionosis. The patient was a 60 year-old male with the history of seizure and diabetes. This patient did not gain any clinical benefits from non-surgical regimens. Therefore, we performed a laparoscopically assisted total colectomy with J-pouch ileorectal anastomosis on this patient. The patient recovered from the surgery without complications and he had normal bowel functions. The postoperative anatomical pathology revealed a hypogaglionosis. In conclusion, a laparoscopically assisted total colectomy for a patient with intractable chronic constipation with hypoganglionosis is a good option and it may be a curative method.

A Case of Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Gallbladder after Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy

Gallbladder carcinoma is the most common primary hepatobiliary carcinoma and the fifth most common malignancy of the GI tract. The most common type of gallbladder carcinoma is adenocarcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder is rarer and is responsible for up to 12.7% of gallbladder tumors. A 78-year-old man was incidentally suspected of having a gallbladder mass on an abdominal CT scan and underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Pathology results confirmed the mass as a squamous cell carcinoma. Here we report a case of keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma of the gallbladder and review the literature.

The Early Experience of Laparoscopy-assisted Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer at a Low-volume Center

PURPOSE: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) has become a technically feasible and safe procedure for early gastric cancer treatment. LAG is being increasingly performed in many centers; however, there have been few reports regarding LAG at low-volume centers. The aim of this study was to report our early experience with LAG in patients with gastric cancer at a low-volume center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinicopathologic data and surgical outcomes of 39 patients who underwent LAG for gastric cancer between April 2007 and March 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The mean age was 68.3 years. Thirty-one patients had medical co-morbidities. The mean patient ASA score was 2.0. Among the 39 patients, 4 patients underwent total gastrectomies and 35 patients underwent distal gastrectomies. The mean blood loss was 145.4 ml and the mean operative time was 259.4 minutes. The mean time-to-first flatus, first oral intake, and the postoperative hospital stay was 2.8, 3.1, and 9.3 days, respectively. The 30-day mortality rate was 0%. Postoperative complications developed in 9 patients, as follows: anastomotic leakage, 1; wound infection, 1; gastric stasis, 2; postoperative ileus, 1; pneumonia, 1; cerebral infarction, 1; chronic renal failure, 1; and postoperative psychosis, 1. CONCLUSIONS: LAG is technically feasible and can be performed safely at a low-volume center, but an experienced surgical team and careful patient selection are necessary. Furthermore, for early mastery of the learning curve for LAG, surgeons need education and training in addition to an accumulation of cases.

The Early Experience of Laparoscopy-assisted Gastrectomy for Gastric Cancer at a Low-volume Center

PURPOSE: Laparoscopy-assisted gastrectomy (LAG) has become a technically feasible and safe procedure for early gastric cancer treatment. LAG is being increasingly performed in many centers; however, there have been few reports regarding LAG at low-volume centers. The aim of this study was to report our early experience with LAG in patients with gastric cancer at a low-volume center. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clinicopathologic data and surgical outcomes of 39 patients who underwent LAG for gastric cancer between April 2007 and March 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: The mean age was 68.3 years. Thirty-one patients had medical co-morbidities. The mean patient ASA score was 2.0. Among the 39 patients, 4 patients underwent total gastrectomies and 35 patients underwent distal gastrectomies. The mean blood loss was 145.4 ml and the mean operative time was 259.4 minutes. The mean time-to-first flatus, first oral intake, and the postoperative hospital stay was 2.8, 3.1, and 9.3 days, respectively. The 30-day mortality rate was 0%. Postoperative complications developed in 9 patients, as follows: anastomotic leakage, 1; wound infection, 1; gastric stasis, 2; postoperative ileus, 1; pneumonia, 1; cerebral infarction, 1; chronic renal failure, 1; and postoperative psychosis, 1. CONCLUSIONS: LAG is technically feasible and can be performed safely at a low-volume center, but an experienced surgical team and careful patient selection are necessary. Furthermore, for early mastery of the learning curve for LAG, surgeons need education and training in addition to an accumulation of cases.

Early Experience with Laparoscopic Primary Closure of Peptic Ulcer Perforation / 대한내시경복강경외과학회지

PURPOSE: Among the surgeries that can be performed for patients with acute peptic ulcer perforation, the frequency of performing laparoscopic surgeries is gradually increasing and it is being reported that laparoscopic surgeries have many advantages over laparotomies. So we will examined if laparoscopic surgery has advantages as compared to open surgery for appropriately selected patients. METHODS: The subjects were 15 patients who were diagnosed with peptic ulcer perforation and they were operated on by a single surgeon between September 2007 and January 2009 at the National Medical Center. The subjects were divided into an LG and an OG. Statistical analyses were performed using two-tailed students T-tests. RESULTS: There were 6 patients in the LG and 9 patients in the OG. All the patients in the two groups were male. The time until fist flatulence was 1.6 days in the LG and 2.6 days in the OG. The time until the first oral intake was 3 days in the LG and 3.4 days in the OG. The time during which pain control was necessary was 2.6 (range: 2~4) days in the LG and 3.3 (range: 2~4) days in the OG. The number of days of the hospital stay after surgery was 5.6 days (range: 4~7) in the LG and 10 days (range: 6~26) in the OG. There were 2 cases of complications in the OG only, and all of them were wound infections. CONCLUSION: It is thought that laparoscopic surgeries can be performed relatively easily and safely for patients with peptic ulcer perforation by selecting appropriate patients.

Surgical Treatment for Chronic Peptic Ulcer with Gastric Outlet Obstruction

PURPOSE: With the introduction of H. pylori eradication and proton pump inhibitor, the operative treatments for the acute or chronic complications of peptic ulcer, such as perforation, bleeding and stricture, have decreased. Also owing to the development of non-operative treatment such as interventional endoscopic treatment, the surgical approach to the acute complications, like perforation and bleeding, has diminished. The non-operative treatments for the stricture and obstruction of chronic peptic ulcer in part related to discontinuation of medication have not been satisfactory. We analyzed the clinical outcomes of the patients who underwent operative treatment for outlet obstruction with peptic ulcer. Materials of Methods: From January 1994 to December 2007, we reviewed 31 patients who had been operated on at the National Medical Center for peptic ulcer obstruction. We excluded the cases of adhesive obstructions that were caused by a former ulcer operation and also the cases of obstructions found during emergency operations for treating perforation and bleeding. We classified the surgical treatment group into the bypass operation group and the surgical resection group. We evaluated the effects of the operations by the Visick score. The recurrences were confirmed only by the endoscopic observation of peptic ulcer. RESULTS: The number of patients in the bypass operation group was 6 (19.4%) and that of resection group was 25 (80.6%). The mean age was 57.5 (25~81) years. The number of male patients was 29 (93.5%) and the number of females was 2 (6.5%). The mean symptom duration was 29.6 months. There were 19 smokers (61.3%), 6 NSAID users (19.4%) and 7 H. pylori positive patients (22.6%). Two patients underwent endoscopic balloon dilatation with no success. The locations of lesion were the stomach, the duodenum and both in 9, 20 and 2 cases, respectively. There were operative complications in 13 cases (41.9%), recurrent ulcers in 2 cases (6.5%), and reoperations in 4 cases. The mean Visick score was 1.8 (1~4). There were no statistically significant clinicopathologic differences between the bypass operation group and the resection group. The two groups had 1 case each of recurrence. Although the bypass group had a greater complication rate (83.3%) than the resection group (32%), this was not statistically meaningful (P=0.175). The mean Visick score was 3.0 in the bypass group and 1.6 in the resection group, so the resection group was better (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: For a case of chronic peptic ulcer with outlet obstruction, even though it has been reported that endoscopic balloon dilatation worked well, surgery is still regarded as an important treatment. If you consider the patients' satisfaction and the difficulty of diagnosing malignant ulcers, surgical resection should be recommended more often than a bypass operation.

Clinicopathologic Analysis of Gastric Carcinoma Patients with Outlet Obstruction

PURPOSE: This study was conducted to analyze the clinical course of patients of gastric cancer with outlet obstruction by comparing them with the gastric cancer patients without outlet obstruction. METHODS: The records of gastric cancer patients with outlet obstruction and who underwent radical gastrectomy from January 1996 to December 2005 were retrospectively reviewed and compared with those patients with gastric cancer and who were without outlet obstruction. RESULTS: The number of the patients who underwent radical gastrectomy was 461. Out of 461 patients, the number of gastric cancer patients with outlet obstruction was 42 (9.1%), and they had nasogastric tube insertion for an average of 4.4 days before operation. These patients showed several significant features such as large tumor size, advanced stage, an increased the number of involved LNs, a low serum albumin level, a frequent antral tumor location and duodenal invasion. There was no difference in complication rates between the two groups, but a higher mortality rate was noted in the gastric cancer patients with outlet obstruction than that in the other patients (P=0.038). The survival rate after the operation was significantly lower among the gastric cancer patients with outlet obstruction (P=0.0008), whereas no difference was found in the survival rate between the above two groups at the same stage (P=0.1951). CONCLUSION: The gastric cancer patients with outlet obstruction showed a comparatively poorer prognosis than those gastric cancer patients without outlet obstruction. However, there was no significant difference in the complication rate and the survival rate for both types of patients who were at the same stage. These results suggest that the patients with outlet obstruction can show the same result as the patients without outlet obstruction by undergoing radical gastrectomy.

Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Pancreas with Invasion of Duodenum and Pylorus

Squamous cell carcinoma of the pancreas is a rare variant of pancreatic ductal cell carcinoma. Its biologic behavior and clinical features are known to be similar to the much more common ductal adenocarcinoma of pancreas. A 70-year old man with postprandial vomiting symptom was admitted to our hospital. Initial endoscopy and abdominal CT showed that 6cm sized submucosal tumor on pylous or duodenum invaded the pancreas. Subtotal gastrectomy with partial pancreatic resection was done. The resection specimen revealed of metastatic squamous carcinoma of stomach and duodenum. Follow up CT was revealed that multiple liver metastasis and a large mass in peripancreatic space. The mass was confirmed invasive squamous cell carcinoma of pancreas by aspiration biopsy. The patient died of cancer cachexia 50 days after operation. We report an unusual case of squamous cell carcinoma of the pancreas which was invaded to duodenum and pylorus with a review of literature.

The Efficacy of Adding Postoperative Oral Antibiotics after Parenteral Antibiotic Therapy in Acute Appendicitis

PURPOSE: To evaluate the efficacy of the postoperative oral antibiotics in acute appendicitis. METHODS: This study compared 126 patients diagnosed with appendicitis in 2004, who did not take oral antibiotics after the postoperative treatment (group 2), with 119 patients diagnosed with appendicitis in the year of 2003, who did take oral antibiotics after the parenteral postoperative antibiotics regimen (group 1). RESULTS: The clinical, operative, and bacterial outcomes were similar. Only one infectious complication was detected in each group (group1; 1/119, group2; 1/126). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that adding a course of oral antibiotics, after completing a course of parenteral antibiotics, does not decrease The rate of postoperative infectious complications in appendicitis patients.

Risk Factors for Postoperative Complications of Gastric Cancer Patients

PURPOSE: The surgical techniques and postoperative care for gastric cancer have significantly improved in recent years. However, the incidence of several complications that can result in relatively increased mortality remains high. The aim of this study was to evaluate the risk factors associated with postoperative morbidity in surgery for gastric cancer. METHODS: Four hundreds and one consecutive patients, who underwent surgery for gastric cancer at National Medical Center between January 1994 and December 2002, were reviewed. RESULTS: The overall morbidity and mortality rates were 10.2 and 1.5%, respectively. A univariate analysis of multiple clinical variables revealed that age, leukocyte counts, albumin, protein, comorbid disease, combined resection, operation time, blood loss, operation type, curability, extent of lymph node dissection and stage were significantly associated with morbidity. However, a multivariate analysis showed that comorbid diseases and low curability were independent factors associated with morbidity (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: In patients with comorbid diseases and a noncurative resection, the complication rate was significantly higher. More attention should be paid to the early diagnosis, preoperative evaluation and intraoperative caution of patients with preoperative risk factors.

Risk Factors Associated with Mortality in Emergency Surgery for Perforated Peptic Ulcer

PURPOSE: Despite modern medication, peptic ulcer, patients often require emergency surgery for complications of peptic ulcer disease, and the mortality due to a perforated peptic ulcer still remains high. This retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the risk factors associated with mortality in patients undergoing surgery for a perforated peptic ulcer. METHODS: Two hundred and four consecutive patients (mean age: 45.8 years; range: 15~0 years) who underwent emergency surgery for a perforated peptic ulcer at the National Medical Center, between January 1991 and December 2000, were reviewed. RESULTS: The overall mortality rate was 5.9%. A univariate analysis of multiple clinical variables revealed old age (> or =65 years), duration of symptoms (> or =24 hours), NSAIDs or steroid use, comorbid disease, shock on admission, low hemoglobin ( or =20 mg%), higher creatinine (> or =1.5 mg%), gastric ulcer and simple closure to be significantly associated with mortality. However, a multivariate analysis showed that shock on admission, comorbid disease and old age (> or =65 years) were independent predictors of mortality. CONCLUSION: Shock on admission, comorbid disease and old age should be considered as significant prognostic factors of emergency surgery for a perforated peptic ulcer, and a comorbid disease and age as non modifiable factors. For that reason, prompt resuscitation is considered as the most effective therapy for reducing the mortality due to peptic ulcer perforation.

Factors Predicting Timing of Recurrence after Radical Gastrectomy for Gastric Carcinoma

PURPOSE: TNM classification accurately predicts overall survival but not risk of recurrence. This study analyzed patients who died of recurrent gastric carcinoma and attempteded to clarify clinicopathological factors associated with time of recurrence. METHODS: A retrospective review of 526 patients with gastric cancer, radically treated between 1988~1997 was performed. Multivariate analysis of differences between 116 patients with early recurrence (2 years after gastrectomy). RESULTS: Compared with the late recurrence group, the early recurrence group was characterized by larger tumor size (84.2 vs. 65.9 mm), serosal invasion (94 vs. 75.6%), infiltration into the esophagus or duodenum (44.0 vs. 22.0%). On multivariate analysis, time of recurrence was independently associated with status of serosal invasion only. CONCLUSION: Serosal invasion is the single most important factor to predict time of recurrence. Patients with serosal invasion frequently suffered from recurrence within 2 years after radical gastrectomy. From our conclusion, we propose to exclude T3-4 cancers from the current inclusion criteria of radical gastrectomy.

Operative Treatment of the Colonic Diverticular Disease

PURPOSE: In recent years, colonic diverticular disease has increased rapidly because of high intraluminal pressure in the colon due to the low fiber westernized diet and the increasing number of elderly people. Furthermore, emergency operation is required in many cases. Therefore, the aim of this study is proposed to review the optimal treatment guide. METHODS: This study is a retrospective review of the hospital records of 34 patients who underwent surgical treatment for colonic diverticular diseases at the National Medical Center from March 1992 to July 2003. RESULTS: The patients consisted of 23 males and 11 females, with mean age of 49 years. The lesion sites were cecum (62%), sigmoid colon (20%), ascending colon (9%), transverse colon (6%) and descending colon (3%), in descending orders of frequency. The patients were staged by Thorsen classification at the right colon and by Hinchey classification at the other sites. At the right colon, there were no cases of stage IV and 2 of bleeding. At the transverse colon and left colon, there were 3 cases of stage II, 5 of III, and 2 of IV. For the right colon, all patients underwent one- stage operation. For the other sites, 3 one- stage operations and 7 two- stage operations were performed. Major or minor postoperative complications occurred in 12 patients, including 2 mortality cases. Among them, 2 cases with colocutaneous fistulas might have been prevented if the operation had been made on the basis of stage. CONCLUSION: Because diverticular disease occurs at the various sites of the colon and has potential risk, it is important that patient treatment is based on stage.

Lymphadenectomy for Stomach Cancer in T2 Stage

PURPOSE: Lymph node metastasis is an important prognostic variable in gastric cancer and most locoregional treatment failures are believed to be caused by insufficient nodal clearance. The aim of this study was to determine the clinicopathological features influencing lymph node metastasis, and an appropriate extent of lymphadenectomy, in T2 stage gastric cancer. METHODS: A retrospective review of eighty one patients with T2 gastric cancer, treated between 1987 and 1996, was performed, and included survival and statistical analysis to determine prognosticators and variables influencing lymph node metastasis. RESULTS: Lymph node metastasis was found in 36 patients (44.4%, 28 N1, 7 N2 and 1 N3), including 3 that had skipped to the second node group. The rate of lymph node metastasis was significantly higher in the subgroup with lymphatic invasion than in those without invasion (80.0% vs. 36.4%, P=0.002). There were no other clinical parameters for the detection of metastasis in regional lymph nodes. Operative curability was the only significant prognosticator in T2 stage gastric cancer (Relative risk; 7.9337, P=0.0049). CONCLUSION: There were no clinical parameters for the detection of metastasis in regional lymph nodes in T2 stage cancer, but assessment of the operative curability was very important for predicting the prognosis. For these reasons, radical lymphadenectomy, including at least the second node group, is the standard surgical procedure for gastric cancer in the T2 stage.

The Clinicopathologic Factors Affecting the False Negativity of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in Breast Cancer

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to understand the diagnostic false negative outcome of FNAC at the first clinic visit of patients in relation to various clinicopathological factors with the uni- and multivariate analysis. METHODS: From January 1993 to October 2001, the one hundred and twenty-one cases of primary palpable breast cancers which were diagnosed by FNAC were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: The ages of the patients varied from 24 to 84 (mean age was 51.3 years). Ten clinicopathological factors correlating with failure or success of FNAC were analyzed. In univariate analysis, statistical significances were observed in palpability (P<0.001), tumor size (P<0.001), histopathologic type (P<0.001), cellular distribution (P=0.002), TNM staging (P=0.042), mammographic findings (P<0.001). On the other hand, other factors such as age, ultrasound findings, extent of tumors, ER status, aspiratiors did not reveal any statistical significance. In multivariate analysis, palpability (P=0.002), histopathologic type (P=0.0457), mammographic findings (P=0.0161) were observed significantly. CONCLUSION: The most important factors for concerning diagnostic failure by FNAC seemed to be summarized into clinically palpability, histopathologic type, mammographic findings, inexperience and number of aspirator were also considered as a factor of diagnostic failure. In rare carcinomas such as lobular carcinoma and DCIS, high false negative rate was identified.

Mesh Plug Hernia Repair

PURPOSE: A mesh plug hernia repair has revealed encouraging results in inguinal hernia repair. This article compares our results with both conventional hernia repair and the mesh plug hernia repair procedure. METHODS: From January 1999 to October 2000, we performed 171 herniorrhaphies. Among these cases, we analyzed 49 cases of mesh plug hernia repair and 47 cases of conventional hernia repair. We recorded incidents of recurrence, postoperative complications, surgical time, duration of hospital stay, and the use of narcotics and antibiotics. RESULTS: There were no significant differences observed concerning recurrence, postoperative complications, duration of hospital stay, or the use of antibiotics and analgesics, however the surgical time was significantly reduced in the mesh plug hernia repair procedure. (55.51+/-25.46 minutes versus 65.65+/-18.87 minutes, P<0.05) CONCLUSION: Compared with the conventional sutured surgical technique, a mesh plug hernia repair uses less overall dissection and ensures a tension free hernioplasty, resulting in a shortened surgical time, greater patient comfort, rapid rehabilitation, decreased recurrence and lower rates overall complications.

Mammographic and Clinical Correlation of Axillary Lymph Nodes

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine the cause of the axillary abnormalities seen in mammography and to evaluate the imaging characteristics of benign lymphadenopathy and lymphadenopathy associated with malignancy. METHODS: One hundred ninety-three (193) abnormalities seen mammographically were retrospectively reviewed and correlated with clinical diagnoses and pathologic results found in the medical records of patients treated from August 1997 to July 1998 at the National Medical Center. For each abnormality, the length, the margins and the presence of microcalcifications were noted. RESULTS: One hundred seventy-eight (178) patients had benigh lymphadenopathy and twelve patients had metastatic breast cancer. The mean lengths of lymph nodes in benign lymphadenopathy & metastatic breast cancer were 13.7 mm and 22 mm, respectively (p=0.0002). Fatty infiltrations of benign lymphadenopathy were seen 157 patients (88.2%) while eleven patients with metastatic breast cancers had nonfatty infiltration and one patient had fatty infiltration. Among the patient with benign lymphadenopathy circumscribed margins were observed in 167 patients (93.8%), microlobulated margins in 7 patients (3.9%), and obscured margins in 4 patients (2.2%), while among the patients with metastatic breast cancer circumscribed margins were seen in 6 patients, obscured margins in 3 patients, spiculated margins in 2 patients, and a microlobulated margin in 1 patient. No microcalcifications were found in lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS: For benign lymphadenopathy the size of the abnormality was less than 13.7 mm and it had circumscribed margin and fatty center. On the other hand; homogenously dense (nonfatty) axillary lymph nodes were strongly associated with malignancy when axillary lymph nodes were longer than 22 mm with ill-defined or spiculated margins; therefore, a biopsy should be done to confirm malignancy in such cases.

The Result of First Year Screening for Breast Cancer in National medical Center

Breast cancer is a major public health problem. 1 woman in 8 will have breast cancer develop during her lifetime in America. As in the United States, long-term increases in the incidence of breast cancer are being observed worldwide. The high incidence of breast cancer in the female population is provide the rationale for screening. The principal purpose of screening for breast cancer is to reduce mortality from the disease through early diagnosis and treatment. It is demonstrate that mortality from breast cancer can be reduced as much as 30% in a screened population. Thus the authors tried screening for breast cancer by mammography with education in breast self examination and classified mammographic parenchymal pattern of the breast in the National Medical Center. The results obtained were summarized briefly as follows:1) Between 1995-5 and 1995-7, 329 women over aged 35 in National Medical Center were invited for screening by mammography with education in breast self examination and mammographic parenchymal pattern of the breast. 2) 294(89.3 percentage) women in 329 were attended for screening and mammographic parenchymal pattern of the breast. 3) A group of 16 women(4.9 percentage) was called for further assessment. 4) 5 women(1.7 percentage) had suspicious lesions and proceeded to surgical biopsy; 4 lesions proved fibrocystic disease and 1 lesion proved fat necrosis and dystrophic calcification. 5) The mammographic parenchymal pattern of the breast showed the number of women according to classification: 20%, 23%, 50%, 7% for N1, P1, P2, DY type, respectively. 6) The malignant lesion was not detect. The results are not statistically significant. But periodic mammography screening of asymptomatic women shows that a satisfactory cancer detection can be achievable. Follow-up of women over aged 35 in the National Medical Center is continuing.

Clinical observation of the arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis

No abstract available.