Randomized clinical trial comparing radially expanding trocars with conventional cutting trocars for the effects on pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background Trocar incisions are important sources of pain the first days after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Radially expanding trocars may cause less pain than conventional cutting trocars. Methods In a patient- and observer-blinded trial, 80 patients were randomized to undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy using either radially expanding trocars (radial group) or conventional cutting trocars (cutting group). Two 10-mm and two 5-mm trocars were used in both treatment groups. All the patients received standardized anesthetic and analgesic treatment. The primary outcome was incisional pain. Pain was registered during mobilization using a visual analog scale (VAS) and a verbal rating scale (VRS) before and 6 h after the operation, and at postoperative days 1 and 2. The needs for a fascial incision to retract the gallbladder, active surgical hemostasis, and supplementary requirements of opioids during the hospital stay were registered. In addition, 2 days after the operation, the incidence and severity of suggilations at the trocar incisions were measured. Results Data from 77 patients were available for statistical analysis. In the radial group, 23 patients needed fascial incision for gallbladder retraction compared with 11 patients in the cutting group (p = 0.006). No significant intergroup differences in VAS or VRS pain scores or any other variable were found. Conclusions The use of radially expanding trocars has no effect on incisional pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy.     

Integrity of the lateral femoral wall in intertrochanteric hip fractures: an important predictor of a reoperation

BACKGROUND: Reoperations after intertrochanteric fractures are often necessitated by fracture displacement following mobilization of the patient. The biomechanical complexity of the fracture, the position of the implant, and the patient's characteristics are known to influence postoperative outcome. We investigated the importance of an intact lateral femoral wall as a factor in postoperative fracture displacement after fixation with a sliding compression hip screw. METHODS: Two hundred and fourteen consecutive patients with an intertrochanteric fracture were treated with a 135 degrees sliding compression hip screw with a four-hole side-plate between 2002 and 2004. The fractures were classified on preoperative radiographs according to the AO/OTA classification system. The status of the greater and lesser trochanters, the integrity of the lateral femoral wall, and the position of the implant were assessed postoperatively. Reoperations due to technical failure were recorded for six months postoperatively. RESULTS: Only 3% (five) of 168 patients with an intact lateral femoral wall postoperatively underwent a reoperation within six months, whereas 22% (ten) of forty-six patients with a fractured lateral femoral wall were operated on again (p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analyses combining demographic and biomechanical parameters showed a compromised lateral femoral wall to be a significant predictor of a reoperation (p = 0.010). Seventy-four percent (thirty-four) of the forty-six fractures of the lateral femoral wall occurred during the operative procedure itself. A fracture of the lateral femoral wall occurred in only 3% (three) of the 103 patients with an AO/OTA type-31-A1.1, A1.2, A1.3, or A2.1 intertrochanteric fracture compared with 31% (thirty-one) of the ninety-nine with an AO/OTA type 31-A2.2 or A2.3 fracture (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: A postoperative fracture of the lateral femoral wall was found to be the main predictor for a reoperation after an intertrochanteric fracture. Consequently, we concluded that patients with preoperative or intraoperative fracture of the lateral femoral wall are not treated adequately with a sliding compression hip-screw device, and intertrochanteric fractures should therefore be classified according to the integrity of the lateral femoral wall, especially in randomized trials comparing fracture implants.     

Effect of body mass index on the outcomes of patients with upper and lower urinary tract cancers treated by radical surgery: Results from a Canadian multicenter collaboration

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of body mass index (BMI) on the outcomes of patients with urinary tract carcinoma treated with radical surgery.Materials and methodsData were collected from 10 Canadian centers on patients who underwent radical cystectomy (RC) (1998–2008) or radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) (1990–2010). Various parameters among subsets of patients (BMI<25, 25≤BMI<30, and BMI≥30 kg/m²) were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate analyses were performed to assess the effect of BMI on overall survival, disease-specific survival, and recurrence-free survival (RFS).ResultsAmong the 847 RC and 664 RNU patients, there was no difference in histology, stage, grade, and margin status among the 3 patient subsets undergoing either surgery. However, RC patients with lower BMIs (<25 kg/m²) were significantly older (P = 0.004), had more nodal metastasis (P = 0.03), and trended toward higher stage (P = 0.052). RNU patients with lower BMIs (<25 kg/m²) were significantly older (P = 0.0004) and fewer received adjuvant chemotherapy (P = 0.04) compared with those with BMI≥30 kg/m²; however, there was no difference in tumor location (P = 0.20), stage (P = 0.48), and management of distal ureter among the groups (P = 0.30). On multivariate analysis, BMI was not prognostic for overall survival, disease-specific survival, and RFS in the RC group. However, BMI≥30 kg/m² was associated with more bladder cancer recurrences and worse RFS in the RNU group (HR = 1.588; 95% CI: 1.148–2.196; P = 0.0052).ConclusionsIncreased BMI did not influence survival among RC patients. BMI≥30 kg/m² is associated with worse bladder cancer recurrences among RNU patients; whether this is related to difficulty in obtaining adequate bladder cuff in patients with obesity requires further evaluation.     

Separation of no-carrier-added Cu from a proton irradiated Ni enriched nickel target

An ion exchange method has been developed to separate no-carrier-added ⁶⁴Cu from irradiated Ni target. The target is first dissolved in nitric acid and the solution is evaporated to dryness and the residue is dissolved in an ethanol–HCl solution. Cu, Co and Ni in ethanol–HCl solution are then absorbed on an anion exchange column. Co and Ni are removed from the column by eluting with 72% ethanol–0.3 mol/l HCl. Finally, the ⁶⁴Cu is eluted with water. For separating Ni from Co isotopes and recovering the ⁶⁴Ni target, the eluate of 72% ethanol–0.3 mol/l HCl is evaporated to dryness, the residue is dissolved in a concentrated HCl solution, and loaded to an another column, Ni is eluted by 9 mol/l HCl, while Co remains on the column. The procedure developed has been successfully applied for the production of no-carrier-added ⁶⁴Cu from enriched ⁶⁴Ni generated by the reaction ⁶⁴Ni(p, n)⁶⁴Cu using a cyclotron. The decontamination of Co in Cu fraction is higher than 99% and recoveries of ⁶⁴Cu and ⁶⁴Ni are higher than 95%.     

Small cell lung cancer in Norway. Should more patients have been offered surgical therapy?

OBJECTIVE: The final outcome of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is poor with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 10%. Therefore, the question of surgery in patients with a technically-operable solitary tumor has been raised. The purpose of this study was to identify the proportion of patients with operable SCLC and to assess the prognosis of different treatment strategies. For patients who were operated, we compared the resection specimens from patients with more than 5-year survival with those with shorter survival to see whether the specimens belonged to different subclasses of SCLC. METHODS: In Norway all clinical and pathologic departments submit reports on cancer patients to the Cancer Registry. The Registry also has a law-regulated authority to collect supplemental information regarding diagnosis, treatment and outcome for all cancer patients from the hospitals in charge. All reports on patients diagnosed as having SCLC in limited disease or unknown stage during the time interval 1993-1999 were reviewed. Patients with a T2-tumor, in whom a pneumonectomy would have to be performed, were classified as potentially operable. Five-year relative survival was calculated for patients diagnosed in 1993-1997. RESULTS: During the actual period 2442 individuals with SCLC were identified. The majority was treated with conventional chemotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy while 38 underwent surgical therapy. Following reclassification of 697 patients reported to have limited disease or unknown stage 180 were judged to be in stage I. In addition to the 38 resected patients 14 were considered fit for surgery technically and medically while 97 were found to be potentially operable treatment modalities apart from surgery yielded a 5-year survival rate <7%. For stage I (N=96) the rate was 11.3% in conventionally treated patients compared to 44.9% for those who underwent surgical resection. By pathological review of surgical specimens a diagnosis of SCLC was confirmed in all patients treated by surgery in the groups with long and short survival. CONCLUSION: This investigation demonstrates that patients with SCLC having a peripherally located tumor should be referred to surgery, as long time survival is far better than for conventionally treated patients.     

Endoscopic treatment of gastroesophageal reflux

The treatment of gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) has improved dramatically in recent years. The new endoluminal treatments may bring a relatively simple, minimally invasive therapy that can be simultaneously applied in patients with GERD undergoing diagnostic upper endoscopy. Although the initial results are promising, these new techniques are generating some controversy and require further evaluation with randomized studies and longer follow-ups to define their precise role in the long-term management of the gastroesophageal reflux disease.     

Fractures of the neuro-cranium: sensitivity and specificity of post-mortem computed tomography compared with autopsy

Post–mortem computed tomography (PMCT) is a routine tool in many forensic pathology departments as it is fast and non-destructive and allows less gruesome visualization than photographs, and the images are indefinitely storable. Several studies investigated congruence between PMCT and autopsy for skull fracture but registered only the presence or absence of fracture systems. The objective of this study was to determine location-specific sensitivity and specificity of PMCT for individual fracture lines in blunt force head trauma. Accurate 3D models based on PMCT data with all fracture lines visible are important for future studies on fractures, applying finite element analysis (FEA). We retrospectively sampled adult cases from 2013 to 2019 with skull fracture mentioned in the autopsy report. PMCT was on a Siemens 64-slice scanner and autopsy according to international guidelines. The location and direction of all fracture lines at autopsy and at de novo interpretation of scans were registered and compared. Ninety-nine cases with 4809 individual findings were included. Age ranged from 18 to 100 years. The overall sensitivity was 0.58, and specificity was 0.91. For individual locations, sensitivity ranged from 0.24 to 0.85, and specificity ranged from 0.73 to 1.00. Intra-observer agreement was 0.74, and inter-observer agreement ranged from 0.43 to 0.58. In conclusion, PMCT is suited for detection of fracture systems, but not for detection of all individual fracture lines. Our results differed from the existing literature due to the methodological choices of registering individual fracture lines. Future studies utilising FEA must supplement PMCT with autopsy data.

     

Good performance of a titanium femoral component in cementless hip arthroplasty in younger patients

We performed 97 uncemented primary total hip arthroplasties in 80 patients having an average age of 50 years. The femoral implant was a titanium stem with a proximal circumferential plasma spray-coating. Three different acetabular components were used: a threaded and partly porous-coated design in 70% of the cases. The average follow-up period was 8 years. 1 stem was revised 9 years after insertion due to a comminuted fracture of the proximal femur, 1 stem was revised 9 years after insertion due to a deep infection. No stem revisions were due to aseptic loosening. 1 femora had areas of distal osteolysis associated with a deep infection, but no signs of proximal loosening. 3 femora had areas of minor proximal osteolysis. 16 acetabular components (14 threaded) had been revised in 13 patients. The average Harris hip score was 91 points at the latest follow-up We conclude that the uncemented titanium femoral component with a circumferential porous coating performed well in these patients, most of whom were young. As reported previously, aseptic loosening of threaded acetabular components was common.