A game for teaching antimicrobial mechanisms of action.

BACKGROUND: Alternative teaching tools have proved to enhance students' interest and knowledge skills. AIM: To integrate basic Bacteriology with mechanisms of action of antimicrobial agents. METHODS: The board has 121 squares, including squares with question marks and antimicrobial agents. Each student receives a card with a clinical case, identification of the bacterium and its resistance to antimicrobials. The student rolls a dice and moves the corresponding number of squares. The game depends on the dice values rolled, the bacterial resistance profile, and the questions the student has to answer each time he/she lands on a question mark. Previously, the students were given a lecture about the subject. On the day of the game, students answered a pre-test and a post-test. The paired t-test was used for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: The game was applied to 78 students of the Medicine and Pharmacy undergraduate courses of the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. There was an increase in the number of right answers and a decrease in the number of unknown answers. There were no significant differences between the courses. CONCLUSION: The game could be applied to other undergraduate courses in the field of Health Sciences.

Extended right hepatectomy with total caudate lobe resection and biliary tree resection for a large colorectal liver metastasis involving both the right and left hepatic lobes and the umbilical fissure: a case report.

Very large right-sided liver tumors may grow up to the base of the umbilical fissure and involve the left hepatic duct and can occasionally reach the bile duct confluence. This kind of involvement has often been considered a contraindication to resection. We report a patient who presented with a large hepatic metastasis from colorectal cancer that reached the umbilical fissure and involved the left hepatic duct just above the bile duct confluence. An extended right hepatectomy including complete resection of caudate lobe was performed. We resected the left and common hepatic ducts, as well as both the entire hepatic and the proximal third of common bile duct. A long jejunal limb Roux-en-Y (45 cm) single-layer left intrahepatic hepaticojejunostomy was constructed. She is still well 14 months postoperatively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of such a procedure employed for the treatment of a liver metastasis from colorectal cancer. Extended right hepatectomy including complete caudate lobe resection can be feasible even when the majority of the extrahepatic biliary system needs to be resected. Our approach probably offers the only chance to prevent early death from liver failure in these patients.

Laryngeal inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor.

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor seldom involves the larynx, as only about 50 to 60 cases have been described in the literature. Even though these tumors are often not aggressive, they have the potential for invasion and local recurrence. We describe the case of a 27-year-old man who was admitted to an emergency department with signs of upper airway obstruction secondary to an obstructive mass. Histology identified the mass as an inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the subglottis. The patient underwent an emergency tracheotomy followed by a partial laryngectomy. During 14 months of follow-up, he remained free of active disease.