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Biomedical subjects

M Boneschi

Publications and source records attributed to M Boneschi.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

[The physiopathology and therapy of esophageal diverticula].

The authors report their experience in the management of 14 patients affected by esophageal diverticula and surgically treated (9 had cervical diverticula, 2 had epibronchial diverticula and 3 had epiphrenic diverticula). All these patients underwent a diverticulectomy: in 3 cases the diverticulectomy was associated with a subdiverticular myotomy. In the last three cases the resection of the diverticulum was performed using an automatic stapler. The follow-up of these patients was prolonged for a period of 5 years with clinical, radiographic and endoscopic evaluations performed at 6 monthly intervals. The most recently operated patient has a minimum follow-up of 22 months. There were no operative deaths and none of the patients complained of recurrence of the diverticulum or of the preoperative symptomatology. No significant complications were observed in the postoperative period in the patients who underwent a simple diverticulectomy or in the cases in which a subdiverticular myotomy was associated. The scant number of observed patients does not allow us to draw any conclusion about the necessity maintained by most authors of an associated myotomy. It is however evident that this adjunctive procedure doesn't cause any further difficulty and is not loaded with an increased risk of complications. Finally the authors believe in the usefulness of performing the diverticulectomy with an automatic stapler, these devices allow in fact a considerable reduction of the surgical time and prevent dangerous contaminations of the operative field.

Adult↗

[Primary lymphoma of the gastrointestinal tract].

Lymphomas of the gastrointestinal tract are rare tumors with unusual features and few characteristics. Clinical, radiological and endoscopic diagnosis is difficult, because they may be confused with inflammatory or neoplastic forms, especially in primary involvement of the gastrointestinal tract. From 1965 we observed 4 patients with primitive gastrointestinal tract lymphomas. Prognostically important features for GI lymphomas were: stage, site of the primary disease, histological type. Authors report on the clinical findings, diagnostic procedures, surgical treatment and results.

Adolescent↗

[Functioning paraganglioma].

Pheochromocytomas and functioning paragangliomas are rare tumors arising from indifferent cells of the primitive neural crest. These tumors produce clinical symptoms (pheochromocytoma syndrome) related to catecholamine production. The pheochromocytoma syndrome, constituted by arterial hypertension, headache and sweating, is due in 80% of cases to adrenal pheochromocytomas and only in 20% of cases is due to extra-adrenal secreting paragangliomas. The diffused localization of the Paraganglion System and the common embryologic origin, can explain the occasional identification of multicentric tumors (10%), and the association with multiple endocrine neoplasms (MEN), especially in familial occurrence. Careful follow-up of patients, in order to detect the later development of multicentric or metachronous neoplasms is necessary. The Authors present their experience with 80 patients affected by neoplasms involving the adrenal medulla and the multicentric paraganglion system, surgically treated during the last 25 years. Eight patients (10%) were affected by functioning extra-adrenal paragangliomas: 7 patients (87.5%) had solitary extra-adrenal tumors (6 abdominal and 1 thoracic) with a classic pheochromocytoma syndrome, and 1 patient (12.5%) had a double asymptomatic abdominal paraganglioma.

Adult↗

[Vagal paraganglioma].

Vagal paragangliomas are rare tumors of neural crest origin. This neoplasm is generally located at various points along the peripheral distribution of the vagus nerve, in the region of the jugular and nodose ganglia, just beneath the perineurium of the nerve, but may arise anywhere along the course of the vagus nerve. Histologically, vagal paragangliomas are similar to carotid body tumors, and occasionally can undergo malignant transformation and metastasize (10-19%) or infiltrate the base of the skull. Selective arteriography can distinguish vagal paraganglioma from carotid body tumor, because the first lies above carotid bifurcation without widening of the vessels. CT scanning and MR are useful for preoperative evaluation of the jugular foramen for neoplastic involvement. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice, but usually it isn't possible to exercise these lesions without sacrifice of the vagus nerve. A careful follow-up examination for the development of metastases and multicentric paragangliomas is necessary. Two cases of vagal paragangliomas one of them with cervical node metastases, are reported. Diagnostic and surgical features of these rare neoplasms are outlined.

Adult↗

[Mediastinal functioning paraganglioma. A case report].

Functioning paraganglioma of the mediastinum is an uncommon tumor of the paraganglion system. We report a case of a 26 year-old woman with a 6 month history of hypertension refractory to therapy. Urinary catecholamine excretion and plasma noradrenaline concentration were elevated. Chest radiograph and computed tomography (CT) scan revealed high-density mass located on the posterior mediastinum. An mIBG scan showed uptake by the mediastinal tumor. At thoracotomy a 5 cm lesion was resected. Histological examination confirmed that it was a paraganglioma. Authors refer on the clinical finding and diagnostic procedures of this rare disease.

Adult↗

[Pancreatic insulinomas].

Neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors are neoplasms derived from APUD cells, characterized by hyperincretion of several peptides of hormonal activity. The incidence of these tumor is low. They are usually classified according to the predominant secreted peptide: gastrinoma, insulinoma, VIPoma, glucagonoma. Insulinoma is the most frequent endocrine pancreatic tumor, characterized by a peculiar clinical picture due to insulin action. This neoplasm is prevalently benign (90%), and may cause symptoms due to hypo-glycemia such as epilepsy, asthenia, deep coma, dizziness, hunger and epigastric pain. Surgery still constitutes the principal therapy for insulinoma treatment, but an accurate tumor identification is necessary. Selective arteriography of the pancreas and new diagnostic investigations as intraoperative US, selective sampling of pancreatic veins with insulin Quick-RIA, aid the diagnosis and more precise localization of the tumor. When surgical therapy is not practicable, for diffuse metastases, octreotide has an inhibitory effect upon hormone release, and may be combined with chemotherapy for controlling clinical symptoms. We review the clinical records of 2 patients from our Institute, who had hyper-insulinism due to benign insulinomas of the tail of the pancreas. Surgical treatment was performed with enucleation of the neoplasms.

Aged↗

[Primary malignant tumors of the small intestine].

The clinical records of 10 patients with small intestinal tumors during a 27 years period were reviewed. The patients, 5 men and 5 women ranged from 17 to 79 years old. There were 6 carcinomas (60%), 3 lymphomas (30%), and 1 sarcoma (10%). Tumors were most frequent in the distal part of the small intestine (70%). The most common complaints were pain (70%) and obstruction (40%). All patients had surgical treatment; curative resection was attempted in 70% of the cases. Prognosis is poor, the mean survival time was 20.4 months.

Adolescent↗

[Critical ischemia of the lower limbs: pathogenesis, clinical course and therapy. Results of authors' experience in 337 cases].

The definition of an ischaemic condition at lower limb level, may imply any different degree of the pathology, starting from a simple chronic slight claudication up to a severe ischaemia. Critical Limb Ischaemia is the term defined to identify an ischaemic condition, which endangers the limb or part of a limb and requires a prompt and appropriate treatment. However the pathophysiology of this condition remains to be well established and depends on various vascular factors. For the European Working Group on Critical Limb Ischaemia (Berlin 1989, Rudesheim 1991) the definition is strictly restricted to Fontaine's stage III B and IV, while in our opinion the definition could be very simple in all the patients with a prognostic limb-threatening condition (for localization and wide extension of the lesions) independent of the Fontaine's stage, which are going towards a future amputation if radical improvement of blood flow cannot be achieved with an adequate revascularization. In our five year late experience, we observed and surgically treated 337 patients with CLI (74% males and 80% atherosclerotic lesions). We discuss the preoperative findings, diagnostic procedures, surgical techniques and relate results.

Aged↗

[Current role of extra-anatomical revascularization of the lower limbs].

In vascular reconstructive surgery of the lower limbs for aorto-iliac disease the first choice procedure is TEA or aorto-femoral bypass. In "high risk patients" alternative procedures like extra-anatomical bypass (axillo-femoral or femoro-femoral bypass grafts) are available. In some cases, such us infection of a retroperitoneal prosthesis, an axillo-femoral bypass is mandatory in order to obtain revascularization of the lower limbs. In this article we report our late experience in this surgery and our opinion on the correct indication for the use of these procedures.

Aged↗

[Vascular complications in drug addicts. Intermittent claudication in a HIV seropositive heroin addict].

The widespread use of heroin has revealed the growing life-threatening complications consequent on drug practice. The effects of heroin on the cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal and central nervous system have been well described in medical literature, but the vascular complication of chronic occlusive arterial disease of the lower limbs is rare. We report a case of a young female patient who was a chronic drug addict for over five years, with concomitant serum positiveness for HIV infection. The etiologic and pathogenetic mechanisms of such an uncommon vascular complication are discussed on the basis of the existing literature.

Adult↗

[Physiopathology of venous stasis at the microcirculation level].

The division of the venous circulation in to two sectors, one constituted by the superficial and deep venous trunks (macrocirculation) and the other by the capillaries and precapillary venules (microcirculation), is surely schematical but aids the comprehension of many hemodynamic effects connected to hampered venous return and to the incompetence of the valvular devices. In fact many of the effects of stasis and venous hypertension (oedema, red cell diapedesis, skin dystrophies) cannot be explained merely by hydraulic mechanisms but require a primary alteration of the microvascular wall associated with structural changes of the perivascular connective tissue. The alterations that occur in microcirculation are of the utmost importance in the formation of the venules ulcerations. The passage of fibrinogen through large pores in the venules of the patients affected by venous hypertension derived from venous insufficiency creates a pericapillary fibrin deposition that cannot be removed because of inadequate blood and tissue fibrinolysis. This accumulation acts as a barrier to the diffusion of oxygen and other nutrients, determining a stasis dermatitis that may lead to tissue necrosis and ulceration. The more precise knowledge of the phenomena connected with the venous stasis at the level of microcirculation (pericapillary fibrin deposition, endothelial ischemia, blocked lymphatic drainage) will not only allow a deeper comprehension of the clinical signs but hopefully will lead to a more effective treatment of the postphlebitic syndrome.

Humans↗

[Isolated aneurysms of the internal iliac artery. A clinical contribution].

Five patients with isolated aneurysms of the internal iliac artery were identified and submitted to surgical procedure. Two patients were operated on in election, three in emergency with aneurysmatic rupture. The natural course of this pathology is one of progressive expansion and rupture. This lesion is often asymptomatic, but sometimes we found associated, compression symptoms of genito-urinary, intestinal tract and venous and neurological structures. Echography, CT scan and angiography are the most common and useful diagnostic procedure. Endoaneurysmectomy with proximal and distal suture of the stumps is the appropriate treatment in the majority of the cases.

Aged↗

[Pseudoaneurysm of the subclavian artery. Case reports].

Five patients suffering from subclavian artery false aneurysms underwent surgery in the last 6 years at the Institute of General and Cardiovascular Surgery University of Milan. The management was considerably different from the treatment of atherosclerotic lesions of this artery, because of the various nature of such traumatic lesion and the variable (stable or unstable) hemodynamic conditions of the patients. Arteriography was extremely useful in the evaluation of site and extension of pseudoaneurysms. When pseudoaneurysm was in the left side (in one case), supraclavicular incision and posterolateral thoracotomy were adopted to allow the control of both proximal and distal portion of subclavian artery. When the pseudoaneurysm was in the right side (in 3 cases) a median sternotomy with extension of the soft tissue incision into the right side of the neck provided the exposure of the proximal and distal right subclavian artery. In the last case, proximal infected false aneurysm (after right axillo-femoral bypass graft) was removed and substituted by contralateral axillo-bifemoral bypass.

Adult↗

[Surgical tactics in the treatment of thyroid nodular pathology].

The thyroid nodules represent the most frequent endocrinopathy, because clinically palpable nodules are detectable in 4-5% of the general population. Such pathological condition includes adenomas, carcinoma, intraglandular haematomas or cysts, focal thyroiditis, etc. Fine-needle aspiration cytology allows a correct diagnosis in about 90% of the cases, distinguishing focal thyroiditis from nodular goiter or thyroid malignancies. The new instrumental and cytological studies make the choice for surgical interventions more selective. At the Institution of General and Cardiovascular Surgery, University of Milan, 597 patients underwent surgery from 1966 to January 1988. The observed nodular (toxic or non toxic) thyropathies were 498 (83.4%). Cold nodules represented about a third (34%) of the nodular thyropathies. Thyroid carcinomas were 33 (5.6%). This study is aimed to analyze our surgical attitude with respect to nodular thyropathies, the surgical procedures adopted and the observed complications.

Adenocarcinoma↗

[Malignant pheochromocytoma. A case report and comments on a rare pathology].

Pheochromocytomas and functioning paragangliomas are rare tumors arising from the primitive neural crest, and found in the adrenal medulla or elsewhere within the sympathetic paraganglion axis. Clinical symptoms are related to catecholamine production or less frequently to dopamine or other neuropeptides secretion. Malignant pheochromocytomas are very rare tumors comprising between 5-35%, but this value is uncertain because the usual criteria for malignancy, such as mitotic activity, nuclear pleomorphism, are not suitable to discern benign from malignant pheochromocytomas. A specific diagnosis of malignancy requires evidence of invasion of the adjacent organs and the occurrence of metastases. Personal experience is presented with 92 patients affected by: adrenal pheochromocytomas (51 cases), cervical paragangliomas (32 cases), and extra-adrenal paragangliomas (9 cases). Malignant forms were observed in a 23-year-old young woman affected by malignant pheochromocytoma with lymphatic para-aortic metastases (1.9%), and in 2 patients affected by cervical paragangliomas (1 CBT, 1 VBT) with lymph nodal metastases. Careful follow-up of all patients with measurement of the urinary catecholamine is necessary to detect metachronous neoplasm and later metastases, identified with RMN and 131I-MIBG scintiscan.

Adrenal Gland Neoplasms↗

[Natural history and course of aneurysmal disease in patients operated on for abdominal aortic aneurysms].

This study is aimed at analyzing our experience in the evolution of aneurysmatic disease after surgical treatment of the typical subrenal abdominal aortic aneurysm. In fact in some cases we reobserved these patients for the onset of a new important dilatation involving the proximal tract of the abdominal aorta or the common iliac arteries. From 1980 to December 1992, 24 patients out of a group of 1508 patients previously submitted to an aorto-aortic or aorto-iliac reconstructive procedure using dacron prosthetic grafts were reoperated for relapsing aneurysmatic disease. In six cases the dangerous ectasia was located above the proximal aortic anastomosis; in four patients the re-reconstructive procedure was performed clamping the subdiaphragmatic abdominal aorta and performing the proximal anastomosis just below the ostia of the renal arteries. In two cases the aneurysmatic process involved the origins of the visceral vessels and a left thoracophrenolaparotomic access was necessary in order to perform a thoracoabdominal reconstruction reimplanting the visceral arteries on the prosthetic graft. In 18 cases the progressive aneurysmatic process involved the common iliac axis provoking, in some cases, a kinking or a shortening of the aortic prosthetic graft. The results of these reintervention are good with no mortality at operation and a satisfactory middle term (average 3 years) follow-up. Our investigation demonstrates that in a small, but significant (1.6%) percentage of patients the aneurysmatic disease spreads upward and downward involving arterial segments formerly non affected.

Aged↗

[The physiopathology, clinical picture and therapy of chronic intestinal ischemia].

Between January 1982 and April 1993, 8 patients suffering from a typical clinical picture of chronic intestinal ischemia, have been observed. All these patients were symptomatic and 7 cases presented stenosing or occlusive lesions of at least 2 of the 3 splanchnic trunks. 5 of these 7 patients underwent a corrective surgical procedure. 2 patients underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. One patient affected by stenosis of the coeliac trunk due to external compression caused by the median arcuate ligament of the diaphragm was not operated because the symptomatology was atypical and the other 2 splanchnic trunks were perfectly patent. Three patients died following the therapeutic procedure: a woman in whom an aorto-mesenteric bypass graft was inserted, underwent, 4 months after, an intestinal infarction due to thrombosis of the graft; another woman, whose coeliac trunk and superior mesenteric artery were thrombosed and whose inferior mesenteric artery was reimplanted on the common iliac artery, died for acute hepatic failure, after 12 months of total parenteral nourishment; a third patient, successfully submitted to PTA of the superior mesenteric artery, died after 4 months due to the occurrence of acute renal insufficiency.

Adult↗

[Aneurysm of the popliteal artery. Prognostic and therapeutic criteria].

Experience of the management of 45 patients affected by popliteal artery aneurysms is reported. All patients, but one, underwent operative treatment. The importance of immediate surgical reconstruction whenever a popliteal artery aneurysm has been detected is stressed. In fact the most frequent complication represented by sudden thrombosis of the aneurysmatic sac and/or by peripheral embolization is generally followed by an irreversible closure of the vascular run off, determining the high rate of failures (28% in our experience) in spite of a prompt surgical reconstructive procedure.

Aged↗