Makoto Tsumura

Ciliated foregut cyst of the gallbladder: report of a case.

We report the rare case of a gallbladder cyst arising from the foregut remnants. A 36-year-old woman was referred to our hospital after screening ultrasonography (US) detected a tumor in the gallbladder. On admission, she was well and her blood analyses were all normal. US showed a cystic mass with internal high-echoic lesions, and computed tomography (CT) demonstrated a protruding tumor with slight enhancement in the gallbladder. Angiography provided no additional information; however, sequential CT-arteriography (CTA) clearly demonstrated that this tumor was a cystic lesion. Surgical exploration was performed, first because of the difficulty in establishing a definite diagnosis, and also because the patient wanted the tumor removed. The resected specimen contained a unilocular cystic tumor that looked like a submucosal tumor. Histologically, the wall of the cyst was lined by ciliated stratified columnar epithelium with interspersed goblet cells and underlying smooth muscle fibers. The mass was finally diagnosed as a congenital ciliated foregut cyst of the gallbladder. Cysts of the gallbladder are uncommon and the majority are acquired. To our knowledge, this represents only the fourth report of a ciliated foregut cyst of the gallbladder in the literature. Although rare, an awareness of this entity could allow a preoperative diagnosis to be made, whereby surgical exploration may be avoided. CT-A is a very useful diagnostic tool, especially when the nature of the tumor presents a difficult differential diagnosis.

Ureteral metastasis from appendiceal cancer: Report of a case

We report a case of primary appendiceal cancer that metastasized to the ureter. The patient was a 51-year-old woman who complained of persistent left back pain and right lower abdominal pain. After a detailed examination she was diagnosed to have cancer of the appendix, multiple liver metastases, and left hydronephrosis. Since an obstruction of the ileocecum was obvious, she underwent an ileocecal resection and a resection of the spindle-shaped tumor invading the left ureter. Lymph node metastases were found at the root of the superior mesenteric artery. The spindle-shaped tumor was considered to be due to invasion of the appendiceal cancer to the left ureter. The patient died 5 months postoperatively.

Clinical values for an index predicting postoperative residual liver function by pre-operative liver-scintigraphy in patients with liver disease

Hepatic resection is essential in treating hepatocellular carcinoma. However, before an operation, it is difficult to predict the functional reserve in the remnant following massive resection. We devised an original method by which effective liver volume was measured by liver scintigraphy. In order to predict the residual liver function before hepatic resection in a preoperative radiocolloid study, we obtained a predictive index by combining the K values with effective liver volumes which seemed to have the estimated residual liver function. Twenty-one patients with liver or biliary tract disease were selected at random for the present study. We divided them into 3 groups in accordance with prognosis after hepatic resection. There were statistically significant difference between the deceased group who died from hepatic failure and the group who died from causes other than hepatic failure ; and between the deceased group who died from hepatic failure and the living group in the preictive index (p< 0.01). Our data suggest that if the predictive index is above 0.45, the probability of hepatic failure after hepatic resection is low. We concluded that our predictive index is useful to use in preoperative prediction of post-hepatectomic residual liver function.