Peter Kienle — Page 2 | Search PubMed

PubMed2003

Surgical treatment of severe inflammatory bowel diseases.

Surgical treatment of severe inflammatory bowel diseases is required in failed medical treatment, in emergencies and for complications. Indications for surgery and operative techniques have changed significantly over the last few years. There is a clear tendency towards earlier and less invasive surgical interventions performed in specialized and experienced centers. Improved quality of life of patients with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis after surgical therapy supports an earlier consideration of the surgical treatment option. A close cooperation with the involved gastroenterologist is mandatory in this context.

Colitis, Ulcerative↗

PubMed2002

Are "micrometastases" of the peritoneum equivalent to distant metastases?

Tumor progression after curative resection of gastrointestinal cancer is probably caused by disseminated tumor cells that can be detected in different body compartments, e.g. the peritoneum. The clinical importance and prognostic significance of gross peritoneal metastasis is well known whereas the prognostic relevance of disseminated tumor cells in the peritoneum of patients with gastrointestinal cancer is still unclear. Disseminated tumor cells in the peritoneal cavity are generally detected by cytology, immunohistochemistry or polymerase chain reaction-based molecular methods. A consensus on the most adequate detection method has not yet been found making the comparison of different data difficult. The prognostic relevance of tumor cell dissemination has, at least in part, been shown for gastric, pancreatic and colon cancer, and the prognostic data regarding gastric cancer are most convincing. Peritoneal "micrometastases" are obviously not equivalent to distant metastases as the evidence for their prognostic significance is clearly less than that for gross peritoneal metastases. This article gives a critical review of the detection and prognostic significance of disseminated tumor cells in the peritoneum of patients with gastrointestinal cancer.

Colorectal Neoplasms↗

PubMed2002

Prospective comparison of endoscopy, endosonography and computed tomography for staging of tumours of the oesophagus and gastric cardia.

BACKGROUND: Local and multimodal therapeutic strategies for tumours of the oesophagus and gastric cardia, require precise preoperative staging. Endosonography is considered the most accurate staging method, while computed tomography (CT) has limitations especially in the evaluation of local infiltration. Macroscopic endoscopic evaluation was reported to be accurate in selected series, but no study has yet compared all three staging modalities. METHODS: One hundred and seventeen unselected patients with tumours of the oesophagus and gastric cardia were prospectively staged first by the endoscopic macroscopic appearance and then by endosonography. All patients had preoperative CT scans, however, only the 36 patients receiving the scans at our institution were included in the study. The preoperative staging results were then compared to postoperative histology which was available as the gold standard in all included patients. Kappa statistics were used to exclude chance agreement of the clinical staging results with the pathohistological findings. Differences between the resulting kappa values for the different staging modalities were analysed with a jack-knife test. RESULTS: Endoscopic macroscopic staging and endosonography (accuracy 67 and 69%, weighted kappa 0.78 and 0.84) were significantly more accurate than CT (accuracy 33%, weighted kappa 0.44) for determination of the T category (p = 0.006 and p = 0.001). After exclusion of tumours of the cardia (n = 33), the accuracy of macroscopic and endosonographic staging (accuracy 72 and 75%, weighted kappa 0.86 and 0.88) increased and remained more accurate than CT (accuracy 50%, weighted kappa 0.62). The main pitfall in our series in staging the T category was the overestimation of T2 tumours in the cardia as T3 or even as T4 tumours due to the inability to visualise the serosa. The accuracy of predicting lymph node metastasis was 68% for macroscopic endoscopic, 79% for endosonographic, and 67% for CT staging. Only endosonographic staging was significantly different from chance agreement with histology (weighted kappa = 0.56). Endosonographic staging was significantly more accurate than endoscopic macroscopic and CT staging (p = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: Endosonography is the most accurate staging modality for overall preoperative staging of oesophageal and cardial tumours. Endoscopic macroscopic staging allows a reasonably accurate assessment of the T category.

Biopsy↗