BackgroundActinomycosis is a rare chronic invasive disease caused by Actinomyces spp. Although abdominopelvic actinomycosis, which involves the colon and the pelvic organs extensively, has been frequently reported, abdominopelvic actinomycosis presenting with colon perforation and hepatic involvement concurrently has yet to be reported.Case presentationA 55-year-old woman presented at the emergency room with squeezing epigastric pain. Palpation of the abdomen revealed a hard mass with no acute peritoneal signs. Vital signs were normal range except for tachycardia. Initial laboratory testing revealed leukocytosis, anemia, elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), hypoalbuminemia; and normal AST/ALT and BUN/creatinine. CT scan of the abdomen-pelvis revealed a microperforations of the sigmoid colon, abscess in the left lower quadrant and hepatic lesion. Furthermore, there was a large infiltrating conglomerated mass invading the urinary bladder, left adnexa, sigmoid, left inguinal canal and left pelvic wall area. Ultrasound revealed an intra-uterine device (IUD). All these findings initially raised a suspicion of malignancy such as advanced cancer of the colon with liver metastasis. Despite the rarity of the disease, actinomycosis were not excluded because of the IUD found on ultrasound. Parenteral antibiotics and percutaneous drainage of abdomen abscess as well as fasting with total parental nutrition were prescribed for sigmoid perforation and abscess. After 10 days of conservative treatment, no remarkable change was detected in conglomerated mass invading pelvis. Furthermore, the finding of newly developed mechanical small bowel obstruction warranted surgery. Exploratory laparotomy was performed for the removal of perforated colon, obstructive small bowel and organs involved and postoperative histology confirmed a diagnosis of colonic actinomycosis. The patient made an uneventful recovery and was started on a 6-month course of penicillin.ConclusionsAbdominopelvic actinomycosis presenting with colon perforation and hepatic involvement is extremely rare; however, it is clinically similar to advanced colon cancer with liver metastasis, therefore, complicating the preoperative diagnosis. A diagnosis of abdominopelvic actinomycosis should be considered in patients with a history of IUD and chronic abdominal pain, along with an abdominal mass or cutaneous abscess. If surgery is indicated, preoperative empirical antibiotic therapy for actinomycosis and frozen biopsy during surgery may be considered.

IntroductionIschemic colitis (IC) is a disease with high postoperative morbidity and mortality. Knowledge of the risk factors for postoperative mortality could be helpful in clinical decision making and in optimizing postoperative treatment.MethodsFrom a prospective database, we conducted a retrospective medical record review of 50 patients who underwent surgery for IC between 2003 and 2011 at our institution. We analyzed the causes and potential risk factors for early mortality after surgery for IC.ResultsThe early postoperative mortality and morbidity rates were 30.0% (15/50) and 54% (27/50), respectively. The two most common causes of death were multi-organ failure (66.7%, 10/15) and fulminant septic shock (20.0%, 3/15). Univariate analysis showed that postoperative mortality was significantly associated with preoperative nephropathy, coronary artery disease, a previous history of cardiovascular surgery, an ASA score ≥ 4, surgical delay ≥ 3 days, preoperative hemodynamic instability, and use of pre- and intraoperative adrenergic vasopressors. In the multivariate analysis, a previous history of cardiovascular surgery (odds ratio [OR], 8.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–56.5) and surgical delay ≥ 3 days (OR, 5.7; 95% CI, 1.2–27.9) were identified as independent risk factors for postoperative mortality.ConclusionsBecause surgical delay is an avoidable determinant of early mortality, a high index of suspicion and early surgical intervention can increase survival. A routine postoperative evaluation for IC may be helpful in patients with a previous history of cardiovascular surgery.

Background Although skeletal muscle index (SMI) and radiodensity (SMD) are well‐known prognostic factors, the clinical impact of the integrated measure, known as skeletal muscle gauge (SMG), has been limited in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients and Methods A total of 727 and 268 patients with CRC at two tertiary centers were included and allocated into the training and test sets, respectively. Preoperative slice computed tomography images of the third lumbar area were evaluated for SMI and SMD. SMG was calculated as SMI × SMD and expressed as an arbitrary unit (AU). The optimal cutoff SMG value was determined to maximize the overall survival (OS) difference between the groups with respect to sex in the training set. The multivariate Cox proportional hazard model evaluated the association of its clinical significance. Results With regard to SMG, 1640 and 1523 AU were identified as cutoff values for males and females, respectively. The patients with low SMG values showed significantly worse 5‐year OS than those with high SMG values in the two datasets (both p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, low SMG was identified as an independent poor prognostic factor of OS in the training set (hazard ratio 2.18, 95% confidence interval 1.43–3.32, p < 0.001) and test set (hazard ratio 1.79, 95% confidence interval 1.07–3.00, p = 0.025), whereas SMI and SMD were not. Conclusion SMG acts synergistically to improve its prognostic predictive accuracy as compared with SMI or SMD alone in patients with CRC. Additional research is warranted to define its significance in different ethnic groups.