Aydın Şencan

The Effect of Circumcision Status on Periurethral and Glanular Bacterial Flora

Introduction: Circumcision is a historical operation which is still performed for different purposes. The aim of this study is to investigate the changes in periurethral and glanular sulcus flora due to circumcision to determine the role of circumcision on urinary tract infections (UTIs). Patients and Methods: Fifty patients who were circumcised for social-religious reasons between January 2000 and January 2001 were evaluated in this prospective study. Two swabs were taken from the periurethral and glanular sulcus regions both just before circumcision and 4 weeks after, and the bacteria cultured were recorded. Results: We isolated pathogenic bacteria in the periurethral region of 32 (64%) patients (enterococci in 14 cases; Escherichia coli in 12 cases) before circumcision, and this number decreased to 5 (10%) after circumcision. Similarly, pathogenic bacteria were cultured from the glanular sulcus swabs of 33 (68%) patients (enterococci in 14 cases; E. coli in 10 cases), as well as coagulase-negative staphylococci in another 15 patients before circumcision. Following circumcision, we detected pathogenic bacteria in the glanular cultures of only 4 cases, whereas 40 children had non-pathogenic skin flora. Only 1 of 5 children with history of UTIs (n = 1) and retractable phimosis (n = 4) had periurethral pathogenic bacteria (Proteus spp.) in the post-circumcision period. The differences between pre- and post-circumcision values of the pathogenic bacterial colonizations were statistically significant in both groups sampled (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Non-circumcised patients have similar pathogenic bacterial colonizations in the periurethral and the inner preputial regions, although they have no phimosis. The origin of periurethral flora should be the deeper preputial regions. The flora greatly changed with skin commensals after circumcision. Circumcision might be beneficial from this point of view.

The association of jejunal atresia and cystic lymphangioma in the same location

Cystic lymphangiomas, which are localized on the mesentery of the intestine, are rarely seen. The presence of intestinal atresia together with cystic lymphangioma in the same location has never been described before. In this study, a premature girl weighing 2,630 g who had jejunal atresia, cystic lymphangioma localized in the mesentery of the distal atretic jejunal segment, and multiple rib anomalies is presented. The association of jejunal atresia and cystic lymphangioma may be coincidental, or jejunal atresia may be caused by an intrauterine vascular compression of volvuled cystic lymphangioma. Such an association is being reported for the first time in the literature.

Ovarian pathologies in childhood

Adnexal masses of children are 1-2% of all masses seen around this age group and 60-70% of these are ovarian origined. Most of adnexal masses are benign [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Frequency of malign or benign ovarian masses among girls lesser than 15 years old is 2.6/100000 [5]. Ovarian tumors reach the peak point around 10-14 years. Frequency of ovarian lesions increase with aging. Frequency of different histological types also differs with ageing. In this study, the cases operated for ovarian pathologies are presented.

The Radiologic Evaluation of Pediatric Acute Abdomen; Results of Tertiary Referral Center

Purpose: In this study we aimed to evaluate the radiological examinations of the pediatric patients who were operated with initial diagnosis of acute abdomen. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records and imaging findings of 252 children. All patients were evaluated by plain abdominal radiographs (PAX) and ultrasonography (US). Only 10 patients were examined using computed tomography (CT). The findings of the PAX, US and CT of each patient were determined from their detailed archive records according to their clinical diagnosis. Results: The most frequent pathology was appendicitis in our study whereas the other pathologies were invagination, ovarian torsion, the complications of Meckel’s diverticulum, gastrointestinal obstruction and tuboovarian abscess in decreasing frequency. PAXs were valuable in diagnosis of the patients with ileus. It has been showed that US was the most useful for patients with appendicitis and invagination. CT was performed only in 4% of our cases as an advanced diagnostic method. Conclusion: The pediatric patients with acute abdomen have been evaluated radiologically by PAX and US routinely and frequently. CT was performed as an advanced diagnostic method very rarely. CT would be utilized to a lower extent as a more advanced method of imaging in unsolved patient group, as US and PAX solve the pediatric acute abdominal pathologies in high percentages.