Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Pierpaolo Camplese.
The authors report a case of intralobar pulmonary sequestration diagnosed accidentally in a 64-year-old woman. The patient subsequently underwent surgery. The authors were prompted by this fairly rare case to describe and discuss its anatomopathological, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic aspects.
The current role and technical aspects of pneumonectomy for the treatment of lung cancer are evaluated based on the personal experience and on the review of the international literature. Over a four-year period 669 operations for lung cancer were performed. Fifty-nine were pneumonectomies 11 of which were completion pneumonectomies and 7 tracheal sleeve right pneumonectomies 5 of which performed with the anesthesiological tube always kept in trachea. Overall postoperative mortality was about 10% for pneumonectomy, and about 16,6 % for completion pneumonectomy with a median survival rate of 21 and 26 months respectively. In agreement with reports of the international literature, it is confirmed that pneumonectomy is a high-risk thoracic surgical procedure and an accurate cardiovascular and respiratory evaluation is very important for patient selection.
The role of surgery in the treatment of diffuse pleural malignant mesothelioma is controversial. The procedures proposed to date are extrapleural pneumonectomy, pleurectomy, and thoracoscopy. External radiation or intraoperative implantation of radioisotopes, chemotherapy and intrapleural treatment with various different agents are also considered as adjuvant therapy. Patient selection, postoperative morbidity and mortality and survival rates are discussed. Our personal series of 72 diffuse pleural malignant mesotheliomas is described: 29 had a palliative operation while 43 underwent radical surgery consisting in 24 extrapleural pneumonectomies and 19 pleurectomies.
Giant liposarcoma is an unusual variant of mediastinal tumors. The case of a 73-year-old woman is reported. She presented with a posterior mediastinal tumor invading the third middle tract of the thoracic esophagus and the adventitia of the descending aorta, close to the posterior pericardium; a neoplastic thrombus 2cm in size was located in the upper left pulmonary vein. The tumor was completely excised by left thoracotomy, in extracorporeal circulation. The postoperative course was uneventful and the patient received adjuvant chemotherapy. She is currently alive after 8 months, disease-free. The natural history, pathology, and prognosis of the disease are reviewed and management of such lesions is discussed.