Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E van Sonnenberg.
Interventional radiologic techniques offer many options and benefits in the care of patients with thoracic disorders. Imaging-guided catheter techniques provide heretofore unsurpassed precision and accuracy in performance of these procedures. Improved efficacy, with reduced morbidity is the goal and usually the result for the patient.
Interventional radiologic procedures in the gallbladder are influencing both the diagnosis and therapy of many gallbladder disorders. Current diagnostic and therapeutic percutaneous techniques offer important alternatives for their management. This article highlights the spectrum of interventional radiologic techniques available for gallbladder diseases.
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Obliteration of peripancreatic fat planes usually is considered an indicator of peripancreatic tumour infiltration in the presence of a malignant mass, or of inflammation of peripancreatic tissues in patients with pancreatitis. However, absence of peripancreatic fat planes also may be found in patients without evidence of pancreatic disease. Hence, CT scans of 125 patients without clinical or computed tomographic evidence of pancreatic disease were evaluated to assess normal variations in the anatomy of the pancreas and its relation to surrounding vessels and bowel loops. The fat plane separating the superior mesenteric artery from the pancreas was preserved in 100% of patients. Conversely, fat planes between the pancreas and the superior mesenteric vein, inferior vena cava, and adjacent bowel loops were partially or totally obliterated in 13% to 50% of patients. It is concluded that the absence of fat around the superior mesenteric artery is highly suggestive of pathologic changes of the pancreas, while the lack of fat planes between the pancreas and other splanchnic vessels or bowel loops frequently is normal, and therefore, is an unreliable sign of pancreatic disease. The applications of these findings to the assessment of tumour resectability by CT, and to CT scanning techniques, are discussed.
This report describes the authors' initial experience with percutaneous gastrostomy (PG) and gastroenterostomy (PGE) in 40 patients. Indications for PG and PGE included alimentation (35 patients) and small bowel decompression (five). Seldinger technique with air distension of the stomach via a nasogastric tube (20 patients) is a simple method to insert small (7-9 French) and firm catheters; tube exchanges for larger and softer catheters often are necessary by this method (23 procedures in 17 patients). Coaxial trocar technique (19 patients) permits initial insertion of softer and often larger catheters (9-14 French feeding tubes), which are less likely to clog or require exchange; the intragastric balloon support method facilitates trocar insertion. Now preferred is a system that uses 18-gauge needle puncture and allows coaxial insertion of a final soft feeding tube at the initial procedure. Small bowel catheter positioning (PGE) (31 patients) was more common than gastrostomy alone (8 patients); "downhill puncture" toward the gastric antrum assists direct guide-wire cannulation of the duodenum via the gastric puncture (12 patients). Five complications occurred; two were major and included catheter dislodgement in one patient. Another patient, who had a pharyngeal tumor, suffered profound respiratory difficulty from premedication and nasogastric tube malposition; patients with head and neck tumors present particular problems with nasogastric tube passage and airway monitoring. Inability to pass a nasogastric tube does not preclude PG and PGE, as direct puncture of the stomach is feasible.
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