World journal of gastroenterology : WJG
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World J. Gastroenterol. · Jul 2009
Clinical application of subjective global assessment in Chinese patients with gastrointestinal cancer.
To investigate the role of subjective global assessment (SGA) in nutritional assessment and outcome prediction of Chinese patients with gastrointestinal cancer. ⋯ SGA is a reliable assessment tool and helps to predict the hospital stay and medical expenditures of Chinese surgical gastrointestinal cancer patients.
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World J. Gastroenterol. · Jul 2009
Editorial ReviewWhat every gastroenterologist needs to know about common anorectal disorders.
Anorectal complaints are very common and are caused by a variety of mostly benign anorectal disorders. Many anorectal conditions may be successfully treated by primary care physicians in the outpatient setting, but patients tend not to seek medical attention due to embarrassment or fear of cancer. As a result, patients frequently present with advanced disease after experiencing significant decreases in quality of life. ⋯ This article can serve as a guide to gastroenterologists to recognize, evaluate, and manage medically or non-surgically common benign anorectal disorders, and to identify when surgical referrals are most prudent. A review of the current literature is performed to evaluate comprehensive clinical pearls and management guidelines for each topic. Topics reviewed include hemorrhoids, anal fissures, anorectal fistulas and abscesses, and pruritus ani.
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World J. Gastroenterol. · Jul 2009
Thermal hypersensitivity in a subset of irritable bowel syndrome patients.
To characterize thermal hypersensitivity in patients with constipation- and diarrhea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). ⋯ A subset of IBS patients had thermal hypersensitivity compared to controls, who reported significantly lower HPTh and HPTo. All IBS patients had a higher score on the FBDSI than controls. Interestingly, the subset of IBS patients with high thermal sensitivity (36%) had the highest FBDSI score compared to the other two groups of IBS patients.
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World J. Gastroenterol. · Jul 2009
Case ReportsExcision of a large abdominal wall lipoma improved bowel passage in a Proteus syndrome patient.
Proteus syndrome is an extremely rare congenital disorder that produces multifocal overgrowth of tissue. This report presents a surgical case of a large lipoma in the abdominal wall of a patient with Proteus syndrome. She was diagnosed with Proteus syndrome based on certain diagnostic criteria. ⋯ The histopathological diagnosis of this mass was lipoma. After surgery, the encasement of the left colon was improved, and the patient was able to move her bowels twice per day. The excision of the large lipoma in the abdominal wall contributed to the improved bowel passage in this patient with Proteus syndrome.
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World J. Gastroenterol. · Jul 2009
CommentPentoxifylline: a first line treatment option for severe alcoholic hepatitis and hepatorenal syndrome?
Although favourable results of pentoxifylline (PTX) used in treatment of severe alcoholic hepatitis patients with a Maddrey discriminant function score > or = 32 have been previously reported, it is not currently recommended as a first line treatment for alcoholic hepatitis owing to lack of evidence for its efficacy as compared to the standard treatment with corticosteroids. In a very recent issue of World Journal of Gastroenterology, Dr. De BK and colleagues compared for the first time the two treatment modalities head to head in a randomized controlled study, demonstrating the advantage of PTX over corticosteroids in terms of patients' survival and risk-benefit profile. ⋯ This study raises the question of the use of PTX as a standard treatment for severe alcoholic hepatitis. Considering the fact that PTX presented a spectacular efficiency in prevention of hepatorenal syndrome in their study as well as that previous studies have shown that this effect is possibly related to a primary renoprotective action because it is irrelevant of tumor necrosis factor-alpha synthesis inhibition or improved liver function, we tempted to speculate that PXT might be an effective option for prevention and/or treatment of hepatorenal syndrome complicating other forms of advanced liver disease. This attractive theory remains to be elucidated by pressing future studies in view of the lack of effective treatment modalities for hepatorenal syndrome.