The authors report their experience with 18 patients who underwent liver resection for alveolar echinococcosis of the liver from June, 1982 to January, 1989. Preparation for surgery included transhepatic biliary external-internal drainage in order to alleviate jaundice in 8 cases and catheterization of infected necrotic cavities in 7 cases. Resection was radical in 9 patients who underwent either right lobectomy (5 cases) or right trisegmentectomy (4 cases) with "en bloc" extension to the bifurcation of the hepatic ducts in 3 cases. Resection was nonradical in another group of 9 patients who had either atypical right hepatectomy (6 cases) or atypical left hepatectomy (3 cases). All patients were submitted to a periodic follow-up. The 9 patients treated by radical resection are alive and symptom-free and appear to be disease-free at radiologic imaging, except for 1 patient who had a small area of parasitic recurrence on computed tomography scan 4 years after operation. Among the 9 patients treated by palliative resection, 3 patients died during the follow-up period, the cause of the death having been related to the disease in 2 cases and nonrelated in 1 case. The 6 surviving patients had no noticeable growth of the parasitic mass during the period of follow-up. When feasible, radical liver resection is the best form of therapy. When massive parasitic invasion of both lobes of the liver and the porta hepatis and vena cava precludes radical hepatectomy, palliative resection associated with percutaneous procedures has to be considered before embarking on orthotopic liver transplantation.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Value of intraductal biopsies and intraductal cytology in the etiological diagnosis of biliary stenoses].

Endobiliairy tissue specimens were obtained for cytologic and histologic examinations at the site of stenosis after percutaneous biliary drainage or endoscopic retrograde sphincterotomy in 49 patients with benign (10 cases) or malignant (39 cases) biliary stricture. Final etiologic diagnosis was obtained by surgery (18 cases), autopsy (one case), aspiration cytology of metastasis (2 cases), serology (2 cases), and in 26 cases, was determined by the course and outcome of the disease. As the sensitivity of each method, cytology and histology, was weak, it was necessary to associate them to improve results. Accurate etiologic diagnosis was achieved in 77 p. 100 of cases. The specificity of the method was satisfactory and specimen examination allowed to correct and confirm the initial etiologic diagnosis in 12 and 65 p. 100 of cases, respectively. The specificity of the method and its low morbidity prompt us to recommend it during transhepatic or retrograde therapeutic drainage as it can serve as a guide for later treatment. On the other hand, achievement of a transhepatic drainage or an endoscopic sphincterotomy only to obtain endobiliairy tissue specimens means taking into account the poor sensitivity of the method and the complications inherent to transhepatic drainage and endoscopic sphincterotomy. The practice of obtaining specimens by the retrograde technique without sphincterotomy or under cholangioscopy should be developed.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Diagnostic and therapeutic strategy in carcinoma of the extrahepatic bile ducts].

The preoperative diagnostic approach in 25 patients with bile duct carcinoma was studied. Investigation procedures included gray-scale ultrasonography with guided fine needle biopsy of focal lesions, percutaneous transhepatic or retrograde cholangiography, transhepatic biliary drainage with brush and forceps biopsy of biliary stenosis as well as selective angiography for feasibility of surgical resection. Diagnosis was ensured in 23 patients by cytologic or histologic tissue specimens. Twenty-one lesions were judged unresectable on the basis of bile duct or vascular tumor extension and patient status. These patients were treated either by iridium 192 wire radiation therapy (6 cases) or by nonsurgical biliary drainage. Four patients with a potentially resectable tumor underwent surgery. This preoperative diagnostic approach can be recommended for selecting appropriate therapy in patients with bile duct carcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMedDate not supplied