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Of 720 patients with gastric carcinoma treated over a 6-year period, 37 (5%) were 35 years of age or younger. They differed from older patients in that the usual sex ratio was altered (18 men: 19 women), and in certain histologic features. Poorly differentiated or undifferentiated lesions predominated (34 patients), and the distribution of histologic types was unusual; two thirds each were of the diffuse type (Lauren classification) or signet ring type (World Health Organization classification), and over three quarters were infiltrative (Ming classification). Intestinal metaplasia was absent in the majority of patients, and gastritis was less commonly seen than in older patients. Although most patients had long histories of disease and advanced disease, the TNM stages and the proportion undergoing curative resection (8%) were similar to those seen in older patients. Except for one who has survived 5 years, all patients in this study have died.

Fifty-one consecutively removed abdominal aortic atherosclerotic aneurysms were graded as mild, moderate, or severe, according to the amount of chronic inflammation and fibrosis present. Mild chronic inflammation and fibrosis were present in 72.5% of the aneurysms and moderate changes in 15.7%. The presence of the latter group indicated that there was no sharp distinction between the usual atherosclerotic aneurysm with mild chronic inflammation and those with severe changes (inflammatory aneurysms). Patients with the latter comprised about 12% of the total and showed no significant clinical difference from those with ordinary atherosclerotic aneurysms, apart from difficult operative dissection that led to a raised operative mortality. The clinical and pathological findings suggest that inflammatory aneurysms of the abdominal aorta are simply atherosclerotic aneurysms that show an unusual accentuation of the chronic inflammation and fibrosis that may be observed in relation to atherosclerotic aneurysms.

The causes of death, as determined by autopsy, in 10 patients dying from the acute effects of phaeochromocytoma were myocardial infarction (five patients), left ventricular failure (two patients), cerebral haemorrhage (two patients) and circulatory collapse with malignant phaeochromocytoma (one patient). Most patients died shortly after admission during the course of a fulminant cardiovascular illness and the underlying tumour was unsuspected in eight instances. The clinical features and post-mortem cardiovascular findings are reviewed.

Three hundred and ninety patients with peripheral vascular disease, who were neither eligible for, nor fit to undergo, surgery, have been studied in a prospective trial to assess the effectiveness of adequate active conservative therapy. These patients were followed up from 4 to 72 months, the duration of the average follow-up being 24 months. There was a 72% over-all improvement rate. The most striking feature of the trial was the correlation between smoking and failure to improve.

A penetrating duodenal ulcer may occasionally erode into the common bile duct and form a choledochoduodenal fistula. Such a fistula occurring simultaneously with a pancreatic duodenal fistula is reported. The presenting features of these fistulas are those of the ulcer and confirmation of the fistula may be difficult, although use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography has greatly facilitated their diagnosis. In this case both fistulas could be cannulated through the base of the ulcer. The majority of these fistulas heal spontaneously with intensive medical management. The remainder require surgery, and a conservative approach avoiding direct interference with the fistula should be adopted. Drainage procedures are rarely required and once closed the fistulas usually cause no further problem.

In 50 consecutive cases of resected gastric carcinoma the absolute sensitivity in making an unequivocal pre-operative diagnosis was 54% for endoscopic inspection, 76% for biopsy and 48% for cytology. Inspection and biopsy in combination yielded 90% and adding cytology achieved 92% absolute sensitivity. The relative sensitivity (which included equivocal reports) was far higher for each individual test, and 100% for the combination of all three, but did not reflect the clinical value of these investigations as clinicians did not react appropriately to equivocal reports. Thus for the endoscopic detection of gastric carcinoma in routine clinical practice, inspection was insensitive, biopsy mandatory, cytology of little additional value and endoscopic followup of apparently benign lesions appeared important.

A case of cholecystitis in an intrahepatic gallbladder with concurrent choledocholithiasis is reported. The patient initially presented with pyrexia of unknown origin and subsequently with suppurative cholangitis; the diagnosis was resolved pre-operatively using contemporary techniques of gallbladder delineation. Simple drainage of the gallbladder with choledocholithotomy proved effective.

A retrospective study of axillofemoral bypass performed at Groote Schuur Hospital over a period of 2 decades was undertaken to analyse the results and to re-examine current criteria for patient selection. During this period 109 patients underwent surgery. The primary indication was critical ischaemia (in 88% of cases). Operative mortality was 6,4%. Graft thrombosis and sepsis were identified as the major reasons for graft failure. Overall graft patency at 3 years was 43% and at 5 years 30%. Successful graft thrombectomy improved the overall cumulative patency rate at 5 years to 43%, and patient survival in the same period was 56%. Modern advances in the assessment of anaesthetic risk together with improved postoperative intensive care have allowed more patients who in the past would have been considered candidates for axillofemoral bypass to undergo direct aortic reconstruction. While the results of axillofemoral bypass are inferior to those of aortic grafts, the technique remains a valuable method of limb salvage for the poor-risk patient and a life-saving treatment for aortic graft sepsis.

Contraction of the distal sphincter of the common bile duct (as distinct from the sphincter of Oddi) may produce a pseudocalculus defect. A typical case is described where the defect was thought to be a retained stone on T-tube cholangiography. The anatomy of the defect is emphasized by its persistence after sphincteroplasty. A diagnostic feature is the immediate abolition of the defect by hyoscine butylbromide (Buscopan, Boehringer Ingelheim).

The case records of 419 patients undergoing thyroidectomy for nodular goitre are examined in the light of the final pathology and the incidence of carcinoma. In patients presenting with a clinically single nodule, the incidence of carcinoma was 10%; in multinodular goitres this incidence was 4%. A policy for the surgical treatment of nodular goitre is proposed.

During the 13-year period 1970-1983 only 7 cases of multiple endocrine neoplasia type I (MEN I) were seen at Groote Schuur Hospital, suggesting that the associated gene is rare in this area. Only 1 of these patients was black. Endocrine associations were as follows: hyperparathyroidism--6 cases, pituitary hypersecretion--6 cases (3 each involving growth hormone and prolactin), and pancreatic hypersecretion--3 cases (2 of gastrinoma and 1 of insulinoma). The presenting features were predictably diverse and depended on the component which manifested first. There was little difficulty in reaching a diagnosis on routine investigation. All patients with hyperparathyroidism underwent a 3 1/2-gland parathyroidectomy as the first treatment procedure, normocalcaemia being achieved in 5 cases, but persistent hypercalcaemia in the 6th suggested a supernumerary gland. A pituitary adenoma was removed in 4 cases, but persistent prolactinaemia necessitated bromocriptine therapy in 3. Successful distal pancreatectomy was undertaken in a patient with insulinoma and a patient with gastrinoma, and a further patient with gastrinoma awaits surgery. The overall prognosis in cases of MEN I appears to depend on the most aggressive component, often the pancreatic lesion; our patients have run a surprisingly benign course with only 1 late death, from hypertensive heart disease.

Prolonged chemotherapy has been used as an adjuvant to mastectomy in women with involved axillary nodes, in an attempt to ablate or suppress subclinical, micrometastatic disease. The preliminary results and surrounding controversies are reviewed. It is concluded that at this time there is a decreased relapse rate but no increase in survival, and it is in this light that adjuvant chemotherapy cannot be endorsed outside of well-conducted clinical trials.

Gastric cancer mortality has fallen sharply in many Western populations, yet world-wide it probably remains the single commonest cancer. A diet rich in salted or smoked food and low in vitamin C contributes to its pathogenesis, while the environmental type of atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia are consistently associated and may represent precursors of malignant change. Better food preservation may have a protective effect. Since patients with gastric cancer usually present with incurable disease and survive for only a few months, only those likely to live long enough to benefit from surgery should be operated upon. In the small proportion of patients who have curable disease, extended lymph node dissection increases morbidity and has not convincingly been shown to prolong survival. The palliation offered by surgery, and particularly that achieved by chemotherapy and radiation, deserves further study. Screening for gastric carcinoma seems unlikely to decrease mortality.

Prognostic factors were prospectively sought in a consecutive group of 223 patients with carcinoma of the stomach observed for a minimum of seven years. Age, race and mode of presentation did not influence survival time. Statistically improved seven year survival rates were observed in females (p less than 0.01) and patients with several features: symptoms lasting more than six months (p less than 0.01); absence of an abdominal mass (p less than 0.01); T1 versus T3 Stage of disease (p less than 0.001); absence of nodal involvement (p less than 0.01) and when curative resection was possible (p less than 0.01).

In this study the ability of the normal liver to tolerate normothermic ischaemia was assessed. The survival rate in pigs after 3, 6 and 12 h of normothermic hepatic ischaemia was 71, 46 and 0%, respectively. A patient who survived after inadvertently being subjected to 90 min of normothermic hepatic ischaemia is also presented. These findings suggest that the 'safe period' for liver blood flow occlusion could be extended beyond 1 h.

A series of 100 patients with Hodgkin's disease were submitted to staging laparotomy, without mortality and with negligible morbidity. Thirty-one patients were restaged: 23 had occult intra-abdominal disease and 8 false-positive lymphangiograms. Standardized treatment programmes were tested against our clinical and pathological data to determine whether staging laparotomy would alter therapeutic decisions. Programmes based on clinical staging and employing radical radiotherapy would have encompassed all disease without recourse to laparotomy. In contrast, a more conservative programme which employed mantle field irradiation for clinically localized cervical disease, without laparotomy, would have missed disease in 12% of cases. Patients with supradiaphragmatic nodal Hodgkin's disease should either have prophylactic abdominal irradiation (without laparotomy) or more limited radiotherapy determined by laparotomy (without prophylactic irradiation).

Twenty-one cases of mammary tuberculosis are reported and the attendant clinical and histological difficulties described. It is probable that contemporary clinicians would now make the clinical diagnosis of breast abscess or carcinoma. Furthermore, the histological features (without demonstration or culture of the organism) may be confused with those granulomatous epithelloid reactions seen in mammary duct ectasia (comedo cell mastitis, plasma cell mastitis) and in traumatic fat necrosis.

Work in pigs has shown that malignant hyperpyrexia during anaesthesia may occur without suxamethonium having been given. A virtually constant feature in reported cases and in our own observations is that all subjects developing hyperpyrexia had received nitrous oxide and halothane.