Surgery, Gastroenterology and Oncology

Read article Pancreatic cancer represents one of the deadliest cancers with a high mortality rate, characterized by an aggressive local invasion and early metastases. This malignancy is poorly responsive to chemotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy. Several proangiogenic factors were associated with pancreatic carcinogenesis, highlighting the importance of using antiangiogenic agents as therapeutic strategy.
Further studies suggest the involvement of chronic inflammation in angiogenesis processes in pancreatic carcinogenesis and inflammatory cytokines should be considered as potential biomarkers, as....[more]

Read article Imaging drug distribution inside a tumor is an important tool to support strategies to improve penetration of anticancer drugs and consequently the outcome of chemotherapy. Methods for mapping the distribution of pharmaceutical compounds and their metabolites in situ are of great interest to researchers and to the pharmaceutical industry.
There is a particular interest in the distribution of anti-cancer agents within solid tumors. Direct assessment of the distribution of drugs in tumor tissue is technically challenging, and requires the quantification of drug exposure to cells at....[more]

Read article Vesicovaginal fistulas are among the most distressing complications of gynecologic and obstetric procedures. The risk of developing vesicovaginal fistula is more than 1% after radical surgery and radiotherapy for gynecologic malignancies.
Management of these fistulas has been better defined and standardized over the last decade. The discussions concerning fistula repair has evolved from transabdominal transvaginal approach to minimally invasive surgeries.

Read article Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal malignancies with a dismal prognostic. KRAS is a well-recognized driver gene in PDAC, detected in the earliest stages of pancreatic tumor transformation. To establish the frequency of KRAS mutations in a cohort of Romanian patients, we performed Sanger sequencing for exon 2 and exon 3 of the gene on 31 PDACs pairs.
We further examined correlation of the mutational status with clinico-pathologic data of the patients and evaluated the prognostic implication of KRAS mutations.
Ten out of 31 patients (32%) had KRAS....[more]

Read article It was shown that Tacrolimus (TAC) can suppress inflammation and immune response involved in liver ischemic reperfusion injury (IRI) (Kristo I., Transpl Int. 2011).
The aim: We hypothesize that back-table arterial and portal liver perfusion with TAC can influence the incidence and severity of EAD. A prospective randomized study was conducted (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01887171).
Materials and methods: Including criteria: 1st liver transplantation from DBD donor with sequential portal-arterial reperfusion. At back-table portal vein and hepatic artery were....[more]

Read article Aims: Hydatidosis, caused by Echinococcus granulosus, is an endemic parasitic disease in Mediterranean countries. The most frequent anatomic locations are liver and lung. Intrathoracic rupture of hydatid cysts situated in the hepatic dome is a serious complication resulting in damage to the pleura, pulmonary parenchyma, and bronchi.

Material and Metods: From 2005 to 2014 we operated on 853 patients with liver hydatid cysts, 4 of thme having intrathoracic rupture of a hepatic hydatid cyst. Hepatic and thoracic ultrasonography was performed in all cases. The diagn....[more]

Read article Background: In the current era, the laparoscopic procedure such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, laparoscopic hepatobiliary surgery and other open procedures such as open cholecystectomy, biliary stricture surgery, are performed regularly throughout the world and extrahepatic biliary tract is one of the most common sites of the surgical procedures. The incidence of biliary tract injury by laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been found to be higher than open cholecystectomy. Apart from various other causes of biliary injuries aberrant anatomical course of extrahepatic biliary syst....[more]

Read article Vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) has become a recent therapeutic entity in reconstructive surgery. Long term immunosuppressive therapy ensures graft survival, although, with a risk of serious side effects. Further progress in this field depends on better understanding of basic immunology of composite tissue grafts with the dynamics of rejection and possibilities to induce donor specific-tolerance. Without a vast clinical experience, a possibility for achieving those goals is intensive study in preclinical field.
The classical experimental model for VCA is rat hind....[more]

Read article Background/Aims: We retrospectively investigated the long-term change in body mass index (BMI) in our Japanese cohort of patients to elucidate whether Helicobacter pylori eradication results in weight gain.

Methodology: Four hundred and thirty-five patients who had received eradication therapy and 167 who were H. pylori-positive but declined treatment were followed for 10 years or longer, and their BMIs were recorded.

Results: After 10 years, BMI significantly increased from baseline values in both the eradication and the no-eradication groups. H....[more]

Read article Background: Macular hole is a rare retinal pathology with complex treatment options. All the modern surgical procedures used can achieve a high percentage ofanatomical hole closure, but functional recovery is incomplete and vulnerable to multiple complications.

Case report: We present the case of a 61-year-old female with a history of high myopia, left eye high amblyopia, right eye operated retinal detachmentand cataract, diagnosed in 2012 with recent stage 4 macular hole on her single eye. We decided to perform in this case a nonstandard procedure: transconjun....[more]

Read article Background: Primary hepatic lymphoma represents a very rare location of non-Hodgkin lymphomas, whose treatment consists of liver tumor resection followed by chemotherapy. In some cases, however, upfront hepatectomy is not feasible due to insufficient volume of the liver remnant.

Case report: An ALPPS (Associating Liver Partition and Portal Vein Ligation for Staged Hepatectomy) procedure was performed in a patient with a large primary hepatic lymphoma, whose estimated liver remnant represented only 13% of total liver volume, it was performed. During the first st....[more]