Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R Palao.
Of 3371 patients admitted to the Vall D'Hebron Burns Center, Barcelona, between the years 1983 and 1991 inclusive, 67 patients had attempted self-inflicted burns (1.98 per cent). Over 75 per cent of these patients had previous psychiatric illness and 20 per cent had previously attempted suicide. The mean age was 38 years and the overall mortality rate was 30 per cent. Over 71 per cent were male patients.
Biliary fistula is an occasional complication of cholecystectomy and are usually associated to retained biliary stones, surgical trauma of the biliary ducts and local infection. They were mainly treated by surgical methods up to the acquisition of the new endoscopic and percutaneous techniques used together with parenteral and enteral nutrition and new antibiotics. A total of seven patients with diagnosis of biliary fistula were seen between 1984 and 1990 at the "Unidad de Gastroenterología y Cirugía Digestiva" of the Clínica Sanatrix en Caracas. Average age was 50 with ranged between 31 and 76, 4 were male and 3 female. The fistulas were in 1 due to necrotizing pancreatitis, in 3 to lost of the ligation of the cystic duct, 2 were due to accidental injury of the common duct and the last case was a partial dehiscence of a choledoco-jejunostomy after the resection of a common duct cyst. Four of the cases were choledoco-cutaneous fistula, one hepatocutaneous, two hepatoduodenal. All the seven patients had subhepatic collections, one had a retroperitoneal collection, two had subdiaphragmatic collections and one had multiple hepatic abscesses. The abdominal collections were treated by percutaneous drainage using mainly the Ring-McLean and Van Sonnenberg tubes. The fistula was occluded with biliary prosthesis in four cases, using either endoscopic, percutaneous or mixed technique to place the stent. Patency of the stents ranged between 2 weeks and 24 months. Control time was from 2 to 40 months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
20 patients were evaluated and found to have a radiologic-endoscopic diagnosis of primary gastrointestinal lymphoma, in the Digestive Tract Department of the "Padre Machado" Oncological Hospital in a 19 years period (1970-1989). In 17 patients diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma was made and the 3 other patients were diagnosed with the Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It was located more frequently in the stomach: 14 (70%). Through double contrast radiology, endoscopy and deep biopsy, the diagnosis was made in 12 (67%) patients. The most frequent hystological type was diffuse histiocytic lymphoma. Surgery was the most used treatment. The value of double contrast radiology, and deep biopsy stand out as adequate methods to obtained a positive diagnostic, avoiding unnecessary surgical procedures.
The 20 year experience with diagnosis and management of radiation colitis at the Gastroenterology Department of the Hospital Oncológico "Padre Machado" is presented. Of 404 cases, 98% were treated for carcinoma of the cervix. The most frequent symptoms were rectal bleeding (71%) and changes in the intestinal habitus (27.2%). Symptoms were present from one month to one year prior to radiation. Flexible sigmoidoscopy in 77.5% of patients showed Grade I and II actinic disease, and X Ray studies sowed Grade II and III in 80%. Thirty eight patients required surgical treatment.
The clinical-pathological spectrum of ampullary cancer in 18 patients studied at the Department of Gastroenterology (Hospital Oncológico Padre Machado) during the last decade (1980-88) is presented. Involvement of the extrahepatic bile ducts was due to cancer of the ampullary region. In all cases diagnosis was confirmed by pathology. The value of ERCP is presented and the need to set apart this tumors from carcinoma of the head of the pancreas is emphasized. None of the nine cases treated with radical resection (Whipple) had operative mortality, and although follow-up for all cases is not long enough, two patients are alive and free of disease, five years after surgery. The value of prosthesis and biliary drainage for palliation is commented upon. Emphasis is placed on the need of using the term ampullary cancer in its proper connotation. Criteria for differentiating periampullary tumors (specially cancer of the head of the pancreas) are presented.
Experience with colonoscopy as an initial procedure in the study of the colon is presented. 3.450 colonoscopies in patients with GI symptoms were performed by trained endoscopists using the intermediate length scopes (130cm) without fluoroscopy. In 90% of the cases the whole colon was studied in a mean time of 20 minutes. 382 neoplasms (11.07%) were diagnosed. Polips represented 90% of the lesions and 34.3% of them were adenomas. 30% of the adenomas and 34.4% of the malignant tumors were localized in the right colon. We emphasise that 82.7% of the polips found in the right colon were adenomas. As a side effect we had a sigmoid perforation, it represents 0.03%. Colonoscopies performed by a trained endoscopist is a highly diagnostic method with low degree of complications, making it the procedure of choice in the study of the colon in specialized centers.
We present our experience with laparoscopy in 600 outpatients with several diseases in seven years (1982-1988). We performed 707 studies in 594 patients (99%), in six cases (1%) the examination was not feasible because of intra-abdominal adhesions. In 235 patients (39.16%) previous abdominal surgery was not considered a contraindication for the examination. We performed 295 hepatic biopsies, 69 adhesions cuts, 9 laparoscopic placement of Tenckhoff catheter and other procedures. The incidence of complications was 5.23%, related to laparoscopy 3.67% and to procedures 1.55%. Major complications occurred in four patients (0.56%), surgical intervention was required in one patient (0.14%). We neither had infectious complications, nor mortality. We conclude that laparoscopy can be an ambulatory procedure, because it has a low incidence of complications in skilled hands and is well tolerated.
OBJECT: To compare ultrasound, computed tomography and peritoneoscopy in the diagnosis of primary and metastatic hepatic tumors. DESIGN: Prospective trial of a cohort patients during a year. PLACE: Digestive Disease Department in a National referral Cancer Center. PATIENTS: Forty five patients with intraabdominal tumors for pretreatment evaluation. Intervention; Ultrasonography, computed tomography and peritoneoscopy performed in a period of ten days. MEASUREMENTS: sensibility, specificity and efficiency comparison of results by Chi square test, with Yates correction (X2 Yates), measure of pre test and post test probabilities using Bayes theorem. RESULTS: In hepatic humors, peritoneoscopy was the most sensitive, specificity was similar for the three procedures (p greater than 0.1), in the detection of hepatic metastases peritoneoscopy was the most sensitive 91.6% vs 50% (p less than 0.05) similar specificity and high positive predictive value for the three procedures, comparable with the post test probabilities. CONCLUSIONS: In the detection of focal hepatic lesions, peritoneoscopy was the best method; in case of doubt, failure of non invasive procedures or the need of biopsy samples must be considered the procedure of choice.
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