No abstract

Background: Mediastinoscopy is an integral part in the diagnosis of mediastinal mass. The most common indications for mediastinoscopy is for tissue sampling and determining the extent of lung cancer.Objectives: To validate our experience with standard cervical mediastinoscopy and to evaluate the usefulness of cervical mediastinoscopy in the assessing the mediastinal diseases when imaging modalities are none diagnostic.Material and Methods: A retrospective study of 16 patients between January 2012 and July 2014. Mediastinoscopy was indicated for diagnostic staging of nodal disease related to lung cancer in 8 patients (group I) and for isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy in 8 patients (group II)Results: There were 11 males and 5 females, with a mean age of 47 years. The mean operative time was 30 minutes and the mean hospital stay was 8 hours. In lung cancer (group I) there was positive results in 3 patients and negative results in 5 patients. In patients with isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy (group II), TB was the commonest diagnosis. There was no surgical related morbidity or mortality in our study. The sensitivity and specificity of standard cervical mediastinoscopy in this study was 100%Conclusion: Standard cervical mediastinoscopy is safe in the hands of well trained persons and needs a good knowledge of the anatomy of the region, cost effective, highly specific and still the first investigation of choice in the diagnosis of mediastinal nodal involvement.

Background: Mediastinoscopy is an integral part in the diagnosis of mediastinal mass. The most common indications for mediastinoscopy is for tissue sampling and determining the extent of lung cancer. Objectives: To validate our experience with standard cervical mediastinoscopy and to evaluate the usefulness of cervical mediastinoscopy in the assessing the mediastinal diseases when imaging modalities are none diagnostic. Material and Methods: A retrospective study of 16 patients between January 2012 and July 2014. Mediastinoscopy was indicated for diagnostic staging of nodal disease related to lung cancer in 8 patients (group I) and for isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy in 8 patients (group II) Results: There were 11 males and 5 females, with a mean age of 47 years. The mean operative time was 30 minutes and the mean hospital stay was 8 hours. In lung cancer (group I) there was positive results in 3 patients and negative results in 5 patients. In patients with isolated mediastinal lymphadenopathy (group II), TB was the commonest diagnosis. There was no surgical related morbidity or mortality in our study. The sensitivity and specificity of standard cervical mediastinoscopy in this study was 100% Conclusion: Standard cervical mediastinoscopy is safe in the hands of well trained persons and needs a good knowledge of the anatomy of the region, cost effective, highly specific and still the first investigation of choice in the diagnosis of mediastinal nodal involvement.

Background: Cardiac myxomas are the most frequently encountered benign cardiac tumors that if left untreated are inexorably progressive and potentially fatal. Surgery is the only way of treatment, and if not treated with the right surgical technique recurrence occurs. Objectives: In this single center study we documented the patterns of presentation, localization, surgical approaches and outcome of cardiac myxomas. Methods: This is a retrospective study of 20 patients who underwent surgical removal of atrial myxoma from January 2010 to December 2015. All patients underwent general investigations, and echocardiography was performed on all patients and surgery was done using extracorporeal circulation and mild hypothermia. Results: The ages of the patients ranged from 14 years to 71 years, with a mean of 51.45 years. Most myxomas (75%) originated from left atrium, 20% from right atrium and biatrial in 5% of cases. The male-to-female ratio was 1:2.3 (14 females and 6 males). Myxomas were more common in blood group A+ and B+. Chief complaints were dyspnea (70%) and palpitation (50%). The majority of masses were attached to the interatrial septum (65%) and four of cases (20%) arose from the lateral wall. Right atrial trans-septal incision was used in 55% of cases. No recurrence was recorded in our study. Six patients had postoperative complications, mainly in the form of arrhythmia (3 cases), bleeding (0ne case) and renal failure (one case) which resulted in the death of the patient.

No abstract