New perspectives in the treatment of hard-to-heal wounds

Hard-to-heal wounds continue to be a challenge in the everyday surgical practice. Their treatment is time-consuming, expensive and in many cases requires interdisciplinary assessment. Therapy option include properly selected surgical procedures and dressings combined with systemic antibiotherapy. Application of  vacuum assisted closure (VAC) facilitates the evacuation of pathological discharge, reduces tissue oedema and eliminates bacterial biofilm. Complementary administration of antibiotics to control chronic infection relies today in most cases on vancomycin, ciprofloxacin or piperacillin with tazobactam, with good clinical effect. An alternative to antibiotics against MRSA, administered at hospitals might be dalbavancin, a new generation lipoglycopeptide, which belongs to the same class as vancomycin. Introduction of dalbavancin and VAC might be an alternative to traditional methods of therapy

Endoscopic Surveillance and Treatment of Upper GI Tract Lesions in Patients with Familial Adenomatous Polyposis—A New Perspective on an Old Disease

Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is an autosomal dominant disease caused by a germline mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene. Patients with FAP develop up to thousands of colorectal adenomas as well as lesions in the upper GI tract. In FAP, the upper digestive lesions include gastric fundic gland polyps (FGPs), antrum adenomas, duodenal or small intestinal adenomas, and carcinoma. Patients, after colectomy, are still at significant risk for extracolonic malignancies. Advances in endoscope resolution and optical enhancement technologies allow endoscopists to provide assessments of benign and malignant polyps. For this reason, in the past decades, endoscopic resection techniques have become the first line of treatment in patients with polyps in the upper GI, whereby polyps and even early cancers can be successfully cured. In FAP patients, endoscopic ampullectomy appears to be a safe and effective way of treating patients with ampullary tumors. According to current indications, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and stenting of the main pancreatic duct follow ampullectomy