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Leonardo Cattelani

Publications and source records attributed to Leonardo Cattelani.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Thoracoscopic parietal pleural argon beam coagulation versus pleural abrasion in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

OBJECTIVE: The obliteration of pleural space is useful to prevent recurrences of spontaneous pneumothorax. We retrospectively compared the results of pleural argon beam coagulation versus pleural abrasion in the treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax. METHODS: Between 1996 and 2004, 136 patients underwent surgery for primary spontaneous pneumothorax, with 143 surgical procedures, all performed by VATS. Indications were recurrent pneumothorax in 107 patients, a complicated first episode in 29 and occupational activity in 7. Six patients were excluded because of postoperative histopathological diagnosis other than pulmonary emphysema. In 70 cases pleurodesis was performed with argon beam coagulation and in 67 by Marlex degrees mesh abrasion. These techniques were employed during two different periods. Median follow-up was 68 months in the Marlex degrees group and 41 in the argon group. The two groups resulted as being homogeneous for gender, age, smoking attitude and surgical indication. Statistical analysis was done with chi2 and Fisher's test. RESULTS: No postoperative mortality was observed. Mean recovery time was 5 days. There were three patients with postoperative bleeding who underwent re-operation. There were nine cases of prolonged air-leak, one needing surgical exploration. Nine recurrences were noted, all requiring surgery. Two recurrences were observed in the group treated by pleural abrasion (3.4%) and seven in the group treated by argon coagulation (10.7%). The Fisher's test failed to demonstrate a statistical significance between the two procedures in terms of recurrence rate (p=0.18). Multivariate analysis yielded no risk factors for recurrences. Postoperative complications resulted as being equally distributed in both groups. CONCLUSION: After primary spontaneous pneumothorax, pleurodesis induced by argon beam parietal pleural coagulation resulted as being no better than that obtained by pleural abrasion in the prevention of recurrences. No benefits in terms of postoperative complications resulted by use argon beam coagulation.

Adolescent↗

Management of postintubation membranous tracheal rupture.

BACKGROUND: Postintubation tracheobronchial laceration is a rare complication of general anesthesia. A renewed interest in this disorder induced us to review our experience on its treatment, focusing on the evolution of the surgical approach, and describing a technical variation of the transcervical approach. METHODS: From January 1994 to December 2002 we treated 13 patients with diagnosis of postintubation tracheobronchial laceration. The treatment was nonsurgical in 3 patients (1-cm-long tear) and surgical in the other cases. Two lesions extending to the main bronchi were repaired through a right thoracotomy as well as four lesions limited to the trachea observed before January 2001. After this date we used the transcervical approach for entirely intratracheal lesions: in three cases we performed an anterior transverse tracheotomy and in one case a transverse and midline vertical incision (T tracheotomy). RESULTS: Both conservative and surgical therapy were successful in all the cases. Two patients in the thoracotomy group had a transient right vocal cord palsy. No morbidity was observed with the cervical approach. Normal healing of the sutures was evidenced by an endoscopic follow-up 30 days later. CONCLUSIONS: In our experience nonsurgical treatment is advisable in small (length < 2 cm) uncomplicated tears. Concerning surgery, thoracotomy is indicated in tracheal lacerations extending to the main bronchi, whereas the transcervical approach is preferred for intratracheal tears because of its efficacy in reaching and suturing the lesions extending to the carina and for its limited invasiveness.

Aged↗

Ectopic mediastinal parathyroid adenoma.

Ectopic mediastinal parathyroid adenomas may be cause of Primary Hyperparathyroidism (PH). The occurrence of these lesions is explainable on embryologic basis. We report the case of a 20-year-old patient with PH due to an ectopic mediastinal parathyroid adenoma located in the anterior mediastinum. After its accurate pre-operative localization, surgical resection through a cervical manubriotomy was performed. Serum calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels returned promptly within the normal range, no complications occurred and the patient was discharged in the 4th postoperative day. Different surgical approaches are discussed.

Adenoma↗

Biological parameters on computed tomography guided fine needle aspiration biopsy from peripheral primary non-small cell lung cancer.

Computed tomography (CT) guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (CT-guided FNAB) represents the procedure of choice for diagnosing peripheral primary lung cancer before surgery. The aim of the present study was to assess the reliability of the immunocytochemical evaluation of biological parameters and DNA flow cytometry on cellular material obtained from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients by CT-guided FNAB. Thirty consecutive CT-guided FNABs obtained from NSCLC patients were submitted both to the immunocytochemical evaluation of p53, Ki67, bcl-2 and to flow cytometric DNA analysis. p53, Ki67 and bcl-2 were assessable in 60% (18/30), 53% (16/30) and 48% (10/21) of the cases, respectively. Flow cytometric DNA analysis was performed in 19 out of the 30 cases and 74% (14/19) of the histograms were evaluable. Cytofluorimetric S-phase fraction (SPF), was obtained in 57% (8/14) of the cases. The results of the current study suggest that CT-guided FNAB from primary NSCLC patients may represent an effective practice for the evaluation of biologic parameters and could be useful as a preoperative procedure. The role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in operable NSCLC is still under debate. We suppose that in the future the presurgical characterization of NSCLC could suggest the opportunity of a neoadjuvant systemic treatment aimed to improve the clinical outcome. Moreover, in locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC immunocytochemistry could help to predict the response to chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, avoiding ineffective treatments and supporting the development of more rational therapies.

Biopsy, Needle↗