No abstract

Biliary tract injury is associated with significant mortality and complications in the practice of Belgian community surgeons. Intraoperative detection of ductal injury by the routine use and a correct interpretation of intraoperative cholangiography improved outcome. The impact of the primary biliary repair on long-term outcome is an argument to refer these patients to specialized multidisciplinary experts. The results highlight the importance of surgical experience, proper selection of patients for laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and conversion to laparotomy in difficult cases.

In EBV-infected pediatric liver transplant recipients, use of OKT3 or antithymocyte globulin and high tacrolimus blood levels are risk factors for a significant increase in the incidence of PTLD. An increase in total gamma-globulin level and appearance of mono/oligoclonal immunoglobulin production are the major preliminary signs of the syndrome.

Objective: We studied the clinical and hormonal profiles of patients with central hypothyroidism (CH), the adequacy of levothyroxine (L-T4) treatment and the influence of other pituitary hormone replacement therapies. Methods: We reviewed medical records of 108 adult patients with child-onset (CO; n ¼ 26) or adultonset (AO; n ¼ 82) CH. Results: At diagnosis, the most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue and headaches in AO patients, and growth retardation in CO patients. Serum TSH was normal in a majority of CH patients, low in 8% and elevated in 8%. Serum free thyroxine (fT 4 ) was usually reduced, but remained within the low normal range in 28% of the study population (mostly CO patients). Similarly, serum total T 4 (tT 4 ), total triiodothyronine (tT 3 ) and free T 3 (fT 3 ) were found to be within the normal range in significant subsets of patients. Interestingly, the clinical and biochemical characteristics of CH patients with normal f/t T 4 levels were not different from those of the patients with low fT 4 values. The thyroid hormonal profile was not influenced by gender, etiology or by the number of hormone deficiencies. At last evaluation, the mean dose of L-T 4 was 1.6^0.5 mg/kg/day and was negatively correlated to current age (P , 0.001) but positively correlated to the number of hormone deficiencies (P , 0.05). Treatment suppressed TSH in 75% of the patients, induced normal fT 4 in 94%, but normal fT 3 in only 49% of them. Male GH-treated patients and estrogen-treated females needed a higher L-T 4 dose compared with non-treated patients. Conclusions: fT 4 is clearly the best indicator of CH, but remains in the low normal range in a significant subset of patients, especially in those with CO disease. Adequacy of therapy is mostly reflected by the combination of upper normal fT 4 and low normal fT 3 levels. Pituitary hormone replacement therapy may require an adjustment of T 4 treatment, as female patients under estrogen treatment and male patients under GH treatment will need a higher T 4 dose in order to remain in the euthyroid range.European Journal of Endocrinology 150 1-8