Eighty-three patients out of 8,525 undergoing renal angiography during the years 1970-1979 were found to have renal artery aneurysm, which in six patients were bilateral and in 11 multiple. This corresponds to an incidence of almost 1% in this group of patients. Sixty-nine patients were treated conservatively and followed for a mean of 4.3 years. At that time nine patients had died. The cause of death was in no case related to the aneurysm. None of the 60 living patients had symptoms which could be related to the aneurysm. Reports of 36,656 autopsies, including most of the sudden deaths occurring in southern Sweden during a ten-year period, were analyzed. Nineteen cases of ruptured arterial aneurysms in the branches of abdominal aorta were found, but in no case were the renal arteries involved. It is concluded that the risk for rupture of a renal artery aneurysm is extremely small. The indications to operate renal artery aneurysms are discussed.

No abstract

From 1980 through 1986, 119 patients with soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities were referred to our tumor center either before surgery (n = 78) or immediately after incisional biopsy or marginal excision (n = 41). The tumors were classified according to anatomic location at admittance as subcutaneous (n = 40), intramuscular (n = 30), and extramuscular tumors (n = 49). Open biopsy was omitted in 75 of the 78 patients referred before surgery; the preoperative diagnosis was based on physical and radiographic findings and fine-needle aspiration cytology. The surgical intention for subcutaneous tumor was to obtain a wide margin, which required a cuff of fat tissue around the tumor and inclusion of the deep fascia beneath the tumor. A wide margin for an intramuscular tumor implied no open biopsy and an unbroken muscle fascia or thick muscle cuff around the tumor (primary myectomy). The 70 patients with subcutaneous and intramuscular tumors were all treated by local surgery. A wide margin was obtained in 56 patients who were not given radiotherapy. During a median follow-up of 5 years (range, 3.5 to 10 years), four of these 56 patients--47 of whom had high-grade malignant tumors--had a local recurrence. We conclude that routine combination of limb-sparing surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy is not necessary in patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Two thirds of soft tissue sarcomas of the extremities are primarily subcutaneous or intramuscular tumors, the majority of which can be treated by local surgery without local adjuvant therapy with a local recurrence rate of less than 10%, irrespective of malignancy grade.

We report the outcome of 71 consecutive posterolateral lumbar fusions without spinal instrumentation. The indication for the operation was spondylolysis-olisthesis, degenerative disc disease/facet joint arthrosis, or pain after prior laminectomy. Concerning pain relief, 29/43 patients with spondylolysis-olisthesis were classified as good. The corresponding figures in the group with degenerative disc disease and/or facet joint arthrosis were 8/16 patients and in the group with pain post-laminectomy, 6/12 patients. No surgical complications were noted. In the total material 54 patients had a solid fusion, as defined by radiographic osseous trabecular bridging at all intended levels. One-level fusions tended to heal solidly in a higher frequency than two-level fusions. For the spondylolysis-olisthesis group, healed fusion correlated with a good clinical result. Such a correlation could not be verified for the other diagnostic groups. We conclude that non-instrumented posterolateral lumbar fusion is a valid method for treating low-grade spondylolysis-olisthesis, especially when the aim is to fuse a single level. Improved patient selection methods are required in fusion for degenerative disc disease and pain after laminectomy.