Annali italiani di chirurgia
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Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma is a rare tumour that arise from the mesothelial cells of the pleura and in recent time the incidence of this disease is rising. Because of the implications for management and therapy, it is important to assess the accurate staging. 18F-fluorodeoxiglucose Positron Emission Tomography (18F-FDG PET) is become a useful tool in the diagnosis of many neoplasms, such as Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma. In particular it has been shown to be useful in the evaluation of the extent of pleural disease, in the establishment of lymph node involvement, in the evaluation of tumour invasion into the lung and thoracic wall, in the diagnosis of extrathoracic metastases, in the assessment of the response to treatment, and in planning radiotherapy. Developments in system technology, like improvements in hybrid system (integrated Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography) and the discovery of new radiopharmaceuticals, promise to make PET much more useful and versatile in the future.
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Rectus sheath haematoma is a well-documented clinical entity. The accumulation of blood within the rectus sheath produces a painful swelling that can mimic an intraperitoneal mass, with features of an acute abdomen. ⋯ Two cases of this entity are reported. The correct diagnosis was established by appropriate assessment of the clinical, laboratory and imaging findings.
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We describe the technique, the benefits and the drawbacks of an original video-assisted thymectomy (VAT), performed through an inframammary cosmetic incision and median sternotomy in myasthenia gravis (MG) patients. This procedure is clinically valuable and cosmetically satisfactory so as to be very well accepted by patients, especially by young women. Minimal-access thymectomy has become increasingly popular as surgical treatment for patients with nonthymomatous myasthenia gravis because of its comparable efficacy, safety, and lesser degree of tissue trauma with conventional open surgery. ⋯ Thymectomy in MG video-assisted infra-mammary cosmetic incision has shown to be a useful surgical approach as demonstrated by the good functional and very good aesthetic results, associated with a very low morbidity and no mortality.