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Introduction: The aim of the study was to determine the frequency of Helicobacter pylori infections in obese patients qualified for bariatric surgery and in patients with normal body weight undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. All participants gave informed consent to be included in the study. Material and methods: The research was carried out among 124 patients (60 patients with obesity and 64 patients without obesity), who underwent gastroscopy in the Laboratory of Diagnostic and Surgical Endoscopy of the University Teaching Hospital in Białystok during the period 2018-2020. The obese patients underwent gastroscopy as part of qualification for bariatric surgery. The self-constructed questionnaire contained questions about demographic data, smoking, medications taken that affect the occurrence or elimination of gastrointestinal ailments, the presence of diseases coexisting with obesity, and the presence of ailments from the gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, the description of gastroscopy and the result of histopathology were analysed***** Results: The average body mass index (BMI) in the group of obese patients was 40.42 (the lowest 30.1 - the highest 64). In the group of patients with normal body weight, the mean BMI was 22.46 (the lowest 20.1 - the highest 24.9). The urease test and histopathological examinations confirmed the comparable frequency of infections. The correlation between the occurrence of Helicobacter pylori and patient age, gender, or place of residence has not been confirmed. Conclusions: Performing gastroscopy enables the diagnosis of abnormalities as part of qualification for a bariatric procedure. A high Helicobacter pylori detection rate tested in a group of patients may be an important predictor of postoperative complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the authors would like to present a correct procedure in both surgical and hyperbaric treatment of patients with gas gangrene admitted to a surgical department during ER. Gas gangrene is not very common these days, but when it comes to dealing with gangrenous infection in the emergency it is quite likely to make errors in both diagnostic and therapeutic manners. When there is a gas gangrene in a patient at the emergency time plays crucial role and the proper application of procedures is vital for the patient's survival. 10 cases made the study group here, all of them were patients diagnosed and treated surgically due to gas gangrene. As shown here, It is important to perform a revision of surgical wounds after few hours since primary surgery and to begin hyperbaric treatment as quickly as possible. The findings and suggestions included in this study are supported by own experience of The 2nd Department of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery of Medical University in Białystok, Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of gastrointestinal tract. The activating mutation of KIT or PDGFRA genes is initial step in their carcinogenesis process; over expression of KIT receptor, as a consequence of mutation of protooncogene KIT, is highly specific for GIST and enable for detection by immunohistochemistry staining (CD117) in tumor specimens as well as it is the basic criterion for microscopic diagnostics and indication for therapy with small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors. The paper describes aspects of surgical therapy of GIST in different stages of disease. Radical surgery is still the mainstay treatment for primary, localized, resectable GISTs, although high percentages of the patients after potentially curative operations develop recurrent or metastatic disease. Existing data indicate beneficial role of adjuvant imatinib therapy in terms of relapse-free survival, but the impact of this policy on overall survival, optimal duration of adjuvant therapy and criteria for its implementation are currently investigated. In advanced (inoperable, recurrent and/or metastatic) lesions the treatment of choice are tyrosine kinase inhibitors (imatinib mesylate in the first-line and sunitinib maleate in second-line), but surgery may be useful for resection of residual disease after molecular targeted therapy theoretically prolonging progression-free survival; second goal of surgery in advanced in GIST is operative treatment of emergency complications (as gastrointestinal tract perforation or bleeding). The including GIST cases in national Clinical Registry (http://gist.coi.waw. pl) and standard treatment of patients in multidisciplinary team with expertise in GIST therapy are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]