Toxocariasis as a Rare Parasitic Complication of a Transthoracic Spine Surgery Procedure

Human toxocariasis is a helminthozoonosis caused by the migration of Toxocara species larvae through an organism. The infection in humans is transmitted either by direct ingestion of the eggs of the parasite, or by consuming undercooked meat infested with Toxocara larvae. This parasitosis can be found worldwide, but there are significant differences in seroprevalence in different areas, depending mainly on hot climate conditions and on low social status. However, the literature estimates of seroprevalence are inconsistent. Infected patients commonly present a range of symptoms, e.g., abdominal pain, decreased appetite, restlessness, fever, and coughing. This manuscript presents a case report of a polytraumatic patient who underwent a two-phase spinal procedure for a thoracolumbar fracture. After the second procedure, which was a vertebral body replacement via thoracotomy, the patient developed a pathologic pleural effusion. A microscopic cytology examination of this effusion revealed the presence of Toxocara species larvae. Although the patient presented no specific clinical symptoms, and the serological exams (Enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Western blot) were negative, the microscopic evaluation enabled a timely diagnosis. The patient was successfully treated with albendazole, with no permanent sequelae of the infection.

Surgical Intervention to Treat Pharyngolaryngeal Stenosis Caused by Behcet’s Disease

We aimed to summarize the surgical treatment for pharyngolaryngeal stenosis and discuss prognosis in patients with Behcet’s disease. Six cases of pharyngolaryngeal stenosis caused by Behcet’s disease were analyzed retrospectively. All underwent surgical treatment for pharyngolaryngeal stenosis after systematic medical treatment. The follow-up time for the 6 patients was between 1 and 12 years. Four of the 6 patients underwent adhesiolysis as their first procedure. Two of these 4 experienced recurrence of stenosis within 6 months and underwent flap repair as their second procedure. The remaining two patients underwent flap reconstruction as their first procedure and maintained good swallowing function. Three of the 6 patients underwent preoperative tracheotomy because of dyspnea. Tracheal decannulation was successful in all patients. None of the patients experienced recurrence after their final surgical procedure and all recovered to a near-normal condition. Pharyngolaryngeal stenosis caused by Behcet’s disease is a rare but severe complication; surgical intervention should be considered in patients with dysphagia after systematic medical treatment.

A Novel Framework for Aspect Knowledgebase Generated Automatically from Social Media Using Pattern Rules

One of the factors improving businesses in business intelligence is summarization systems which could generate summaries based on sentiment from social media. However, these systems could not produce automatically, they used annotated datasets. To automatically produce sentiment summaries without using the annotated datasets, we propose a novel framework using pattern rules. The framework has two procedures: 1) pre-processing and 2) aspect knowledgebase generation. The first procedure is to check and correct misspelt words (bigram and unigram) by a proposed method, and tag part-of-speech all words. The second procedure is to automatically generate aspect knowledgebase used to produce sentiment summaries by the sentiment summarization systems. Pattern rules and semantic similarity-based pruning are used to automatically generate aspect knowledgebase from social media. In the experiments, eight domains from benchmark datasets of reviews are used. The performance evaluation of our proposed approach shows the high performance when compared to other approaches.

Effects of the Pars Plana Vitrectomy on the Chronic Total Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment in the Young Adults

Objective: To observe the characteristics and evaluate the efficacy and safety of the chronic total rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) treatment by the 23-gauge pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in young adults and to analyze the related factors.Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for the young adults who underwent the 23-gauge PPV for the chronic total RRD at the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from 2011 to 2018. A total of 54 eyes of 48 patients were included in this study. The preoperative vision ranged from 2.00 to 1.00. The mean duration of RRD was 9 ± 0.6 months with a range from 4 to 18 months. The proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) grade D1 and grade D2 was diagnosed in 48 eyes and 6 eyes, respectively. About 37 eyes were filled with C3F8 and 17 eyes were filled with silicone oil tamponade. The follow-up ranged from 9 to 78 months with a mean of 23 ± 2.2 months.Results: The postoperative visual acuity increased in all the eyes at the final observation. The retinal attachment was achieved in 49 eyes (90.7%) in the primary PPV. Five eyes (9.3%) with the failed retinal attachment finally achieved the attachment after the second procedure. The postoperative complications mainly included temporary intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation, hyphema, and retinal redetachment.Conclusion: Chronic total RRD can be treated via the 23-gauge PPV with a great anatomical and visual prognosis in the young adult. The successful treatment of the chronic total RRD in young adults is mainly associated with the complete dissection of the severe vitreoretinopathy, especially for the epiretinal membrane at the retinal breaks and degenerations and the subretinal proliferation during surgery.

Snodgrass procedure for distal penile and mid-shaft hypospadias repair in children

Introduction. Hypospadias is one of the most frequent penile malformations in newborn boys. Warren Snodgrass developed the «tubularized incised plate» (TIP) urethroplasty that is the most often procedure used in the surgical treatment of distal hypospadias for the last 20 years. Despite the great popularity of the technique, its no less famous Grafted TIP (GTIP) modification appeared. The technique is aimed at filling the defect in the urethral site with a foreskin free flap followed by tubularized urethroplasty.Purpose of the study. To compare the outcomes of TIP and GTIP procedures in our clinic which have been performed in the last 10 years.Materials and methods. One hundred-fourteen boys with hypospadias (aged 6 mo – 15 years) were operated on using the TIP technique and its modification GTIP during 2010 – 2020 (Sochi Center of Motherhood and Childhood Protection). The patients were: boys up to 1 year – 27 (23.7%), from 1 to 3 years – 57 (50%), 4 – 7 years – 19 (16.7%), from 8 to 14 years – 14 (12.3%). Primary repair was done in 112 cases (98.2%), the second procedure was done in 2 (1.8%) cases. There were 94 (82.5%) boys with distal hypospadias and 20 (17.5%) children with mid-shaft hypospadias. All patients were examined 3 and 12 months after surgery. We assessed the degree of skin scar process on the penile shaft, the location of the meatus and the quality of urination during the examination.Results. We observed 27 (23.7%) complications after urethroplasty out of 114 treated boys. There were 13 (11.4%) cases of urethral fistula, which were secondary repaired 6 months later. Meatal stenosis was observed in 2 (1.8%) cases, which required secondary meatoplasty. Repeat urethroplasty was done in 10 (8.7%) cases due to neourethral suture failure. There were also 2 (1.8%) cases of secondary penile curvature that required repeat surgery. The good cosmetical and functional results were achieved finally in all children.Conclusion. The analysis of our ten-year experience of using TIP-urethroplasty and its GTIP modification did not reveal significant differences in the overall incidence of postoperative complications. Yet, using the TIP procedure is associated with more fistulas. There were more cases of urethral suture failure in children whom the GTIP technique was performed. Our data suggest the need for a selective approach in the formation of indications for using TIP and GTIP procedures, along with research aimed at finding criteria for patient selection.

Ultrasound-guided percutaneous renal biopsy at a university hospital: retrospective analysis of success and complication rates

Objective: To evaluate the success and complication rates of ultrasound-guided renal biopsy at a tertiary care hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of 97 ultrasound-guided renal biopsies, all performed by the same radiologist, between 1 March, 2017 and 31 October, 2019. Results: Of the 97 biopsies evaluated, 87 had a definitive pathological diagnosis. In five cases (5.4%), the biopsy results were inconclusive and a second procedure was required. In seven procedures (7.6%), there were complications, all of which were properly resolved. Conclusion: Ultrasound-guided renal biopsy has proven to be a safe, effective method for the diagnosis of nephropathies, with high success rates.

TP9.2.22A six year retrospective study of appendicular neoplasms and review of literature

Aims The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of appendiceal neoplasm, identify possible association of pre and intra-operative factors associated with it, and to determine its clinical significance. Methods Using pathological reports from surgical specimens of appendix from January 2015 to September 2020, a single centre retrospective analysis was performed. Medical records of patients, pre-operative investigations, intra operative findings, histological reports and post operative management were evaluated. Results The incidence of appendiceal neoplasms was 2.33% (65/2791). They consisted of Neuroendocrine tumor (NET) in 35(53.85%), followed by Low grade mucinous neoplasm (LAMN) in 23(35.38%), Goblet cell carcinoid in three (4.62%), mucinous cystadenoma 2(3.08%), one (1.54%) adenocarcinoma and one (1.54%) metastasis. Appendicitis was the most common indication for surgery. 46(70.77%) patients had emergency surgery. 89.13% emergency surgeries was appendicectomy, NET being the most common tumor in 60.87%. 19(29.23%) patients had elective surgery, all had pre operative radiological investigation, LAMN being most common. Only five (7.69%) patients had intra operative suspicion of tumor. Ten patients required second procedure in the form of right hemicolectomy in nine, and cytoreducetive surgery in one. All patients were followed up as per national guidelines. Conclusions The incidence of appendiceal neoplasms though low, has been steadily rising. Its diagnosis is rarely evident on pre operative radiological investigations. Surgeons should be aware of these neoplasms and its frequent association with emergency appendicectomies done for suspected acute appendicitis.

Electrochemotherapy as a Trigger to Overcome Primary Resistance to Anti-PD-1 Treatment: A Case Report of Melanoma of the Scalp

BackgroundImmunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors is one of the main therapies for advanced melanoma. Nevertheless, albeit remarkable, immunotherapy results are still unsatisfactory as more than half of patients progress, and resistance to treatment still has a dramatic impact on clinical outcomes. Local treatments such as radiotherapy or electrochemotherapy (ECT), in addition to local control with palliative intent, have been shown to release tumoral neoantigens that can stimulate a robust systemic antitumor immune response.Case PresentationWe report the case of a patient with multiple nodular melanoma lesions of the scalp initially treated with local ECT. Soon after the procedure, multiple new lesions appeared close to the treated ones, therefore the patient started a systemic treatment with the anti-PD-1 nivolumab. The lesions of the scalp did not respond to immunotherapy, presenting a loco-regional spreading. To control the bleeding and painful lesions, we performed a second ECT, while continuing systemic immunotherapy. The treated lesions responded to the second procedure, while the other lesions continued progressing in number and dimension. Unexpectedly, after 2 months from the second ECT, the patient presented a progressive shrinkage of both treated and untreated lesions until complete remission. Concomitantly, he developed immune-related adverse events including grade 4 thyroid toxicity, grade 2 vitiligo-like depigmentation and grade 2 pemphigoid. At present, after 18 months from the first ECT and 14 months from the starting of anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, the patient is in good clinical condition and complete remission of disease still persists.ConclusionThis case highlights the potential role of ECT in increasing tumor immunogenicity and consequently in inducing a powerful immune response overcoming primary resistance to checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy.

Follow-up of intra-arterial delivery of bevacizumab for treatment of butterfly glioblastoma in patient with first-in-human, real-time MRI-guided intra-arterial neurointervention

This case report shows that real-time MRI may aid in the precision of intra-arterial delivery of bevacizumab to butterfly glioblastoma. Fast clinical improvement, decrease of contrast enhancing status, and no serious adverse effects were observed at discharge from hospital. The patient regained pre-recurrent neurological status for 2 months with a subsequent fast clinical decline and an increase in tumor volume. The patient underwent a second procedure of intra-arterial delivery of bevacizumab to the brain, with substantial clinical and radiological improvement, but not the level of improvement observed after the first procedure. Another clinical decline occurred with an increase in tumor size and the patient was treated 2 months later with a third intra-arterial infusion of bevacizumab. While another positive effect was achieved, it was less pronounced than before, and the patient died 1.5 months later. There were no technical, ischemic or other complications during the procedures. The patient survived 218 days from the first symptoms of tumor recurrence, 190 days from the first MRI, and 175 days from the first intra-arterial treatment of bevacizumab.

Comparison of pneumatic lithotripsy versus laser lithotripsy for upper ureteral calculi

Background: Several modalities are available for upper ureteric stone fragmentation. From them pneumatic and holmium: yttrium-aluminum-garnet lithotripsy has favourable outcomes. In this study we studied 50 patients who underwent ureteroscopic pneumatic lithotripsy or laser lithotripsy. This study aims to to compare the outcome of PL and LL in the management of upper ureteric calculi.Methods: This is a prospective, randomized study of 50 cases; 25 cases of TUL with pneumatic lithotripter and 25 cases of TUL with laser lithotripter over two years. The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors predicting the stone-free rate, assess the complications following PL and LL, and assess the need for a second procedure if retropulsion of calculi occurs.Results: Two groups were similar in age, gender, mean size of stones, retropulsion and complications. There was a statistical difference in terms of stone free rate in favour of LL group (p≤0.05) and mean operative time in favor of the PL group (p≤ 0.05). Conclusions: In conclusion, we found that both the PL and LL approaches were effective and safe for upper ureteric calculi, but the LL method had advantages, especially in stone free rate, over the PL treatment. Another advantage of the LL method was safe stone fragmentation in upper ureteral calculi due to lower retropulsion rate in contrast with the PL method.