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Afshar Zomorrodi,1 Farzad Kakaei,2 Sahar Zomorrodi,3 Amin Bagheri1 1Department of Urology and Kidney Transplantation, Emam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 2Department of Surgery, Emam Reza Hospital, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 3Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Introduction: Three modalities for treating chronic kidney failure are peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis, and kidney transplantation. Among them kidney transplantation is cost-efficient and leads to a somewhat normal quality of life. In this approach, most often the external iliac artery is selected for anastomosis, but this could be disastrous if anastomosis leads to a complication. The traditional end-to-end approach for anastomosis of the kidney artery to the internal iliac artery leads to pelvic organ ischemia. However, if the end-to-end anastomosis is replaced by an end-to-side approach, it is safer. This report discusses some cases of end-to-side anastomosis using the internal iliac artery. Method: In ten cases of chronic kidney failure, we anastomosed the kidney artery to the internal iliac artery with an end-to-side approach. Results: After vessels were unclamped, all patients had diuresis. Their creatinine was in normal range and was blood flow in the internal iliac artery, based on color Doppler ultrasound. Conclusion: End-to-side anastomosis can be done in some chronic kidney failure patients if their internal iliac arteries are large enough. This approach is safer than anastomosis using the external iliac artery. Keywords: kidney transplant, internal iliac artery, anastomosis

Shahryar Hashemzadeh1, Khosrow Hashemzadeh2, Farzad Kakaei3, Raheleh Aligholipour4, Kamyar Ghabili51Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, 2Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shahid Madani Hospital, 3Department of General Surgery, 4Students Research Committee, 5Medical Philosophy and History Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, IranBackground: Postintubation tracheal stenosis remains the most common indication for tracheal surgery. In the event of a rapid and progressive course of the disease after extubation, surgical approaches such as primary resection and anastomosis or various methods of tracheoplasty should be selected. We report our experience with surgical management of moderate to severe postintubation tracheal stenosis. We also compared intraoperative variables in postintubation tracheal stenosis between those with and without previous tracheostomy.Methods: Over a 5-year period from June 2005 to July 2010, 50 patients aged 14–64 years with moderate (50%–70% of the lumen) to severe (>70%) postintubation tracheal stenosis underwent resection and primary anastomosis. Patients were followed up to assess the surgical outcome. To study the effect of previous tracheostomy on treatment, surgical variables were compared between patients with previous tracheostomy (group A, n = 27) and those without previous tracheostomy (group B, n = 23).Results: Resection and primary anastomosis was performed via either cervical incision (45 patients) or right thoracotomy (five patients). In two patients with subglottic stenosis, complete resection of the tracheal lesion and anterior portion of cricoid cartilage was performed, and the remaining trachea was anastomosed to the thyroid cartilage using a Montgomery T-tube. There was only one perioperative death in a patient with a tracheo-innominate fistula. The length of the resected segment, number of resected rings, and subsequent duration of surgery were significantly greater in group A compared with group B (P < 0.05). Six months after surgery, the outcome was satisfactory to excellent in 47 (95.9%) patients.Conclusion: This surgical approach leads to highly successful results in the treatment of moderate to severe postintubation tracheal stenosis. In addition, previous tracheostomy might prolong the duration of surgery and increase the need for postoperative interventions due to an increase in the length and number of resected tracheal segments. Therefore, in the event of emergency tracheostomy in postintubation tracheal stenosis, insertion of the tracheostomy tube close to the stenotic segment is recommended.Keywords: trachea, tracheostomy, tracheal stenosis, intubation, tracheal resection

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication after liver transplantation (LT), and considerably increases the morbidity and mortality of the procedure. The gold standard of measuring the kidney function, the serum creatinine level (sCr), has poor specificity and sensitivity for the early diagnosis of AKI. Novel biomarkers for the prediction or early diagnosis of AKI, would potentially increase the opportunities for therapeutic interventions. Objective: To compare the diagnostic value of the standard renal marker, sCr and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) to predict AKI within 48 hours of LT. Methods: During a 9-month period from 2010 to 2011, NGAL was measured two times in 90 patients who underwent LT from deceased donors--after induction of anesthesia (NGAL1) and 2 hours after reperfusion of the liver graft (NGAL2). Patients were grouped according to the presence of risk factors for de¬veloping AKI according to the Acute Kidney Injury Network criteria (increase of ≥0.3 mg/dL in plasma creatinine above the baseline value within 48 hours). Results: 60 men and 30 women with mean±SD age of 40.2±14.2 years were included in this study. The incidence of AKI was 34% (95% CI: 24%-44%). The difference between the NGAL1 and NGAL2 (ΔNGAL) and the baseline NGAL concentration was predictive of AKI in all patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and area under curves (AUCs) of ΔNGAL and sCr levels during the first 48 hours of LT were similar in predicting AKI. The AUCs of the ΔNGAL to predict AKI was 0.64 (95% CI: 0.52-0.76). The development of AKI was significantly correlated with the number of units of fresh frozen plasma transfused intra-operatively (p=0.017) and cold ischemic time (p=0.042). Conclusion: Serum NGAL concentrations obtained during surgery is a predictor of AKI in patients undergoing LT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for end-stage renal disease. The aim of this study was to determine the ten-year graft survival rate of renal transplantation in patients who have been transplanted from live donors. This is a historical cohort study designed to determine the organ survival rate after kidney transplantation from live donor during a 10-year period (from March 1999 to March 2009) on 843 patients receiving kidney transplant in the transplantation center of Namazi hospital in Shiraz, Iran. Kaplan-Meier method was used to determine the survival rate, log-rank test was used to compare survival curves, and Cox proportional hazard model was used to multivariate analysis. Mean follow-up was 53.07 ± 34.61 months. Allograft survival rates at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 years were 98.3, 96.4, 92.5, 90.8, and 89.2%, respectively. Using Cox proportional hazard model, the age and gender of the donors along with the creatinine level of the patients at discharge were shown to have a significant influence on survival. The 10-year graft survival rate of renal transplantation from living donor in this center is 89.2%, and graft survival rate in our cohort is satisfactory and comparable with reports from large centers in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Long Term Survival of Living Donor Renal Transplants: A Single Center Study," by J. Hassanzadeh and colleagues in the 2011 issue.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common subsequent problem after many medical conditions. AKI is associated with distant organ dysfunction where systemic inflammation and oxidative stress play major roles. In this study, the effect of Prazosin, an α1-Adrenergic receptor antagonist, was investigated on the liver injury induced by kidney ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) in rats. Male adult Wistar rats (n=21) were divided into three groups: sham, kidney I/R, and kidney I/R pre-treated with Prazosin (1 mg/kg). Kidney I/R was induced by vascular clamping of the left kidney for 45 min to reduce the blood flow. Oxidative and antioxidant factors along with apoptotic (Bax, Bcl-2, caspase3), and inflammatory (NF-κβ, IL-1β, and IL-6) factors were measured in the liver at protein levels. Prazosin could reserve liver function (p<0.01) and increase glutathione level (p<0.05) after kidney I/R significantly. Malonil dialdehyde (MDA), a lipid peroxidation marker, was diminished more significantly in Prazosin-treated rats compared to the kidney I/R group (p<0.001). Inflammatory and apoptotic factors were diminished by Prazosin pre-treatment in the liver tissue (p<0.05). Pre-administration of Prazosin could preserve liver function and decrease its inflammatory and apoptotic factors under kidney I/R conditions., Competing Interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Background: Due to poor prognosis and treatment failure, gastric cancer (GC) is still regarded as one of the deadliest malignancies worldwide, demanding new molecular targets for therapeutic and diagnostic approaches. Therefore, the current study was aimed to investigate the expression levels of FIS1 gene involving in mitochondrial fission as a promising target in gastric tumor progression., Material and Methods: A total of eighty clinical tissue samples including 40 gastric primary tumor samples and 40 paired marginal samples were prepared. Total RNA was extracted and reverse transcribed to complementary DNA. Then, FIS1 expression levels were quantified in GC samples compared to normal ones using q-PCR. Furthermore, the correlation between FIS1 expression and clinicopathological features of patients was evaluated., Results: The obtained results illustrated that FIS1 is significantly (p = 0.0013) overexpressed in gastric tumors compared to noncancerous marginal tissues; indicating the possible role of FIS1 through gastric tumorigenesis. Further analysis showed that FIS1 upregulation was significantly (p = 0.0419) correlated with metastasis in patients. Also, ROC curve analysis estimated an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.7209 for FIS1 to discriminate cancer patients from healthy cases., Conclusion: Taken together, our findings suggested FIS1 as a promising tumor marker where its overexpression predicts tumor metastasis of gastric cancer., (© 2021. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Objectives: With the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased COVID-19 risk shown in transplant recipients, the prevalence, clinical course, and outcomes of COVID-19 infections among liver transplant recipients were assessed., Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was designed and used to survey medical services for liver transplant recipients seen at our center in terms of COVID-19 infection., Results: Twenty-five patients infected with COVID-19 were identified from 265 liver transplant recipients. Most patients were male and had COVID-19 despite quarantine at home. All patients received modified immunosuppressive drugs during infection with COVID-19 with minor changes in routine immunosuppressive therapy. Among the identified patients, 21 recovered and 4 patients died. One of the dead patients, in addition to having a liver transplant, had brain cancer with metastasis to the lungs., Conclusions: In liver transplant recipients infected with COVID-19, immunosuppressive drugs seemed to cause only mild to moderate illnesses or even helped them recover from the disease. However, more evidence is needed to prove this hypothesis. It is also recommended that transplant recipients should be warned about personal hygiene and be monitored closely by organ transplant centers.

Introduction: Vascular access thrombosis increases the risk of mortality and morbidity in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis (HD). This study aimed to evaluate hereditary thrombophilia factors in HD patients and its association with tunneled cuffed catheters' thrombosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 60 consecutive patients with ESRD on HD with tunneled cuffed catheters were selected. Inherited thrombophilia factors (Anti-thrombin III, Protein C, Protein S, and Factor V Leiden) were measured and the patients were followed for 3 months to evaluate the incidence of catheter-related thrombosis. The association between these factors and catheter thrombosis was assessed. Results: The mean age of patients was 60.30 ± 8.69 years. Forty-seven patients (78.30%) were female and thirteen patients (21.70%) were male. The most common cause of ESRD was diabetes mellitus (41.67%). The most catheter site was the right internal jugular vein (55%). There were 22 (36.67%) and 8 (13.33%) cases of thrombosis and mortality, respectively. The association between hereditary thrombophilia factors and catheter thrombosis was not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). Conclusion: In this small group of our patients, the frequency of hereditary thrombophilia was not significantly different between those with and without thrombosis of tunneled HD catheter., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

Background: It has been shown that N-acetylcysteine may be useful in correcting postoperative hepatic and renal function in many pathological conditions. The present study aimed to examine the effect of N-acetylcysteine on liver and kidney function tests after surgical bypass in patients with obstructive jaundice., Methods: & Materials: A total of 30 patients with obstructive jaundice who were candidates for bypass surgery were enrolled in this randomized clinical trial. In the case group, intravenous N-acetylcysteine (200 mg/kg per hour in the first 8 h, followed by 100 mg/kg per hour for another 16 h, the same dose for another 24 h) was administered postoperatively. Liver and renal function tests (serum AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, bilirubin, and creatinine) were compared between two groups, as well as duration of hospitalization and ICU stay., Results: Postoperatively, decrease in mean serum AST (p = 0.01), ALT (p = 0.02), ALP (p = 0.01), GGT (p = 0.04) and bilirubin (total, p = 0.02, direct, p = 0.01) levels compared to the preoperative values was significantly more among cases compared to those in controls. Changes in serum creatinine, however, did not differ significantly between two groups (p = 0.18). Hospital and ICU stays were also not different between two study groups (p = 0.27 and p = 0.94 respectively)., Conclusion: On the basis of our findings, intravenous N-acetylcysteine in patients with obstructive jaundice could significantly preserve liver function after bypass surgery. Effect of this medication on renal function; however, was not statistically significant., Trial Registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trial: IRCT2016041016473N7., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.)

Background/objective: Delayed gastric emptying (DGE) is one of the most frequent complications after pyloric preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (PPPD). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of antecolic versus retrocolic reconstruction of gastroentric anastomosis on DGE after PPPD., Methods: 30 patients with diagnosis of operable periampullary malignancies who candidate for PPPD, randomized in two equal groups. Gastroentric reconstruction were done in two methods: antecolic and retrocolic. All data were collected by the same person who was completely blinded to the type of the procedure. Duration of the surgery, volume of bleeding and total volume of intraoperative blood product transfusion, time to nasogastric tube (NGT) removal, time to solid fluid toleration, volume of NGT secretions, need for NGT reinsertion, daily nausea after NGT extraction, fistula or leakage, gastric leakage, biliary leakage, postoperative abdominal or gastrointestinal bleeding requiring another operation, wound infection, intra-abdominal abscess, and any other systemic complications were measured and then analysed with SPSS software., Results: According to the results, there was no significant differences between antecolic and retrocolic groups in terms of DGE (p = 0.75). Also, there were no significant differences between two groups in terms of duration of operation, volume of bleeding, blood product requirement, volume of NGT secretions, time to NGT removal, number of NGT re-insertion, time to tolerate solid foods, number of days of vomiting after NGT removal, total hospital stay., Conclusion: The route of gastroentric (antecolic and retrocolic) reconstruction has no impact on DGE after PPPD., (Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Taiwan LLC.)

Introduction: Carcinogen antigen 125 (CA-125) is a glycoprotein antigen, which has shown potentials in predicting peritoneal inflammation. The aim of this study is to determine the value of CA-125 in predicting acute appendicitis (AA)., Methods: This prospective diagnostic accuracy study was conducted on 15 - 70 year-old patients with acute abdominal pain, suspected to AA, referred to emergency department. The serum level of CA-125 was measured for all patients before appendectomy and its screening characteristics in detection of AA case (confirmed by histology findings) were calculated and reported with 95% confidence interval (CI)., Results: 95 patients with the mean age of 31.65 ± 12.9 (15-75) years were studied (54.3% male). Based on the histologic findings, 72 (75.8%) cases were categorized as AA (23 cases as severe). AA and non-AA (NAA) groups were similar regarding the mean age (p = 0.59), mean duration of symptoms (p = 0.08), mean white blood cell (WBC) count (p = 0.37), and mean PMN percentage (p = 0.55). Mean CA-125 level was 16.5 ± 20.0 U/mL in the AA group and 30.5 ± 6.1 U/mL in the NAA group (p = 0.001). Adjustment of analysis based on gender revealed a significant correlation between CA-125 level and diagnosis of AA only in females (34.23 ± 39 U/mL in NAA versus 20.7 ± 26.7 U/mL in AA, p = 0.012). The area under the ROC curve of CA-125 was 0.62 (95%CI: 0.51 to 0.72). Sensitivity, specificity, NPV, PPV, NLR, and PLR of CA-125 in 16.4 U/mL cut off (best point) were 77.8% (95%CI: 66.4 - 86.7), 50.0% (95%CI: 28.2 - 71.8), 83.6% (95%CI: 76.7 - 88.7), and 40.7% (95%CI: 27.4 - 55.6), 0.44 (95%CI 0.2 - 0.8), and 1.56 (95%CI: 1.0 - 2.4), respectively., Conclusion: Considering the lower levels of CA-125 in patients with AA compared with NAA cases and also weak screening performance characteristics, it seems that it could not be considered as an accurate screening tool in this regard., Competing Interests: All the authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Periampullary tumors are highly malignant masses with poor prognosis. Surgical resection is the only treatment for patients with this disease. The preoperative evaluation of masses is essential to determine the tumor resectability and vascular invasion. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of 64-slice multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) in detecting the resectability of periampullary masses. A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with a definite diagnosis of periampullary cancer. All the participants underwent an MDCT scan before the surgical pancreaticoduodenectomy. The preoperative results were compared to the intraoperative findings and the diagnostic accuracy was determined based on the sensitivity and specificity of the MDCT. From June 2015 until June 2016, 32 patients with periampullary carcinoma were enrolled in the study. Of 32 masses, one of them considered nonresectable because of the gross vascular invasion in th CT images. After the operation, the overall resectability rate was 81.3%. The sensitivity and specificity of MDCT for tumor resectability was 100% and 16.7%, respectively, with an overall accuracy of 84.4%. To sum up, MDCT had high sensitivity but low specificity in the preoperative evaluation of preampullary carcinomas. The low specificity resulted from the low accuracy of the CT scan in detecting vascular involvement.

Introduction: Echinococcus granulosus is a parasitic tape worm. The definitive host is the dog and humans are one of its intermediate hosts. It involves organs such as liver and lungs. Uterus involvement is very rare., Presentation of Case: We here report a case of primary uterus hydatid cyst that we had to remove her uterine on left ovary and fallopian tube. Generalized toxic shock and infection due to cyst rupture or organ dysfunction due to invasion (like our patient) or pressure of cyst are complications of this cyst., Discussion: Because of low incidence of hydatid cysts in uterus it can be misdiagnosed by mimicking other conditions such as multi-cystic ovarian tumor, hemorrhagic ovarian cyst, endometrioma, cystadenoma, leiomyoma and etc., Conclusion: Especially in endemic area for this parasite, one of differential diagnoses of pelvic cyst must be echinococcosis., (Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: In patients without or with injured cephalic vein, using the basilic vein for creating arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the best way for hemodialysis. In order to create AVF, the basilic vein should be superficialized and lateralized. This study sought to examine outcome of relocation of basilic vein in brachiobasilic fistulas in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF)., Methods: We evaluated the outcome of creation of brachiobasilic fistula with transposition of basilic vein in 27 patients (14 males and 13 females with mean age of 60.03 ± 8.04 years) with CRF. The success rate and complications were recorded during the follow-up period. The fistula was regarded efficient if cannulation was feasible conveniently and a minimum flow rate of 250 ml/min for 4 h at least for 3 consecutive hemodialysis sessions through both lines was documented 30 days postoperatively., Results: The mean time gap between previous AVF creation or try and the relocation of basilic vein was 3.55 months. Thirty days postoperatively, 85.2% of the created AVFs were efficiently working. There were postoperative complications in 40.7% of patients including venous hypertension (14.8%), bleeding (7.4%), hematoma (7.4%) and distal paresthesia (11.1%)., Conclusions: Brachiobasilic AVF fistula provides a suitable option for vascular access in cases with failed previous AVF. Relocation of basilic vein for brachiobasilic AVF is technically feasible, safe and with excellent patency in short-term and complication rates are acceptable., (Copyright © 2017 IJS Publishing Group Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Furosemide is commonly administered to increase the urinary output in patients with transplanted kidneys. This study compared the two administration routes of furosemide (bolus versus infusion) in kidney transplanted patients., Materials and Methods: Fifty patients who had undergone kidney transplantation in 2015 in a hospital in Tabriz, Iran, were included in this clinical trial. They were divided into two groups: bolus (120 mg stat) and infusion (4 mg/minute) groups. The primary outcome was urine onset time. Secondary outcomes were urine output volume, vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate), and electrolyte level (creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, sodium and potassium). After arterial and venous anastomoses, arterial clamp removal time and diuresis onset were recorded. Finally, theurinary output volumes of both groups were measured with regular urine bags for an hour after anastomosis. Then it was repeated each three hours for 24 hours, and eventually two and three days thereafter. Finally, all data were statistically analyzed., Results: Around 72% of the patients were men (mean age of 37.15 &plusmn; 14.67 years). Urine output was higher in bolus group but it was not statistically significant. Diuresis duration was measured after arterial declamping and its averages were 5.41 &plusmn; 3.7 minutes and 9.36 &plusmn; 7.65 minutes in bolus and infusion groups, respectively (P = .040). Furosemide bolus injection and infusion had no significant effect on creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, sodium and potassium., Conclusion: Furosemide bolus injection can reduce diuresis onset time compared to furosemide infusion.

Aim: To investigate if conjugated linoleic acid supplementation (CLA) affects metabolic factors and oxidative stress in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)., Methods: The study was a randomized, controlled clinical trial conducted in specialized and subspecialized clinics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences from January 2014 to March 2015. 38 obese NAFLD patients were randomly allocated into either the intervention group, receiving three 1000 mg softgel of CLA with a weight loss diet and 400 IU vitamin E, or into the control group, receiving only weight loss diet and 400 IU vitamin E for eight weeks. Dietary data and physical activity, as well as anthropometric, body composition, metabolic factors, and oxidative stress were assessed at baseline and at the end of the study., Results: Weight, body composition, and serum oxidative stress, insulin, and lipid profile significantly improved in both groups, while hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels (P=0.004), total cholesterol to high density lipoprotein ratio (P=0.008), low density lipoprotein to high density lipoprotein ratio (LDL/HDL) (P=0.002), and alanine aminotransferase to aspartate aminotransferase (ALT/AST) ratio (P=0.025) significantly decreased in the intervention group. At the end of the study, fat mass (P=0.001), muscle mass (P=0.023), total body water (P=0.004), HbA1c (P<0.001), triglycerides (P=0.006), LDL/HDL ratio (P=0.027), and ALT/AST ratio (P=0.046) were significantly better in the CLA group than in the control group., Conclusion: CLA improved insulin resistance, lipid disturbances, oxidative stress, and liver function in NAFLD. Therefore, it could be considered as an effective complementary treatment in NAFLD.

Gallbladder carcinoma is a relatively uncommon cancer of gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Medical literature is full of nihilistic reports about the treatment of gallbladder carcinoma, especially due to its resistance to current radiotherapeutic or chemotherapeutic treatment modalities and difficult surgical approach for complete resection of these tumors. Herein, we review current diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to this rare GI cancer.

Background: Whipple surgery (pancreaticodeudenectomy) has a high complication rate. We aimed to evaluate whether adding Braun jejunojejunostomy (side-to-side anastomosis of afferent and efferent loops distal to the gastrojejunostomy site) to a standard Whipple procedure would reduce postoperative complications., Methods: We conducted a randomized clinical trial comparing patients who underwent standard Whipple surgery (standard group) and patients who underwent standard Whipple surgery with Braun jejunojejunostomy (Braun group). Patients were followed for 1 month after the procedure and postoperative complications were recorded., Results: Our study included 30 patients: 15 in the Braun and 15 in the standard group. In the Braun group, 4 (26.7%) patients experienced 6 complications, whereas in the standard group, 7 (46.7%) patients experienced 11 complications (p = 0.14). Complications in the Braun group were gastrointestinal bleeding and wound infection (n = 1 each) and delayed gastric emptying and pulmonary infection (n = 2 each). Complications in the standard group were death, pancreatic anastomosis leak and biliary anastomosis leak (n = 1 each); gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 2); and afferent loop syndrome and delayed gastric emptying (n = 3 each). There was no significant difference between groups in the subtypes of complications., Conclusion: Our results showed that adding Braun jejunojejunostomy to standard Whipple procedure was associated with lower rates of afferent loop syndrome and delayed gastric emptying. However, more studies are needed to define the role of Braun jejunojejunostomy in this regard., Trial Registration: IRCT2014020316473N1 (www.irct.ir).

We describe a case of carotid-esophageal fistula due to retention of an ingested foreign body in a 65-year-old woman. Late diagnosis resulted in severe hemorrhage and postoperative cerebrovascular accident because of the impossibility of repairing the carotid artery due to severe local inflammation., (© The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.)

Introduction: Multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) angiography is a reliable technique in preoperative renal anatomy evaluation in live renal donors., Objectives: To investigate the accuracy of early arterial phase findings and compares them with intraoperative findings., Methods: In this prospective study, 100 potential live donors undergoing preoperative MDCT and nephrectomy during 2010-2013 were included. The examination was performed with a 64-detector scanner including early arterial and venous phase. MDCT angiography started by bolus tracking and venous phase was acquired 9 s after arterial phase. Anatomical findings and vein and artery attenuation values were recorded and arterial phase findings were compared with intraoperative findings., Results: All anatomical findings reported by MDCT in early arterial phase were confirmed by intraoperative findings with sensitivity of 100%. Right renal vein was supernumerary in 17 cases and left renal vein was circumaortic in 3 and retroaortic in 5 cases. Renal arteries had early branching in 13, two arteries in 12 and accessory in 8 cases. Vein and artery attenuation values had significant difference between early arterial and venous phase (p < 0.001)., Conclusion: Early arterial phase has similar results to venous phase in preoperative evaluation and intraoperative findings and could be used alone to reduce radiation dose.

Introduction: An undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion is often a difficult diagnostic dilemma that needs further histological study for a definitive etiological diagnosis. Video assisted rigid thoracoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure with a minor morbidity and mortality risk that could resolve this problem., Methods: Between January 2010 and December 2011, we performed thoracoscopy in 26 patients for diagnosis of undiagnosed exudative pleural effusion. Clinical and paraclinical data of patients were collected prospectively and analyzed., Results: Sole pleural effusion was the most common CT scan finding seen in 17 (65.4%) patients. Thoracoscopy was diagnostic in 24 patients (92.3%). The pathologic findings were carcinoma (46.2%), tuberculosis (30.8%) and chronic inflammation without a definitive microbiologic culture (15.4%). Surprisingly mean ADA level in the tuberculosis group was in normal range. No mortality or complication related to our operation was observed., Conclusion: Video assisted thoracoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure with a high definitive diagnostic accuracy in the evaluation of tuberculosis and malignant pleural effusions. Pulmonologist should refer these patients sooner to decrease the waiting period of diagnosis and treatment of such conditions.

Introduction. Operative blood loss is still a great obstacle to liver resection, and various topical hemostatic agents were introduced to reduce it. The aim of the current study is to evaluate effects of 3 different types of these agents. Methods. In this randomized clinical trial, 45 patients undergoing liver resection were assigned to receive TachoSil, Surgicel, and Glubran 2 for controlling bleeding. Intraoperative and postoperative findings were compared between groups. Results. Postoperative bleeding (0 versus 33.3%, P = 0.04) and drainage volume first day after surgery (281.33 ± 103.98 versus 150.00 ± 60.82 mL, P = 0.02) were significantly higher in Surgicel than in TachoSil group. Postoperative complications included bile leak (3 cases in Surgicel, 1 case in TachoSil and Glubran 2), noninfectious collection (2 cases in TachoSil and Surgicel and 1 case in Glubran 2), perihepatic abscess, and massive hematoma around hepatectomy site both in Surgicel group. There was no death during the study period. Conclusion. Due to higher complications in Surgicel group, its application as hemostatic agent after liver resection is not recommended. Better results in TachoSil in comparison to the other two are indicative of its better efficacy and superiority in controlling hemostasis.