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BACKGROUND: Obstructive jaundice may lead to ominous complications and requires complex diagnostic evaluations and therapies that are not widely available. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the epidemiological profile, referral routes and diagnostic accuracy at admittance of cases of acute cholangitis among patients with obstructive jaundice treated at a referral unit. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study at a tertiary-level university hospital. METHODS: Patients with obstructive jaundice who were treated by means of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, resection and/or surgical biliary drainage were evaluated. The main variables analyzed were epidemiological data, referral route, bilirubin levels and time elapsed between symptom onset and admittance and diagnosing of acute cholangitis at the referral unit. The accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of acute cholangitis was compared with a retrospective analysis on the medical records in accordance with the Tokyo criteria. RESULTS: Female patients predominated (58%), with an average age of 56 years. Acute cholangitis was detected in 9.9% of the individuals; application of the Tokyo criteria showed that the real prevalence was approximately 43%. The main referral route was direct contact (31.8%) and emergency care (29.7%); routing via official referral through the public healthcare system accounted for 17.6%, and internal referral from other specialties, 20%. The direct route with unofficial referral was the most important route for cases of neoplastic etiology (P < 0.01) and was the fastest route (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: There is a deficiency in the official referral routes for patients with obstructive jaundice. The accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of acute cholangitis was poor. Wider dissemination of the Tokyo criteria is essential.

BACKGROUND: Cystic lesions of the pancreas represent a group of pancreatic diseases with great histological heterogeneity, varying from benign lesions, some of them with malignant potential, to overt malignant lesions. OBJECTIVE: To describe the cases of cystic lesions of the pancreas which underwent surgical intervention at a tertiary university hospital. METHODS: This is a retrospective population-based study (historical cohort) which was carried out enrolling individuals attended at the Outpatient service of Pancreas Surgery of the Hospital de Clínicas of Unicamp. The individuals underwent surgical procedures performed from January 2012 through December 2016. RESULTS: In the period evaluated, 39 cases of cystic lesions of the pancreas which underwent surgery were identified, 26 (66.6%) of which were female. The average age at diagnosis was 47.4±16.4 years (range, 18-73). In regards to symptoms, 35 (89.7%) were symptomatic. The average length of hospital stay was 10 days (range 4-76). Surgeries performed to treat the lesions depended on the localization and type of the lesions: cystojejunostomy (41%), distal pancreatectomy (36%), pancreaticoduodenectomy (15.4%), drainage of ruptured and/or infected pseudocyst (5.2%) and central pancreatectomy (2.6%). CONCLUSION: Cystic lesions of the pancreas are a group of lesions with a highly varying presentation and diagnostic approach and may require an also highly variable surgical treatment. An appropriate preoperative imaging diagnosis is essential for their management.

An 69-year-old obese woman was submitted to an abdominoperineal resection (APR) with left side end colostomy to treat a synchronic sigmoid and middle rectum cancer. Six months after APR, she develop a PH with a progressive increase of the size. The patient refused the surgical indication. Thirteen years after APR she presenting with abdominal pain, hematemesis, bilious vomiting and non-functioning of the stoma in the last 2 days. She had a distended and painful abdomen without signs of peritoneal irritation and a large incarcerated PH. CT showed a PH with incarcerated gastric herniation. Endoscopy showed a 4 cm ulcerated lesion in the lesser curvature of the stomach whose posteriorly histopathological study revealed that it was an ischemic ulcer. She was submitted a correction of PH using an onlay polypropylene mesh put around of the previous stoma. The patient has an uneventful recovery and was discharged 3 days later.

BACKGROUND: The influence of the placement of a band on the outcomes of one anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB) has not been appropriately studied yet. OBJECTIVE: To compare early weight loss and glucose metabolism parameters following banded versus non-banded OAGB. METHODS: A prospective randomized study, which evaluated 20 morbidly obese individuals who underwent banded and non-banded OAGB and were followed-up for three months. Weight loss (percentage of excess weight loss - %EWL and percentage of body mass index loss - %BMIL) and glucose metabolism outcomes (glucose, insulin and homeostasis model assessment - HOMA) were compared. RESULTS: The banded group presented a significantly higher %EWL at one month (29.6±5.5% vs 17.2±3.4%; P<0.0001) and two months post-surgery (46±7% vs 34.2±9%; P=0.004544), as well as a significantly higher %BMIL at one month (9.7±1.1% vs 5.8±0.8%; P<0.0001), two months (15±1.4% vs 11.5±2.1; P=0.000248), and three months (18.8±1.8% vs 15.7±3.2%; P=0.016637). At three months, banded OAGB led to significant decreases of insulin (14.4±4.3 vs 7.6±1.9; P=0.00044) and HOMA (3.1±1.1 vs 1.5±0.4; P=0.00044), whereas non-banded OAGB also led to significant decreases of insulin (14.8±7.6 vs 7.8±3.1; P=0.006) and HOMA (3.2±1.9 vs 1.6±0.8; P=0.0041). The percent variation of HOMA did not significantly differ between banded and non-banded OAGB (P=0.62414); overall, the percent variation of HOMA was not correlated with %EWL (P=0.96988) or %BMIL (P=0.82299). CONCLUSION: Banded OAGB led to a higher early weight loss than the standard technique. Banded and non-banded OAGB led to improvements in insulin resistance regardless of weight loss.