Objective: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the "gold standard" for benign gallbladder diseases due to its advantages. In the presence of inflammation or fibrosis, the risk of bleeding and bile duct injury is increased during dissection. Laparoscopic partial cholecystectomy (LPC) is a feasible and safe method to prevent bile duct injuries and decrease the conversion (to open cholecystectomy) rates in difficult cholecystectomies where anatomical structures could not be demonstrated clearly.
Material and methods: The feasibility, efficiency, and safety of LPC were investigated. The data of 80 patients with cholelithiasis who underwent LPC (n=40) and conversion cholecystectomy (CC) (n=40) were retrospectively examined. Demographic characteristics, ASA scores, operating time, drain usage, requirement for intensive care, postoperative length of hospital stay, surgical site infection, antibiotic requirement and complication rates were compared.
Results: The median ASA value was 1 in the CC group and 2 in the LPC group. Mean operation time was 123 minutes in the CC group, and 87.50 minutes in the LPC group. Surgical drains were used in 16 CC patients and 4 LPC patients. There was no significant difference between groups in postoperative length of intensive care unit stay (p=0.241). When surgical site infections were compared, the difference was at the limit of statistical significance (p=0.055). Early complication rates were not different (p=0.608) but none of the patients in the LPC group suffered from late complications.
Conclusion: LPC is an efficient and safe way to decrease the conversion rate. LPC seems to be an alternative procedure to CC with advantages of shorter operating time, lower rates of surgical site infection, shorter postoperative hospitalization and fewer complications in high-risk patients.
Objective: Diagnosis of axillary nodal involvement is significant in the management of breast cancer as well as in predicting prognosis. In this prospective study, we evaluated the efficiency of US-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) in preoperative axillary staging of early breast cancer.
Material and methods: Between January 2011 and July 2013, 46 women were prospectively enrolled in the study. Ultrasound guided-FNABs for axillary assessment were performed preoperatively. Cytology results were compared with histopathology reports to determine its sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predictive value and accuracy.
Results: Nineteen cases that had malignant cytology on FNAB also had axillary involvement in axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) without any false-positive results. The sensitivity and specificity of US-guided FNAB were 63.3% and 100%, respectively. US-guided FNAB was accurate in predicting the status of the axilla in 76.1% of patients.
Conclusion: Although this technique is favorable due to its minimally invasive nature, it is not as effective as sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) in terms of detecting axillary metastasis preoperatively. The low sensitivity and low accuracy rates decrease the usefulness of the technique. Therefore, it seems that US-guided FNAB alone could not replace SLNB. Nevertheless, combining some other molecular studies may be useful in increasing the technique's sensitivity. These issues should be determined by comprehensive clinical trials.
Objective: Even though, laparoscopy is not accepted as the current gold standard in colorectal surgery, it can be performed as safely as open surgery. It is also widely accepted that the technique has many advantages. In this study, we evaluated the results of 33 patients with laparoscopic colorectal resection.
Material and methods: Thirty-three patients who underwent laparoscopic colon surgery between January 2013 and September 2014 in the General Surgery Clinic at Marmara University Hospital were included in the study. Patients were evaluated in terms of their demographic and tumor histopathologic characteristics, type of surgery and early postoperative complications.
Results: Laparoscopic colorectal resection was performed for 33 patients who had malignant or benign lesions. The median age was 60 (35-70), and 18 (55%) were male patients. The majority of the patients (90%) were diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Half of the patients were T3 and 67% had N0 stage. The median number of retrieved lymph nodes was 17 (4-28). Negative surgical margins were obtained in all patients. The postoperative hospital stay was 5 (4-16) days. Postoperative early complications were observed in only 5 patients. The majority of complications were treated without the need for surgery. No mortality was recorded in this series of patients.
Conclusion: This study showed that laparoscopic colorectal surgery could be performed safely based on its low complication rate, short length of hospital stay, providing sufficient surgical resection and lymph node dissection.