BACKGROUND/AIMS: A fundamental experiment was undertaken with reference to local resection with lymphadenectomy for gastric cancer. The intramural blood supply network of the stomach wall, about which no reports have previously appeared, was surgically investigated. METHODOLOGY: Five pigs were used. The left gastric and the right gastroepiploic vessels and their branches were removed from all the animals. The right gastric vessels were also removed, while the short gastric and the left gastroepiploic vessels were preserved in the 1st pig. Only the short gastric vessels were preserved in the 2nd, and the right and the short gastric vessels in the 3rd. After resection of the whole stomach with the spleen, angiography was performed through the preserved arteries. The 4th and 5th pigs underwent the same procedures as the 1st, with additional local resection of the stomach in the 5th. Both pigs were maintained for 1 year and then, angiography was performed. RESULTS: When the short gastric and the left gastroepiploic vessels, or the short and the right gastric vessels were preserved, the whole stomach continued to receive blood supply through the intramural network. Stomach wall resection therefore can be performed with no complications after these procedures. CONCLUSIONS: The present results confirm the possibility of local resection with lymphadenectomy as a treatment for gastric cancer.

Angiography↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Chronological observation in early radiation myelopathy of the cervical spinal cord: gadolinium-enhanced MRI findings in two cases.

Gd-enhanced MR images of two patients with clinically and histopathologically diagnosed chronic progressive radiation myelitis (CPRM) were observed chronologically. One of them had had nasopharyngeal cancer and received radiotherapy at a dose of 100 Gy to the C1-2 level of the spinal cord. She developed CPRM 25 months after the termination of radiotherapy. The other had had malignant lymphoma originating from the tonsil and received chemoradiotherapy. The dose delivered to her cervical spinal cord was 40 Gy, and she developed CPRM 30 months later. Gd-enhanced MRI in the early phase revealed a small crescent-shaped nidus with or without a very small central nonenhanced area in both cases. Enhancement was not great. At that time, patients noticed only the inability to perceive pain and temperature or paresthsia in the opposite side. In a few months, MRI revealed a much more strongly enhanced and larger nidus with enlargement of a central nonenhanced area accompanied by long segmental cord enlargement. The patients' neurological symptoms had also progressed, with hemiparesis developing, for example.

Adult↗