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Abstract Background Serous adenomas represent 1-2% of pancreatic neoplasms and typically are asymptomatic not requiring any treatment and simple observation is the option of choice. Although, they carry a realistic risk of malignancy despite the general view that they never become malignant. We report a case, which, according to our best knowledge is the 27th case reported in the literature. Methods We reviewed the literature by performing a search in Pub Med and Medline. Results A 86-year old patient known to have a serous cystadenoma of the pancreas treated conservatively through a close clinical and radiological follow up which was unattended for 4 years ending up to our emergency department suffering an acute abdomen. Exploratory laparotomy revealed a perforated prepyloric ulcer which was treated accordingly. Patient died some weeks later due to severe medical co morbidities. Conclusion Serous cystic neoplasms of the pancreas carry a realistic risk of malignancy despite the general view that they never become malignant. In our opinion the treatment strategy of serous cystic neoplasms of the pancreas should be aggressive even in cases of remote metastases since prognosis of the disease is satisfactory

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Absrtract Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is an aggressive malignant tumor that occurs throughout the world. Μetastases from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were generally considered to be rare in the past, because the carcinoma had an aggressive clinical course. In our era, has been reported that extra-hepatic metastases occur in 13.5%-41.7% of HCC patients and this is considered as terminal-stage cancer. The prognosis for patients at this stage continues to be poor due to limited effective treatment. The common sites of extrahepatic metastases in patients with HCC are the lungs, regional lymph nodes, kidney, bone marrow and adrenals. We present here an extremely infrequent case of a patient, without known liver disease, in which the presenting symptom was a pathological-in retrospect-fracture of his right clavicle which wasn't properly evaluated, until he presented a bulky mass in the region 6 months later. For our patient, the added diagnostic difficulty alongside the unknown liver disease, has been that the clavicular metastases was the first presentation of any metastatic disease, rather than the more common sites of HCC spread to adjacent lung or lymph nodes.

Abstract Introduction We present the case of a patient with two tumors in his left kidney and a synchronous colon cancer. While coexisting tumors have been previously described in the same kidney or the kidney and other organs, or the colon and other organs, to the best of our knowledge no such concurrency of three primary tumors has been reported in the literature to date. Case presentation A 72-year-old man of Greek nationality presenting with pain in the right hypochondrium underwent a series of examinations that revealed gallstones, a tumor in the hepatic flexure of the colon and an additional tumor in the upper pole of the left kidney. He was subjected to a right hemicolectomy, left nephrectomy and cholecystectomy, and his postoperative course was uneventful. Histopathology examinations showed a mucinous colon adenocarcinoma, plus two tumors in the left kidney, a papillary renal cell carcinoma and a chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Conclusion This case underlines the need to routinely scan patients pre-operatively in order to exclude coexisting tumors, especially asymptomatic renal tumors in patients with colorectal cancer, and additionally to screen concurrent tumors genetically in order to detect putative common genetic alterations.

Purpose: The FAK/Src/Paxillin (PXN) axis has been implicated in malignant transformation, tumor growth, progression and metastasis. The present study aimed to assess FAK/Src/PXN protein expression in both primary and liver metastatic sites of colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC)., Methods: FAK, Src and p-PXN expression was assessed immunohistochemically on 32 primary CRCs and their corresponding liver metastases, being also analyzed in relation with clinicopathological characteristics and patient survival., Results: FAK, Src and p-PXN expression was significantly decreased in liver metastasis compared to matched paired primary CRCs (p<0.01). Increased FAK expression in primary CRCs was significantly associated with poor histological grade and advanced disease stage (p=0.0330 and p=0.0204, respectively). Increased Src expression in primary colorectal tumors was significantly associated with the presence of lymph node metastasis (p=0.0325), while elevated p-PXN expression with poor histological grade (p=0.0284)., Conclusions: FAK, Src and p-PXN appear to play a role in the pathophysiological aspects of CRC. The lower expression of these proteins in liver metastasis compared to the primary CRC could significantly impact the choice of a novel therapeutic agent according to the disease stage.

Background: Robotic bariatric procedures are nowadays in the surgeon's arsenal for the treatment of morbid obesity. With proven efficacy and advantages in gastric bypass procedures, we attempted to employ robotics and study the results in the other major bariatric procedure, sleeve gastrectomy., Methods: We used the da Vinci S® system to perform 19 robotic sleeve gastrectomies (RSGs) and reviewed the 5-year results as far as excess body weight loss is concerned, and amelioration of obesity-related comorbidities., Results: Mean percentage of excess body weight loss (%EWL) was 64.4%, 67.1%, 61.7%, 63.1%, 64.8% for the first, second, third, fourth and fifth year, respectively. Neither of our two patients with diabetes mellitus (0%) or hypertension (0%) showed remission, while all six of our patients (100%) showed remission of their sleep apnoea after 5 years., Conclusions: Robotic sleeve gastrectomy is an effective procedure as far as initial excess weight loss is concerned and this loss is well maintained 5 years post-operatively, a finding similar to relevant data after conventional laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., (Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Background. Surgical treatment of hydatid liver disease (HLD) is divided into conservative and radical procedures. While conservative techniques are easier and faster to perform, there is an emerging need to reduce their morbidity and recurrence rates. Our aim was to present and evaluate the efficiency and safety of the application of radiofrequency energy (TissueLink® and Aquamantys® systems) in hepatic bed during partial cystectomy. Materials and Methods. Eighteen consecutive patients with hydatid liver cysts were referred to our department between April 2006 and June 2014. Data about demographics, mortality, morbidity, and recurrence rate were obtained and analyzed retrospectively. Results. The mean follow-up was 38 months (range: 4-84 months). The postoperative course of most patients was uneventful. One case of recurrence was found in our series in a patient with 4 cysts in the right lobe, 3 years after initial treatment. He was reoperated on with the same method. Conclusions. Saline-linked RF energy seems to be an effective means to be employed in conservative surgical procedures of HLD, with satisfactory postoperative morbidity. Recurrence rates appear to be low, but further follow-up is needed in order to draw safer conclusions.

Objective: Hoarseness is a postoperative complication of thyroidectomy, mostly due to damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN). Hoarseness may also be brought about via vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) due to injury of the vocal cords from manipulations during anesthesia, as well as from psychogenic disorders and respiratory and upper-GI related infections. We reviewed the literature aiming to explore these potential surgical and non-surgical causes of hoarseness beyond thyroidectomy and the role of the endocrine surgeon. Is he/she alone to blame?, Methods/material: The MEDLINE/PubMed database was searched for publications with the medical subject heading "hoarseness" and keywords "thyroidectomy", "RLN", "VCD" or "intubation". We restricted our search till up to May 2013., Results: In our final review we included 80 articles and abstracts that were accessible and available in English. We demonstrated the incidence of hoarseness stemming from surgical and non-surgical causes and also highlighted the role of intubation as a potential cause of injury-related VCD., Conclusions: Hoarseness is a relatively common complication of thyroidectomy, which can be attributed to many factors including surgeon's error or injuries during intubation as well as to other non-surgical causes. However, compared to procedures such as cervical spine surgery, mediastinal surgery, esophagectomy and endarterectomy, thyroidectomy would seem to be a procedure with a relatively low rate of recurrent laryngeal nerve palsies (RLNPs). It is often difficult to determine whether the degree of hoarseness after thyroidectomy should be attributed only the surgical procedure itself or to other causes, for example intubation and extubation maneuvers. The differential diagnosis of postoperative hoarseness requires the use of specific tools, such as stroboscopy and intra- and extralaryngeal electromyography, while methods like acoustic voice analysis, with estimation of maximum phonation time and phonation frequency range, can distinguish between objective and subjective deterioration in the voice. The importance of medical history should be also emphasized.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a prevalent and potentially life-threatening disease. Early detection by screening programs and subsequent surveillance has been shown to be effective at reducing the risk of mortality due to aneurysm rupture. The aim of this review is to summarize the developments in the literature concerning the latest biomarkers (from 2008 to date) and their potential screening and therapeutic values. Our search included human studies in English and found numerous novel biomarkers under research, which were categorized in 6 groups. Most of these studies are either experimental or hampered by their low numbers of patients. We concluded that currently no specific laboratory markers allow screeing for the disease and monitoring its progression or the results of treatment. Further studies and studies in larger patient groups are required in order to validate biomarkers as cost-effective tools in the AAA disease.

Context: Acute recurrent pancreatitis still poses diagnostic difficulties. The coexistence or moreover the causative relationship of carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater and acute recurrent pancreatitis is fairly rare., Case Report: We present a case of carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater that presented with acute recurrent necrotizing pancreatitis complicated with pseudocysts. A diagnosis of malignancy in the ampulla was only made after several ERCP attempts due to residual inflammation at the periampullary area., Conclusion: Malignancy at the ampulla of Vater causing recurrent episodes of pancreatitis represents a realistic risk and attempts to diagnose the underlying cause should always take into account the possibility of cancer.