OBJECTIVE: To review the cases of patients with congenital lobar emphysema (CLE) submitted to surgical treatment at two university hospitals over a 30-year period. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of children with CLE undergoing surgical treatment between 1979 and 2009 at the Botucatu School of Medicine Hospital das Clínicas or the Mogi das Cruzes University Hospital. We analyzed data regarding symptoms, physical examination, radiographic findings, diagnosis, surgical treatment, and postoperative follow-up. RESULTS: During the period studied, 20 children with CLE underwent surgery. The mean age at the time of surgery was 6.9 months (range, 9 days to 4 years). All of the cases presented with symptoms at birth or during the first months of life. In all cases, chest X-rays were useful in defining the diagnosis. In cases of moderate respiratory distress, chest CT facilitated the diagnosis. One patient with severe respiratory distress was misdiagnosed with hypertensive pneumothorax and underwent chest tube drainage. Only patients with moderate respiratory distress were submitted to bronchoscopy, which revealed no tracheobronchial abnormalities. The surgical approach was lateral muscle-sparing thoracotomy. The left upper and middle lobes were the most often affected, followed by the right upper lobe. Lobectomy was performed in 18 cases, whereas bilobectomy was performed in 2 (together with bronchogenic cyst resection in 1 of those). No postoperative complications were observed. Postoperative follow-up time was at least 24 months (mean, 60 months), and no late complications were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Although CLE is an uncommon, still neglected disease of uncertain etiology, the radiological diagnosis is easily made and surgical treatment is effective.

The expression of the nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) was quantified in paraffin sections of tumors and lymph node metastasis, by means of digital image analysis, in 75 patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients were divided in two groups: early stage (stages I and II) and advanced stage (stages IIIa, IIIb and IV). The prognostic significance of AgNOR expression was tested by Cox regression analysis in models controlled for age, sex, vital status, stage and histological type. Tumors at early stages had a lower expression of AgNOR than those at more advanced diseases. The mean values obtained for NORs in advanced disease were almost the same as those in the primary tumors when compared with the corresponding lymph node metastasis (r = 0.90; p < 0.01; linear regression). The prognostic role of AgNOR was significant only for tumors at stages I and II and not for advanced neoplasms (stages IIIa, IIIb and IV). These results encourage the inclusion of AgNOR quantitation in routine material, especially in early lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To compare two thoracotomy closure techniques (pericostal and transcostal suture) in terms of postoperative pain and pulmonary function. METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind study carried out in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of the Luzia de Pinho Melo Hospital das Clínicas and at the University of Mogi das Cruzes, both located in the city of Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil. We included 30 patients (18-75 years of age) undergoing posterolateral or anterolateral thoracotomy. The patients were randomized into two groups by the type of thoracotomy closure: pericostal suture (PS; n = 16) and transcostal suture (TS; n = 14). Pain intensity during the immediate and late postoperative periods was assessed by a visual analogic scale and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Spirometry variables (FEV1, FVC, FEV1/FVC ratio, and PEF) were determined in the preoperative period and on postoperative days 21 and 60. RESULTS: Pain intensity was significantly greater in the PS group than in the TS group. Between the preoperative and postoperative periods, there were decreases in the spirometry variables studied. Those decreases were significant in the PS group but not in the TS group. CONCLUSIONS: The patients in the TS group experienced less immediate and late post-thoracotomy pain than did those in the PS group, as well as showing smaller reductions in the spirometry parameters. Therefore, transcostal suture is recommended over pericostal suture as the thoracotomy closure technique of choice.

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No presente trabalho é relatado um caso de paciente portadora de fístula bílio-brônquica (FBB) secundária a coledocolitíase tratada no Hospital da Universidade de Mogi das Cruzes e é feita uma revisão da literatura pertinente ao assunto. Tratava-se de uma paciente, 35 anos, feminino, parda, cujo quadro clínico inicial era dor em hipocôndrio direito, de caráter contínuo, acompanhada de icterícia do tipo obstrutivo e bilioptise que atingia até um litro em 24 horas. O diagnóstico foi confirmado por radiografia simples de abdome e ultra-sonografia abdominal. O tratamento consistiu em laparotomia, colecistectomia, coledocotomia com retirada de dois cálculos, drenagem de vias biliares, colangiografia intra-operatória e liberação da cápsula hepática da cúpula frênica direita. A evolução pós-operatória foi satisfatória, com regressão da bilioptise no pós-operatório imediato. Houve regressão progressiva da icterícia em torno do sétimo dia do pós-operatório. A paciente foi estudada com broncografia após 24 meses que mostrou não haver alterações anatômicas dos brônquios basilares direitos pela inundação biliar. A paciente encontra-se no sétimo ano de seguimento sem evidência da doença.
In the present case report is presented a patient with bilio-bronchial fistula secondary to choledocholithiasis surgically treated at the University of Mogi das Cruzes Hospital. It is a 35-year-old female patient which initial clinical features were continuous hypochondrium pain, accompanied by obstructive jaundice and bilioptysis that reached one liter in a period of 24 hours. The diagnosis was confirmed by X-ray exams and by abdominal ultrasonography. The treatment consisted in laparotomy, cholecistectomy, choledochotomy and extraction of two stones from biliary tract, drainage of biliary tree, intraoperative cholangiography and separation of the hepatic capsule from the right diaphragmatic cupula. At the postoperative follow-up was observed a total regression of the bilioptysis and disappearance of the jaundice after the seventh postoperative day. The patient was submitted to bronchography that did not reveal anatomical changes on the right lowers bronchi by biliary flood. The patient is on the seventh postoperative year without any evidence of the disease