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Laparoscopic drainage for massive intra-abdominal abscess is a minimally invasive and useful procedure compared with the open method or the percutaneous approach. It offers the advantage of being able to explore of the abdominal cavity without an unnecessary wide incision, and aspiration of a purulent exudate is possible under direct vision.

BackgroundEsophageal basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (EBSCC) is a rare malignant disease. Advanced EBSCC (AEBSCC) has a poorer prognosis than the more common esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, but no treatment policy has yet been established. This is the first reported case with AEBSCC treated only with radiotherapy. Thus, our long-surviving patient merits consideration. We therefore reviewed cases with the same stage of AEBSCC for further investigation.Case presentationAn 85-year-old man with a chief complaint of difficulty swallowing foods was diagnosed with AEBSCC, cT3N1M0, stage III, by thorough examination. The basaloid carcinoma extended from the upper thoracic esophagus to the middle thoracic esophagus based on imaging studies, endoscopy and biopsy.Morphologically, the tumor was an elevated ulcerative area. We conducted radiotherapy to relieve symptoms, as the patient and his family refused aggressive treatment. He has remained alive without recurrence for 2 years, to date, after completing radiotherapy.ConclusionsBasaloid carcinoma might be highly sensitive to radiotherapy. Thus, radiotherapy for local control might be beneficial for elderly patients with complications and those refusing aggressive treatment.

Dear editor, we previously described that genomic sequences could be amplified from mouse, but not human, hair shafts by microwave irradiation followed by PCR [1]. Ferri et al. [see this issue] have suggested that the positive amplification that we observed was due to contamination with cells from mouse saliva or urine, rather than amplification of DNA from the mouse hair shafts themselves.Ferri et al. drew their conclusions from 2 points of their experience:

The patient was a 78-year-old woman who had a history of rheumatoid arthritis and was on long-term oral corticosteroids. One and a half years previously, she had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy for cholelithiasis, and four ports were used. One year after surgery, she noticed swelling in the upper right abdomen. Six months later, she had abdominal pain. Abdominal CT led to the diagnosis of a port-site hernia. She was admitted to our hospital and underwent laparoscopic hernia repair. The frequency of port-site hernias in the literature is reported to be 1%. Port-site hernias can be divided into early-type hernias and delayed-type hernias according to the timing of onset after surgery, and a 5-mm port-site hernia is an extremely rare complication. This paper addresses our experience with a case of a 5-mm delayed-type port-site hernia that occurred in the postoperative period.