Carcinoma urinary bladder presenting as acute abdomen

Bladder perforation presenting as acute peritonitis is a rare and dramatic event in the course of carcinoma urinary bladder. We present one such case and discuss the presentation, management and brief follow-up.     

Severe acute respiratory syndrome in surgical patients: a diagnostic dilemma

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in surgical patients can potentially be missed based on current World Health Organization (WHO) case definitions. METHOD: We report a retrospective case series of 10 surgical inpatients diagnosed with SARS following an outbreak in the surgical wards. Patients were included if they fulfilled the WHO case definition of probable SARS, had an active surgical problem and were admitted to the surgical wards during the outbreak period. Clinical histories, laboratory investigations and radiological findings were reviewed and analyzed. RESULTS: The mean age of the cohort was 57.6 years (range: 38-78 years). Nine patients had concomitant medical conditions. Three patients were in the early postoperative period, while the remaining seven were admitted for surgical related infections. All patients presented with fever, but only eight had accompanying respiratory symptoms. Lymphopenia and raised lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was seen in seven patients. Eight patients had positive bacterial cultures. The primary abnormality on chest radiograph was air-space opacification. Rapid progression of radiological changes was seen in seven patients. Mortality rate for our cohort is 20%. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of SARS in surgical patients differs from that previously described in normal patients. An apparent cause of fever and positive blood cultures cannot exclude a diagnosis of SARS. The current WHO case definition could result in delayed or even missed diagnosis. Early isolation of febrile patients with a positive contact history must be undertaken, even in the face of another identifiable cause.     

Comparative study on acute pancreatitis management

Background: Guidelines have been published regarding the management of acute pancreatitis by the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG). The aim of the present paper is to compare the management of patients with acute pancreatitis in a tertiary referral medical centre and a regional health centre in Australia during 2001, evaluate compliance with the published BSG guidelines, and compare our data with those of a similar UK study. Methods: Patients with a primary diagnosis of acute pancreatitis were identified retrospectively. Eighty‐four admissions from the Austin Hospital (AH), a tertiary referral centre, and 83 from The Geelong Hospital (TGH), a regional health centre, were treated in these two hospitals. The histories were collected and examined for compliance with the guidelines recommended by the BSG. We compared our data with the data from the two UK hospitals in a previous study. Results: Only 38% of patients from these two centres had all the investigations performed for severity stratification as recommended by BSG. In other respects, AH and TGH managed these patients with acute pancreatitis according to the recommendations. The overall mortality rate from acute pancreatitis was 3.0%, and within the group of severe acute pancreatitis the mortality rate was 22.7%. 65.5% of patients from AH with gallstone related acute pancreatitis had a cholecystectomy or sphincterotomy and extraction of gallstones within 4 weeks of presentation. There were five re‐admissions to AH in 2001 due to non‐operated gallstone‐related acute pancreatitis. In contrast, 84.3% of patients from TGH had definitive treatment within 4 weeks and there were three re‐admissions to TGH. Conclusion: Overall, both a tertiary referral centre and smaller regional hospital in Australia managed acute pancreatitis according to recently published BSG guidelines. The guidelines emphasized the importance of expertise in hepatopancreatobiliary surgery, availability of intensive care unit/high dependency unit and dynamic CT scanning. The recommendations for definitive treatment of patients with gallstone‐related pancreatitis within 4 weeks of presentation reduced the morbidity and mortality in this group. Although compliance with the guidelines on investigation for severity stratification of acute pancreatitis was poor, this lack of formal severity assessment did not appear to influence the outcome.     

Spontaneous cholesterol embolisation causing acute renal failure

We present a case of true spontaneous cholesterol embolisation causing acute renal failure. There was no history of vascular procedural interventions or thrombolytic therapy prior to her presentation, but the patient did have a history of difficult hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. This case highlights the importance of remembering cholesterol embolisation as a potential cause of acute renal failure despite no apparent precipitant, especially with the presence of unexplained eosinophilia.     

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in a Liver Transplant Recipient and Guidelines for Donor SARS Screening

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a recently described infectious entity with salient features of fever, headache and malaise, with rapid progression to pneumonitis. The etiology of SARS is likely a novel coronavirus. During the winter of 2003, an outbreak of SARS involving several hospitals occurred in Toronto, Canada. We describe a patient post liver transplant who contracted SARS and died during the outbreak, with subsequent infection of family and several health-care workers. A novel coronavirus was detected in respiratory specimens by PCR. Due to the potential severity of SARS in transplant recipients and the large number of cases of SARS in the community, in order to avoid transmission of SARS from a donor, we developed guidelines for SARS screening of organ donors. A screening tool based on potential hospital SARS exposure, clinical symptoms, and epidemiological exposure was used to stratify donors as high, intermediate or low risk for SARS. As SARS spreads throughout the world, it may become an increasingly significant problem for transplant patients and programs.     

The spectrum of acute renal failure in IgA nephropathy

Background: Acute renal failure rarely complicates the course of IgA nephropathy. In this study, we have tried to define the mode of presentation, the spectrum of morphology, and the prognostic factors for renal outcome. Methods: Twenty patients with biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy who developed acute renal failure were identified from 2000 to 2009 at a medical center in Taiwan. The patients' records were retrospectively reviewed with respect to clinical presentation, morphology of renal biopsy, and outcomes. Results: On histology, glomerular crescents were present in 11 patients (55%), acute tubular necrosis was identified in 11 patients (55%), acute interstitial nephritis was seen in 4 patients (20%), and extensive tubular red blood cell casts were present in 4 patients (20%). At the end of follow-up, 2 patients (10%) had died, 11 patients (55%) were in remission, and 7 patients (35%) developed end-stage renal disease. The prognostic factors for renal outcome were peak serum creatinine, dialysis support requirement, morphology (prominent glomerular/tubular injury), percentage of glomeruli affected by crescents, and interstitial infiltration (p = 0.04, <0.001, 0.013, 0.05, 0.02, respectively). Conclusions: Our findings suggested that there were four pathogenic mechanisms involved in IgA nephropathy with acute renal failure including (1) crescentic IgA nephropathy; (2) acute tubular necrosis associated with microhematuria and red blood cell casts occluding tubules; (3) acute tubular necrosis not related to microhematuria; and (4) acute interstitial nephritis, apparently induced by drugs. In general, patients with prominent tubular injury had a much higher remission rate than patients with prominent glomerular injury.     

Adrenal pseudocyst presenting as acute abdomen during pregnancy

Pseudocysts of the adrenal gland are rare lesions, which are usually discovered as incidental findings. Since they are in the majority of cases non-functioning, they become symptomatic only when they are complicated with rupture, haemorrhage or infection. We present a case of a 28-year-old woman in the 26th gestational week, who developed an acute abdomen due to a haemorrhagic pseudocyst of the left adrenal. The patient was submitted to left adrenalectomy. The described case is the third reported case of cystic adrenal lesion discovered during pregnancy and only the first reported case of acute presentation of an adrenal pseudocyst during pregnancy.     

Pyelonephritis complicating relapsing acute pancreatitis

A case of right pyelonephritis with hydronephrosis complicating relapsing acute pancreatitis and right pararenal phlegmon formation is presented. Hydronephrosis is a reportedly rare complication of extrapancreatic inflammation; the only 6 previous cases involving the right side are reviewed. The present case report, to our knowledge, is the first to describe clinical and laboratory evidence of pyelonephritis secondary to partial obstruction of the right upper renal tract by an extrapancreatic phlegmon. The clinician caring for patients with acute pancreatitis should be aware of this important complication, since the presentation of pyelonephritis-flank pain and fever--could erroneously be attributable solely to the pancreatitis.     

Acute renal impairment in coronavirus-associated severe acute respiratory syndrome

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerged infection from a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Apart from fever and respiratory complications, acute renal impairment has been observed in some patients with SARS. Herein, we describe the clinical, pathologic, and laboratory features of the acute renal impairment complicating this new viral infection. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the plasma creatinine concentration and other clinical parameters of the 536 SARS patients with normal plasma creatinine at first clinical presentation, admitted to two regional hospitals following a major outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003. Kidney tissues from seven other patients with postmortem examinations were studied by light microscopy and electron microscopy. RESULTS: Among these 536 patients with SARS, 36 (6.7%) developed acute renal impairment occurring at a median duration of 20 days (range 5-48 days) after the onset of viral infection despite a normal plasma creatinine level at first clinical presentation. The acute renal impairment reflected the different prerenal and renal factors that exerted renal insult occurring in the context of multiorgan failure. Eventually, 33 SARS patients (91.7%) with acute renal impairment died. The mortality rate was significantly higher among patients with SARS and acute renal impairment compared with those with SARS and no renal impairment (91.7% vs. 8.8%) (P < 0.0001). Renal tissues revealed predominantly acute tubular necrosis with no evidence of glomerular pathology. The adjusted relative risk of mortality associated with the development of acute renal impairment was 4.057 (P < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and age were the most significant independent risk factors predicting the development of acute renal impairment in SARS. CONCLUSION: Acute renal impairment is uncommon in SARS but carries a high mortality. The acute renal impairment is likely to be related to multi-organ failure rather than the kidney tropism of the virus. The development of acute renal impairment is an important negative prognostic indicator for survival with SARS.     

Novel coronavirus (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection in a renal transplant recipient: Case report

An ongoing outbreak of pneumonia associated with the severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) started in Wuhan, China, with cases now confirmed in multiple countries. The clinical course of patients remains to be fully characterized, clinical presentation ranges from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute renal failure, and no pharmacological therapies of proven efficacy yet exist. We report a case of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in a renal transplant recipient with excellent outcome. This case states the importance of close monitoring of the concentration of cyclosporine in patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir; the routine treatment of corticosteroid can be continued. This is a rare report of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in a renal transplant recipient. Further data are needed to achieve better understanding of the impact of immunosuppressive therapy on the clinical presentation, severity, and outcome of SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in solid organ transplant recipients.     

Tracheostomy in a patient with severe acute respiratory syndrome

The coronavirus which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome(SARS) is a virulent and highly contagious organism. Of the1755 SARS patients in Hong Kong, over 400 were healthcare workers.Meticulous attention to infection control and teamwork are essentialto minimize cross-contamination and prevent staff from contractingthe illness. These points are especially pertinent when anaesthetizingSARS patients for high-risk procedures such as tracheostomy.We describe the management of such a case. Br J Anaesth 2004; 92: 280–2     

Bile causing an acute scrotum immediately after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

We report our experience with a patient that developed an acute right hemiscrotum immediately after undergoing an uncomplicated laparoscopic cholecystectomy for gallbladder dyskinesia. The etiology of the acute scrotal pain was due to bile which was spilled into the peritoneum after entry into the gallbladder during dissection. The bile obtained access to the right hemiscrotum via a communicating hydrocele. To the best of our knowledge this is the first report of bile causing an acute scrotum following laparoscopic surgery. A review of the current literature on the topic of the postoperative acute scrotum follows our case presentation.     

56例SARS家庭聚集性发病患者的临床分析

目的：分析严重急性呼吸综合征(SARS)患者的临床特点。方法：回顾性分析56例家庭聚集发病SARS患者的临床资料。结果：SARS病情轻重分型无性别差异,60岁及以上患者、有慢性病史患者预后较差。其主要症状为发热、咳嗽、气短、胸闷、乏力、呼吸困难等;再次发热、呼吸困难以及LDH、CK-MB、HBDH、血糖、BUN、Cre升高、K、T细胞亚群、SaO_2、SpO_2降低与预后相关;X线胸片显示的肺病变、肺叶受损、肺受损面积更大,病情严重。SARS可伴有多种并发症,尤其合并有ARDS、休克、肾衰、多脏器衰竭者病死率明显增高。结论：SARS以呼吸道症状为主,淋巴细胞计数、T细胞亚群、血气分析、X线胸片等均有一定的改变,且以并发ARDS、休克及多脏器衰竭者病死率明显增高。     

Recurrent acute kidney injury following bath salts intoxication

"Bath salts" are becoming recognized as a frequently abused and highly addictive substance that can be obtained legally in some areas. These agents contain stimulant compounds, such as methylenedioxopyrrovalerone and mephedrone, that have been associated with sympathomimetic effects and psychotic features, such as paranoia, delusions, agitation, and confusion. They may have a benign course; however, intoxication with these agents may lead to severe cardiovascular and neurologic complications and death. We report a case of recurrent acute kidney injury associated with repeated bath salts intoxication. The patient, who presented with neurologic and cardiovascular symptoms and signs, also developed rhabdomyolysis, hyperuricemia, and metabolic acidosis as part of the clinical presentation. Bath salts intoxication should be included on the list of substances that can cause acute kidney injury and other metabolic abnormalities.     

Longer term follow up of aerobic capacity in children affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)

BACKGROUND: A study was undertaken to investigate the aerobic capacity and pulmonary function of children 6 and 15 months after the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS: Thirty four patients of mean age 14.7 years completed both pulmonary function and maximal aerobic capacity tests at 6 months. All had normal clinical examination and were asymptomatic. Their exercise responses were compared with a group of healthy controls. Complete data were collected on 27 of the original 34 cases at 15 months. RESULTS: Compared with normal controls, the patient group had significantly lower absolute and mass related peak oxygen consumption (peak V o(2) (p<0.01)), higher ventilatory equivalent for oxygen (p<0.01), lower oxygen pulse (p<0.01), and a lower oxygen uptake efficiency slope (p<0.01) at 6 months. This impairment was unexpected and out of proportion with the degree of lung function abnormality. Residual high resolution computed tomography of thorax (HRCT) abnormalities were present in 14 patients. Those with abnormal HRCT findings had significantly lower mass related peak V o(2) than subjects with normal radiology (p<0.01). Absolute and mass related peak V o(2) in the patient group remained impaired at 15 months despite normalisation of lung function in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: The mechanism for the reduced aerobic capacity in children following SARS is not fully understood, but it is probably a consequence of impaired perfusion to the lungs at peak exercise and deconditioning.     

Cholesterol embolic disease presenting as renal failure with acute pancreatitis

Renal failure and acute pancreatitis developed in a 63-year-old man after 2 angiography procedures and iliac artery surgery. The results of the renal biopsy showed no specific abnormalities and the cause of the pancreatitis could not be determined. The patient was treated with hemodialysis and conservative management for pancreatitis, however he died due to sepsis approximately 50 days after diagnosis. The autopsy revealed cholesterol crystals in several organs including the kidneys, pancreas, and spleen. Therefore, systemic cholesterol emboli may have contributed to the development of renal failure and acute pancreatitis in this case. Cholesterol crystals in the pancreas have frequently been observed at autopsy in patients with cholesterol emboli. The clinical development of acute pancreatitis, however, is quite rare in these cases. The present case is reported to increase awareness of the possible clinical presentations of systemic cholesterol embolic disease in an effort to increase the correct diagnosis of this condition.     

Adrenal Pseudocyst Presenting as Acute Abdomen during Pregnancy

Pseudocysts of the adrenal gland are rare lesions, which are usually discovered as incidental findings. Since they are in the majority of cases non-functioning, they become symptomatic only when they are complicated with rupture, haemorrhage or infection. We present a case of a 28-year-old woman in the 26^th gestational week, who developed an acute abdomen due to a haemorrhagic pseudocyst of the left adrenal. The patient was submitted to left adrenalectomy. The described case is the third reported case of cystic adrenal lesion discovered during pregnancy and only the first reported case of acute presentation of an adrenal pseudocyst during pregnancy.     

Acute osteomyelitis associated with Deep vein thrombosis in a patient of acute abdomen: A diagnostic dilemma

Deep vein thrombosis associated with acute osteomyelitis is a rare presentation. Such a presentation can lead to delay in diagnosis especially due to overlapping clinical presentation and usually has a poor prognosis. Only a high level of clinical suspicion can help in diagnosis. We present such case which patient presented with acute abdomen with swelling in lower limb.     

De Garengeot hernia: an uncommon presentation of acute appendicitis

We present a case of a 78-year-old female patient with an uncommon presentation of acute appendicitis. She was found to have a perforated appendicitis which developed in a femoral hernia sack. An appendix present in a femoral hernia is called a De Garengeot Hernia, which is a rare form of femoral hernia. Clinical presentation, diagnosis and management are discussed.