Dental Age, Agenesis, and Morphology in Patients With Operated Single-Suture Craniosynostoses.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the dental age, agenesis, and morphology of children with surgically operated single-suture craniosynostoses from orthopantomographs. DESIGN: A single-centered cross-sectional observational archival study. PATIENTS: A sample of 196 Finnish patients with single-suture craniosynostosis without additional birth defects or syndromes (excluding Muenke syndrome) was included in this study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Dental age was assessed using the method developed by Demirjian et al. and modified by Nyström et al. for the Finnish population. Methods described by Tulensalo et al. and Oehlers et al. were used to study taurodontism and dens invaginatus, respectively. RESULTS: The study sample of 149 patients was divided into 3 groups: patients with sagittal synostosis (n = 103), coronal synostosis (n = 25), and metopic synostosis (n = 21). Orthopantomographs taken on average at ages 8.20 to 8.33 were used. The dental ages in different groups were on average 0.37, 0.60, and 0.66 years ahead of normative values, for sagittal, coronal, and metopic groups, respectively. Tooth agenesis, taurodontism, and invaginated teeth were found in all groups with invaginations having a high prevalence. Peg-shaped upper lateral incisors and one geminated lower lateral incisor were also found. CONCLUSIONS: These descriptive data may help improve dental care in patients with single-suture craniosynostosis.

Intra-arterial chemotherapy with mitomycin C in gallbladder cancer: a follow-up study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is only limited and somewhat controversial information available on hepatic artery infusion of cytotoxic agents in gallbladder cancer. We report the results of 5-year follow-up of all gallbladder cancer patients treated with surgery and intra-arterial mitomycin C or mitomycin C alone in our hospital during 15 years. METHODS: Thirty-five patients with gallbladder cancer were treated with superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy (SIAC) with mitomycin C during 1981-1996. Survival was measured from diagnosis, and all patients were followed up until death or the end of January 2002. Cumulative survival rates and median survival times were calculated for all patients, according to response to treatment and staging. The data are presented as 5-year survival. RESULTS: Median survival times after SIAC for all patients, responders, and non-responders were 48, 60+, and 8.5 months, respectively. Overall response rate was 60%. Survival was significantly better for tumors limited to the gallbladder wall, as expected. Drug toxicity occurred in half of the patients, requiring cessation of chemotherapy in 25% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: The median survival of gallbladder cancer patients treated with surgery and SIAC seems to be significantly better compared to the previously reported outcome of surgical treatment alone. Drug toxicity limits the use of i.a. chemotherapy and requires careful monitoring for early side-effects.

Aneurysm of the profunda femoris artery manifested as acute groin pain in a child.

Arterial aneurysms in children are extremely rare and can be of congenital, inflammatory, and infectious nature or secondary to trauma. The authors describe the case of a 8-year-old boy who was admitted in the hospital with fever and severe groin pain. He had a true saccular aneurysm of 4 cm in diameter originating from the profunda femoris artery with, according to the clinical and angiographic findings, arteriovenous communication with the femoral veins. Because the aneurysm was firmly adherent to the deep femoral vein, the latter was resected and the venous continuity was restored with a saphenous vein bypass graft. The patient recovered without any complication. The histologic examination showed a normal intimal layer and partially disrupted medial elastic fibers without inflammatory infiltrate, suggesting the diagnosis of a true arterial aneurysm.