Primary adenocarcinoma of the appendix

Thirteen cases of primary appendicular adenocarcinoma are reported. This rare tumour usually presents as acute appendicitis. The correct diagnosis is rarely entertained before or during surgery. The main treatment choice lies between appendicectomy alone and appendicectomy followed by right hemicolectomy. There are anatomical reasons for advising the latter and survival figures from the literature tend to support this preference. The cases reported here indicate that in the period 1972-1984, in the North West Region, there was a slight preference for appendicectomy alone. The additional procedure of right hemicolectomy did not confer any clear-cut survival advantage.     

Effects of hypothermia on testicular ischemia

The ischemic effects of prolonged testicular torsion have been well documented; however, prevention or arrest of the damaging effects of prolonged ischemia has been incompletely studied. Two groups of Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to varying lengths of bilateral testicular ischemia. Group I underwent normothermic ischemia for two, four, and six hours. Likewise, Group II underwent similar time periods of ischemia, however, after thirty minutes of normothermic ischemia the scrotum of each animal was placed into an ice bath maintained at 4C. Two weeks postoperatively, bilateral orchiectomy was performed. Histology of the testes of the two groups was compared. Neither group revealed significant destruction of the germinal epithelium after two hours of ischemia. Group I revealed only 25% preservation of the germinal epithelium at four hours and only 8% preservation at six hours of ischemia. In contrast, Group II which received ice showed 90% preservation of germinal epithelium at four hours and 85% preservation at six hours of ischemia. We conclude that external ice application significantly preserves seminiferous tubules at four and six hours of ischemic injury in the rat testicle.     

Injuries of the small and large intestine following blunt abdominal trauma

From 1979 to 1987 1428 patients with blunt abdominal trauma were treated in the Department of Surgery of the University of Freiburg; 119 patients had intestinal injuries. They were mainly young adults who had sustained a car accident. 71.3% of the small bowel injuries were overseen, 14.2% needed resection, and in 14.5% an operative procedure was not necessary. The surgical procedure for colonic injuries has to be chosen with regard to the age and general condition of the patient, to the severity of the trauma, to associated injuries and to the stage of peritonitis. Accordingly, 18% of the patients were treated with and 58% without a protective colostomy, 24% could be treated conservatively. Mortality and morbidity correlated with the severity of associated injuries. Morbidity was also dependent on the time interval between accident and operative therapy.     

Uptake of Adriamycin in tumour and surrounding brain tissue in patients with malignant gliomas

Summary Eight patients with malignant gliomas verified on CT scan, received an intravenous injection of 50 mg of Adriamycin R, 24 hours prior to surgical removal of the tumour. Peroperatively, both tumour and surrounding tissue specimens were obtained for determination of the tissue concentrations of Adriamycin and its reduced metabolite Adriamycinol. It was found that Adriamycin could be detected in tumour tissue from all patients. The concentration varied between 0,9 and 4,6 nmol/g tissue. In contrast, Adriamycin could only be detected in surrounding brain tissue from one patient.In anin vitro study a human malignant glioma cell line (U-251 MG) was exposed to various concentrations of Adriamycin for 24 hours. It was found that an intracellular drug concentration above 30 nmol/g cells caused a concentration dependent inhibition of cell growth. Thus, it is likely that the poor effect of Adriamycin on patients with malignant gliomas is due to an ineffective drug accumulation in the tumour tissue.     

Cup containment and orientation in cemented total hip arthroplasties

We reviewed the radiographs of 864 Charnley and STH (Zimmer) cemented total hip arthroplasties with a mean follow-up of seven years (maximum 16 years). Survivorship analysis was used to assess the correlation between radiographic performance and the bony containment or the coronal orientation of the acetabular cup. The cup orientation and containment were interrelated; all vertically oriented cups were completely contained, whereas 25% of more horizontal cups were only partially contained. Completely contained cups had significantly lower incidences of complete cement-bone radiolucency (p = 0.02) and of wear (p = 0.09). Vertically oriented cups had a lower incidence of continuous radiolucency than neutrally oriented cups, but this was not statistically significant (p = 0.25). Our results confirm the importance of complete bony containment, and also indicate that it is better to accept vertical orientation and obtain full bony coverage than to have a more horizontal orientation with partial containment.     

Uses and risks of drainage following elective colon resection. A prospective, randomized and controlled clinical study

The results of a controlled randomized and prospective clinical study including 113 patients from March 1987 until August 1988 showed that prophylactic drainage in elective resection for cancer of the colon was not necessary. 60 patients received a drain, 53 patients were not drained. The drain turned out to be ineffective even concerning its expected function of draining intraabdominal fluid: its diagnostic and therapeutic value failed in clinical practice. The rate of surgical complications--i.e. anastomotic leakage, impaired wound healing and relaparotomy--was significantly higher in the drained group. In elective colon resection the use of a drain as a routine procedure cannot be recommended.     

Preoperative staging of gastrointestinal tumors by endosonography

Summary Intracavitary application of ultrasound was first performed for diagnostic purposes in 1967; since that time, it has been more and more widely used. As far as the gastrointestinal tract is concerned, endoscopically controlled ultrasonic probes provide visualization of the various layers of the intestinal wall. It is therefore possible to describe lesions of the esophagus, stomach, and the rectum with regard to their nature and depth of infiltration. Furthermore, periesophageal and perigastric organs can be visualized. It has become evident that endosonography is particularly important for pretherapeutic staging of tumors of the esophagus, stomach, and rectum. Here prospective comparative studies confirm the superiority of this new diagnostic procedure when compared to the methods available to date.     

Uncertainty in Fitted Estimates of Apparent in Vivo Metabolic Constants for Chloroform

It has become common practice to rely on fitted estimates ofapparent in vivo metabolic constants (e.g., V_max and K_M) inparameterization of PBPK models. Yet, quantitative estimatesof precision in these fitted parameters are not routinely reported.Such information is needed to assess the reliability of modelpredictions. The purpose of this study was to assess the precisionin estimates of V_max and K_M for chloroform, accounting for boththe statistical uncertainties in parameter estimates from individualdata sets and any additional uncertainty due to differencesin the parameter estimates derived from various experiments.Joint confidence regions for V_max and K_M from each experiment,generated using maximum likelihood techniques, were used toevaluate these questions. Three previously published data setswere considered. Estimates of V_max and K_M obtained from thesedata sets differed more than could be explained as a consequenceof a limited number of observations, measurement error, or stochasticerror. Issues associated with the use of maximum likelihoodtechniques to estimate joint confidence regions, the estimationof metabolic constants from individual experiments within agas uptake study versus the full data set, the degree of overlapin the joint confidence regions for metabolic constants obtainedfrom separate data sets, and the implications for risk assessmentare discussed.