Introduction: Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI), either arterial or venous, is still a devastating disease with poor prognosis. It is unknown, whether AMI is associated with impaired quality of life (QoL) in long-term survivors.
Material and methods: This retrospective analysis includes 64 patients with occlusive arterial or venous mesenteric ischemia treated operatively between 2008 and 2016 at the University Medical Center Rostock. Short-term outcome with focus on comorbidities was measured by the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) an instrument that operationally measures comorbidity based on 17 clinical parameters including age. Operative outcome in view of enterostomy placement and long-term outcome measured as QoL by the EQ-5D in the long-term survivors were evaluated. The EQ-5D is a standardized, self-reported five-dimension QoL questionnaire built to provide a simple and generic measure of health.
Results: Thirty-day mortality was 60.9%, and in-hospital mortality was 70.3% (n = 45). No patient was discharged with a stoma. Patients with a primary anastomosis after the initial operation for AMI had a high leak rate of 27% (4/15 patients) compared to no dehiscence in the group of patients who had secondary anastomosis during second or third laparotomy. The long-term survivors had significantly lower CCI compared to the 45 nonsurvivors (median 4 [3, 4, 5, 6] vs. 6 [4, 5, 6, 7]). All long-term survivors had QoL assessment. QoL score was significantly impaired compared to an age- and sex-matched reference population. This impairment was not due to disease-specific sequelae such as presence of stool deviation or intestinal failure but due to preexisting risk factors as shown by an inverse relation between the CCI and QoL score.
Conclusion: Herein, we show for the first time that long-term QoL in patients with AMI is impaired but this impairment is not due to disease-specific aspects but rather general risk factors underlying the presence of a higher level of comorbidities at the time of AMI.
Introduction: The use of technetium 99m diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid-galactosyl human serum albumin (99mTc-GSA) scintigraphy parameters, HH15 and LHL15, in assessing the future liver remnant function is not expedient because of their nonlinear behaviour against liver volume. Uptake rate constant for the binding of 99mTc-GSA to asialoglycoprotein receptors is probably more favourable, but the reported calculation methods are complex. We devised a simple method to calculate the uptake rate constant, KrGSA.
Methods: Radioactivity counts for the entire liver and heart regions were extracted at 10, 20, and 30 min. Using whole liver and heart volumes measured from single-photon emission computed tomography images, free radioactivity corresponding to the liver blood pool was subtracted. The time activity curve was fitted to the equation L(t) = L(∞) × [1 - Exp (-kt)] using Microsoft Office Excel (add-in free programme Solver)®, where L(∞) is the count at plateau level and k denotes KrGSA.
Results: KrGSA values accurately identified liver cirrhosis and were similar to the KICG. The areas under the curve for KrGSA and KICG in the receiver operating characteristic analysis were 0.808 and 0.795, respectively, and a good correlation was seen between KrGSA and KICG.
Discussion/conclusion: KrGSA can be utilized as an alternative to KICG in assessing the future liver remnant function.
Objectives: Mirizzi syndrome (MS) is a condition when an impacted stone in the cystic duct or the Hartmann's pouch due to its extrinsic compression and concomitant inflammation causes an obstruction of the common bile duct. Laparotomy was the preferred surgical technique to treat this syndrome. However, with advances in technologies, an increasing number of surgeons are starting to choose minimally invasive surgery. The objective of this study is to review existing literature relating to minimally invasive surgery treatment of MS.
Methods: PubMed and ClinicalKey were used to search and identify relevant articles since January 2000 to December 2020. The following keywords were applied: Mirizzi syndrome, laparoscopy, minimally invasive. The criteria for exclusion were applied: case reports with less than 2 patients, nonsurgical treatments, and reviews were excluded from this study.
Results: Thirty-two articles were identified for analysis, 17 (540 patients in total) of these articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria: 8 retrospective studies, 4 case series, and 5 prospective studies. In the analyzed cohort, 295 patients were treated laparoscopically. Out of 17 articles included in the manuscript, 14 articles provided the information on minimally invasive surgery approach. There were 221 minimally invasive surgeries, out of which 143 (64.7%) were successful, thus according to the type of MS: MS I-175 (79.2%), successful 105 (60%); MS II-40 (18%), successful 32 (80%); MS III-6 (2.7%), successful 6 (100%). The mean conversion rate from laparoscopic to open surgery was 26.2% (range 0-67%), and the median complication rate in seventeen studies was 18.1% (range 0-40%), respectively. The female/male ratio was 1.2:1, and the median age in fifteen studies providing overall data on age was 57.4 years (range 40.1-70.1 years).
Conclusions: Current evidence presents that open surgery remains the main treatment for MS. Minimally invasive approaches are feasible, safe, and are associated with short-term recovery, significant differences in the operation time and blood loss during operation. However, minimally invasive approaches are mainly restricted to selected patients with type I MS.
Introduction: The present study aimed to examine the clinical implications of postoperative hyperamylasemia (POH) after partial pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).
Methods: Data from all consecutive patients undergoing PD were obtained from a prospectively maintained database and reviewed. POH was defined as an elevation of serum pancreatic amylase above the upper limit of normal (53 U/L) on postoperative days 0-2. Clinically relevant POH (cr-POH) was defined as POH in patients with clinically relevant (Clavien-Dindo ≥ III) postoperative complications.
Results: POH occurred in 61 of 170 (35.9%) and cr-POH in 24 of 170 (14.1%) patients. Patients with POH had higher rates of clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (cr-POPF) (44.3 vs. 3.7%, p < 0.001) and clinically relevant postoperative complications than those without POH (39.3 vs. 21.1%, p = 0.001). Patients with cr-POH had higher C-reactive protein (CRP, milligrams per liter) levels on third (257.7 vs. 187.85 mg/L, p = 0.016) and fourth (222.5 vs. 151, p = 0.002) postoperative day (POD) than those with POH alone. Serum procalcitonin (PCT, micrograms per liter) levels on POD 2 (1.2 vs. 0.4 μg/L, p = 0.028) and POD 3 (0.85 vs. 0.4 μg/L, p = 0.001) were also higher in patients with cr-POH. Rates of cr-POPF in patients with cr-POH were higher than in those with POH alone (70.8 vs. 27%, p = 0.001). POH (OR 0.011, 95% CI: 0.001-0.097, p < 0.001) was an independent predictor of cr-POPF in the multivariable analysis. A high-risk pathology, defined as nonadenocarcinoma/nonchronic pancreatitis pathology (OR 0.277, 95% CI: 0.106-0.727, p = 0.009), and a small duct diameter (OR 0.333, 95% CI: 0.139-0.796, p = 0.013) were independent predictors of POH in the multivariable analysis.
Conclusion: POH is a frequent, but not always clinically relevant, finding after partial PD. Serum CRP and PCT levels in the early postoperative period can be used to identify patients with cr-POH. POH is an independent risk factor for increased postoperative morbidity, including cr-POPF, after partial PD.

