Laparoscopic repair of acute paraesophageal hernia is safe and feasible with low morbidity and mortality. It affords all the benefits of minimally invasive surgery in a group of patients that are often elderly and suffer from multiple medical problems. Based on our experience, we advocate the laparoscopic technique to repair acute paraesophageal hernias in patients with no obvious perforation. A management algorithm is also suggested.

The aim of this study was to report the five-year incidence of incisional hernia after vascular repair of abdominal aortic occlusive (AOD) and aneurysmal disease (AAA), and to determine the factors associated with the development of this complication. Consecutive patients who underwent AAA and AOD at the University of Manitoba, Canada, between January 1999 and December 2002, were recruited and evaluated by clinical examination one week, one month and six months after the surgery, and through medical records review thereafter. The development of postoperative incisional hernia was recorded and analyzed. Two-hundred four patients, with a mean age of 70.1 years, provided consent for the study. The overall five-year incidence of incisional hernia was 69.1% and the overall median failure time was 48 months. The median failure time was 48 months for AOD and 36 months for AAA (P < 0.01). The urgent and ruptured AAA repair had a higher five-year incidence of incisional hernia as compared with AOD or elective AAA repair (P < 0.01). A history of bilateral inguinal hernia was significantly associated with incisional hernia (P < 0.05). Men and patients who were 65 years and older had a higher five-year incidence of incisional hernia (P < 0.01). Age ≥65 years, male gender, hypertension and past bilateral inguinal hernia repair double the risk for the development of incisional hernia (hazard ratio = 2.1. 2.2, 1.7 and 2.8, respectively). In conclusion, the five-year incidence of incisional hernia after vascular repair of AOD or AAA is 69.1%, and tends to occur late after vascular repair.

Situs inversus totalis (SIT) is a rare genetic autosomal recessive disorder; however, in identical twins, it may be misinterpreted as X-linked disorder. SIT describes a 270° counterclockwise rotation of the intra-abdominal organs. Laparoscopic surgery in patients with SIT may be more difficult than in normal patients due to its mirror image anatomy. We report a case of a morbidly obese patient (body mass index 36 kg/m 2 ) with SIT who underwent successful laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. This article describes all technical details and difficulties of this operation due to the presence of SIT. When performed by an expert laparoscopic surgeon, however, laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy appears to be a feasible, effective, and safe procedure to treat morbidly obese patients with SIT.

Design: Retrospective cohort study. Method: Patients who had cholecystectomy for gallstone disease from April 2010 to March 2012 were included. Operative notes, histopathological reports and final diagnoses were reviewed. Result: The study included 803 patients who had simple cholecystectomy. Three of these patients were found to have gallbladder carcinoma, two females and one male. Dense adhesions were encountered in all malignant cases necessitating conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy in one case. Macroscopic examination revealed a thickened gallbladder in all three patients; two patients had mucosal papillary lesions and one patient had polypoidal projection and mucosal ulcerations. These findings were confirmed by the pathologist. On microscopic examination, two patients had adenocarcinoma while one patient had neuroendocrine tumor. Conclusion: Selective approach for sending gallbladder specimens after cholecystectomy seems justifiable with no compromise on detection of incidental gallbladder cancer. This approach would lead to a reduction of workload on the pathologist.

Obesity is a chronic disease of multifactorial origin and resulted in perturbations of whole body metabolism in this study. It is thus likely that this imbalance was associated with an inhibition in protective antioxidants and occurrence of oxidative stress. The staging concept of sleeve gastrectomy is a safe and effective approach with remarkable efficacy in sustaining weight loss and bringing back normal metabolism of variables in tissues over a 1-year follow-up period.