Ischemic Colitis of the Left Colon in a Diabetic Patient

Diabetes mellitus may affect the gastrointestinal tract possibly as a result of autonomic neuropathy. Here we present a 68-year-old male with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus who presented with prolonged watery diarrhea and in whom imaging studies demonstrated ischemic colitis of the left colon. Resection of the affected colon resulted in sustained disappearance of symptoms

Preventing suture extrusion and recurrence in mustarde and furnas otoplasties by using laterally based postauricular dermal flap, long-term results

WOS: 000384271100055PubMed ID: 27607117Background:Prominent ear deformity (PD) is an unacceptable condition of pinna that affects 5% of the population and is associated with emotional stress, behavioral disturbances, and social restrictions in relationships. Conchal hypertrphy, inadequate formation of antihelical fold, earlobe placement ahead than it should be, or various combinations of these changes are main characteristics of PD. Many surgical techniques have been described for the PD.The authors' aim was to present laterally based postauricular dermal flap combination with cartilage-sparing methods and effectiveness of this technique in suture extrusion prevention and reducing the rate of recurrence with long-term results.Methods:Forty-one patients had bilateral and 6 patients had unilateral PD, a total of 47 patients with a mean age of 14.48 were operated by using this combined procedure. A laterally based supraperichondrial dermal flap was prepared from a deepithelized elliptical postauricular incision. Mustarde and Furnas suture techniques were used solely for PD correction. The dissected laterally based dermal flap was fixed to the mastoid bone with sutures in stretched position after reshaping the auricular cartilage with sutures.Results:The average helix-mastoid distance was (mm) 16.282.36, concha-mastoid angle was 25.71 +/- 0.96 degrees on 12-month measurements. The helix-mastoid distance showed an increase of 1 to 3mm, in the concha-mastoid angle measurements of 1 degrees to 2 degrees. Statistically significant changes were observed between the average preoperative, postoperative 1. month, postoperative 12. month helix-mastoid distances (mm), and month concha-mastoid angle (degrees) measurements (P=0.0001).Conclusions:The laterally based postauricular dermal flap technique is an effective method to prevent suture extrusion and recurrence which are the most important complications of otoplasty procedure and easy to apply

Autotaxin Expression in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors. Despite the important progress observed in liver surgery, the survival rates are discouraging. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of autotaxin in hepatocellular carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Liver tissues from 28 human hepatocellular carcinomas were evaluated for the expression of autotaxin by immunohistochemistry. The gender, age, histological grade, lymphovascular invasion, number of tumors, levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein (aFP), presence of liver cirrhosis, hepatitis, surgery and survival rates were recorded. Results: Immunohistochemistry confirmed the expression of autotaxin in hepatocellular carcinoma. The histological grade seems to be the only independent predictor of stronger autotaxin expression, as significantly higher levels of autotaxin were detected in histological grades II and III. In addition, levels of autotaxin seem to be the most important independent prognostic factor related to poor survival. There was an eight-fold higher risk of death in patients with high levels of autotaxin compared to patients with low levels. Conclusions: Autotaxin expression in hepatocellular carcinoma could be of great importance. High autotaxin expression in HCC is detected in patients with histological grade II and III. Further, patients with elevated expression levels were found to possess an eight-fold higher risk of death. Autotaxin role in HCC should be further elucidated