BackgroundThe presence and the prognostic significance of perigastric tumor deposits (TDs) in primary gastric cancer have not been extensively studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance perigastric TDs in primary gastric cancer.MethodsFrom 2005 to 2010, 1250 patients underwent R0 gastrectomy at the Department of Gastric Surgery, Fujian Medical University Union Hospital, Fuzhou, China. Out of 1250 patients, 132 patients with perigastric TDs were identified. Additionally, 132 patients with staged matched gastric cancer without tumor deposits were selected as a control group.ResultsPerigastric TDs were observed in 132 (10.5%) of the 1250 patients with gastric cancer who underwent R0 gastrectomy. There were 94 males (71.21%) and 38 females (28.79%) (2.47:1). The mean age was 57.21 years. Clinicopathologic characteristics between the two groups matched well. There was a significant difference in the overall survival of those with and without TDs by univariate (p<0.05) and multivariate (p < 0.05) survival analysis. The 1-, 3-and 5-year overall survival rates of patients with TDswere69.6%, 39.3%, and 24.2%, respectively, and were significantly poorer than those of the staged matched control group. There was no correlation between the number of TDs and patient survival in patients with gastric cancer (p>0.05); however, when comparing each pT tumor group with the perigastric TD group, the stage T4 survival rate was very similar to that observed in patients with TDs.ConclusionsPerigastric TDs are an independent predictive prognostic factor for gastric cancer and may be appropriately considered a form of serosal invasion. We suggest that TDs should be included in TNM staging system for better outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12893-017-0280-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background The liver is the second most injured organ following blunt abdominal trauma (BAT) after the spleen. Although the computed tomography (CT) scan is considered as the gold standard for diagnosing liver injury in BAT, it may not readily available in all the hospitals. This study was performed to evaluate the role of aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) in patients with BAT and its significance in predicting the diagnosis and severity of the liver injury. Method The study was conducted in Chitwan Medical College Teaching Hospital (CMCTH) from February 2019 to May 2020. It was a prospective observational study. All the patients with BAT were received by on-duty surgical residents in the emergency department. Based on the imaging and operative finding, patients with liver injury and without liver injury were noted with the associated injury. For comparisons of clinical and grading characteristics between the two groups (liver injury and no liver injury), the chi-squared test was used for categorical variables as appropriate, and the Mann-Whitney U test used for quantitative variables (AST and ALT). The comparisons between more than two groups (grade of injury) were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was used to calculate the optimal cut-off value of AST and ALT. Results Among the 96 patients admitted with BAT, 38 patients had liver injury and 58 patients had no liver injury. The median length of the intensive care unit (ICU) stay of patients with liver injury was higher than without liver injury. There was a significant difference in the median level of AST and ALT (< 0.001) between patients with liver injury and no liver injury. The area under the ROC curve of AST was 0.89 (95% confidence interval 0.86–0.98) and of ALT was 0.92 (95% confidence interval 0.83–0.97). The area under the curve demonstrated that the test was a good predictor for the identification of liver injury and also the severity of liver enzymes. The cut-off values for the liver injury were 106 U/l and 80 U/l for AST and ALT, respectively. Based on these values, AST ≥ 106 U/l had a sensitivity of 71.7%, a specificity of 90%, a positive predictive value of 86.8%, and a negative predictive value of 77.6%. The corresponding values for ALT ≥ 80 U/l were 77.8%, 94.1%, 92.1%, and 82.8%, respectively. Conclusion In conclusion, we report the optimal cut-off value of AST and ALT for liver injury in BAT as ≥ 106 U/l and 80 U/l, respectively. The elevated level of AST and ALT might assist the emergency physicians and surgeons to timely refer the suspected patients with the liver injury to a tertiary center.

Background Most of the scoring systems to predict difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy are based on pre-operative clinical and radiological findings. Recently the Parkland Grading Scale system was introduced as a simple intra-operative grading scale. This study aims to utilize the Parkland Grading Scale system to assess the intraoperative challenges during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Method This was a prospective, cross-sectional study done at Chitwan Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Chitwan, Nepal. All the patients underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy from April 2020 to March 2021. Based on the initial intra-operative finding, Parkland Grading Scale was noted and at the end of the surgery, the level of difficulty was given by the operating surgeon. All the pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative findings were compared with the scale. Results Out of 206 patients, there were 176 (85.4%) females, and 30 (14.6%) males. The median age was 41 years (Range 19–75). The median body mass index was 23.67 kg/m2. There were 35(17%) patients with a history of previous surgery. The rate of conversion to open surgery was 5.8%. According to Parkland Grading Scale, 67(32.5%), 75(36.4%), 42(20.4%), 15(7.3%), and 7(3.4%) were graded as grade 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. There was a difference in the Parkland grading scale in patients with a history of acute cholecystitis, gallbladder wall thickness, pericholecystic collection, stone size, and body mass index (p < 0.05). The total operative time, level of difficulty in surgery, rate of help needed from colleagues or replacement as the main surgeon, bile spillage, drain placement, gallbladder decompression, and conversion rate all increased with an increase in scale (p < 0.05). There was a significant increase in the development of post-operative fever, and post-operative hospital stay as the scale increased (p < 0.05). The Tukey-Kramer test for all pair-wise comparisons revealed that each grade was significantly different from each other (p < 0.05) on the difficulty of surgery except for grade 4 from 5. Conclusion Parkland Grading Scale system is a reliable intra-operative grading system to assess the difficulty in laparoscopic cholecystectomy and helps the surgeon to change the strategy of surgery. An increase in scale is associated with an increased difficulty level of the surgery.

Introduction: Spinal anesthesia has offered a new armamentarium for the anesthesiologists and has been widely used in the Cesarean section in the field of obstetrics, an alternative to general anesthesia. However, Post Dural Puncture Headache remains an inevitable complication of spinal anesthesia and can be minimized its incidence by reducing the size of the needle and changing the design of the needle tip.  The objective of the study was to find the incidence of post-dural puncture headache undergoing subarachnoid block for CS using 25G Quincke and 25G Whitacre needles. Materials and methods: This study was conducted from August 2020 to January 2021 enrolling 72 parturients and were allocated in two groups of 36 each. Group A and B parturients received spinal anesthesia via. 25G Quincke and 25G Whitacre in sitting position respectively. All the patients were evaluated based on incidence, onset, duration, and severity of headache postoperatively for 72 hours after the subarachnoid block. Results: The incidence of post-dural puncture headache in the study was 7.2% in Group A and 3.15% in Group B which was statistically significant (P-value = 0.011), while there were no significant differences between these two groups in the onset, severity, and duration of post-dural puncture headache. Conclusion: Despite no significant differences were found for the onset, severity, and duration of post-dural puncture headache, the use of 25G Whitacre is associated with a reduced incidence of post-dural puncture headache compare to 25G Quincke.