Annals of surgery
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Comparative Study
Efficacy of medical therapy and antireflux surgery to prevent Barrett's metaplasia in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease.
To investigate whether Barrett's metaplasia may develop despite effective medical therapy. ⋯ Antireflux surgery is superior to medical therapy in the prevention of Barrett's metaplasia. Therefore, patients with reflux disease who have a weak lower esophageal sphincter and poor esophageal peristalsis should undergo antireflux surgery, even if they have only mild esophagitis.
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Biography Historical Article
William Stewart Halsted: letters to a young female admirer.
To present the first new information in the past 25 years concerning the life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted. This paper reports on recently discovered personal correspondence of Dr. Halsted, beginning at age 66, to a young lady, Elizabeth Blanchard Randall, 40 years his junior. ⋯ Late in Halsted's life, he developed a warm and affectionate relationship with a young lady 40 years his junior, as revealed in Halsted's correspondence. Halsted's warm, personal, and playful letters are in stark contrast to his biographers' portrayals of him as a more serious and reclusive person.
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To assess the reliability of 18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18-FDG PET) in distinguishing benign from malignant cystic lesions of the pancreas. ⋯ 18-FDG PET is more accurate than computed tomography in identifying malignant pancreatic cystic lesions and should be used, in combination with computed tomography and tumor markers assay, in the preoperative evaluation of patients with pancreatic cystic lesions. A positive result on 18-FDG PET strongly suggests malignancy and, therefore, a need for resection; a negative result shows a benign tumor that may be treated with limited resection or, in selected high-risk patients, with biopsy, follow-up, or both.