Vasilije Jeremic

D-dimer in acute pancreatitis: a new approach for an early assessment of organ failure.

Objectives: Studies on the clinical value of parameters of hemostasis in predicting pancreatitis-associated complications are still scarce. The aim of this prospective study was to identify the useful hemostatic markers for accurate determination of the subsequent development of organ failure (OF) during the very early course of acute pancreatitis (AP). Methods: In 91 consecutive primarily admitted patients with AP, prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, fibrinogen, antithrombin III, protein C, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, d-dimer, and plasminogen were measured in plasma within the first 24 hours of admission and 24 hours thereafter. Two study groups comprising 24 patients with OF and 67 patients without OF were compared. Results: Levels of prothrombin time, fibrinogen, and d-dimer on admission were significantly different between the OF and non-OF groups, and all these parameters plus antithrombin III were significantly different 24 hours later. A d-dimer value of 414.00 &mgr;g/L on admission was the best cutoff value in predicting the development of OF with sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of 90%, 89%, 75%, and 96%, respectively. Conclusions: Measurement of plasma levels of d-dimer on the admission is an accurate method for the identification of patients who will develop OF in the further course of AP.Abbreviations: AP - acute pancreatitis, PT - prothrombin time, APTT - activated partial thromboplastin time, AT III - antithrombin III, PAI-1 - plasminogen activator inhibitor 1, ROC - receiver operating characteristic, AUC - area under the curve

Decompressive laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure versus percutaneous puncture with placement of abdominal catheter in patients with abdominal compartment syndrome during acute pancreatitis: background and design of multicenter, randomised, controlled study

BackgroundDevelopment of abdominal compartment syndrome (ACS) in patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) has a strong impact on the course of disease. Number of patients with this complication increases during the years due more aggressive fluid resuscitation, much bigger proportion of patients who is treated conservatively or by minimal invasive approach, and efforts to delay open surgery. There have not been standard recommendations for a surgical or some other interventional treatment of patients who develop ACS during the SAP. The aim of DECOMPRESS study was to compare decompresive laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure and percutaneus puncture with placement of abdominal catheter in these patients.MethodsOne hundred patients with ACS will be randomly allocated to two groups: I) decompresive laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure or II) percutaneus puncture with placement of abdominal catheter. Patients will be recruited from five hospitals in Belgrade during two years period. The primary endpoint is the mortality rate within hospitalization. Secondary endpoints are time interval between intervention and resolving of organ failure and multi organ dysfunction syndrome, incidence of infectious complications and duration of hospital and ICU stay. A total sample size of 100 patients was calculated to demonstrate that decompresive laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure can reduce mortality rate from 60% to 40% with 80% power at 5% alfa.ConclusionDECOMPRESS study is designed to reveal a reduction in mortality and major morbidity by using decompresive laparotomy with temporary abdominal closure in comparison with percutaneus puncture with placement of abdominal catheter in patients with ACS during SAP.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NTC00793715

Clinical relevance of IL-6 gene polymorphism in severely injured patients

In polytrauma, injuries that may be surgically treated under regular circumstances due to a systemic inflammatory response become life-threatening. The inflammatory response involves a complex pattern of humoral and cellular responses and the expression of related factors is thought to be governed by genetic variations. This aim of this paper is to examine the influence of interleukin (IL) 6 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) -174C/G and -596G/A on the treatment outcome in severely injured patients. Forty-seven severely injured patients were included in this study. Patients were assigned an Injury Severity Score. Blood samples were drawn within 24 h after admission (designated day 1) and on subsequent days (24, 48, 72 hours and 7 days) of hospitalization. The IL-6 levels were determined through ELISA technique. Polymorphisms were analyzed by a method of Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR). Among subjects with different outcomes, no statistically relevant difference was found with regards to the gene IL-6 SNP-174G/C polymorphism. More than a half of subjects who died had the SNP-174G/C polymorphism, while this polymorphism was represented in a slightly lower number in survivors. The incidence of subjects without polymorphism and those with heterozygous and homozygous gene IL-6 SNP-596G/A polymorphism did not present statistically significant variations between survivors and those who died. The levels of IL-6 over the observation period did not present any statistically relevant difference among subjects without the IL-6 SNP-174 or IL- 6 SNP -596 gene polymorphism and those who had either a heterozygous or a homozygous polymorphism.

Total gastrectomy in the surgical treatment of massive upper

GI bleeding caused by Dieulafoy lesion in the gastric fundus: a case report Dieulafoy lesion is a rare cause of massive gastrointestinal (GI) hemorrhage that can be fatal. It arises from an abnormally large eroded submucosal artery and in more than 75% of cases the lesion is mostly found within 6 cm of the cardia. The severity of bleeding and the site of the lesion render the diagnosis sometimes difficult, more than one endoscopic exam is often required. Surgery was regarded as the treatment of choice in the past, but recently endoscopic management has become the standard approach. We report a case of an 42-year-old man presented with upper GI hemorrhage. Repeated upper GI endoscopies revealed a missed diagnosis of subcardial gastric ulcer and Mallory-Weis lesion. Following conservative treatment, the frequency and amount of haemorrhage decreased and totally stop. 48 hours after admission patient developed sudden massive upper GI bleeding and underwent emergency total gastrectomy. The diagnosis of Dieulafoy lesion was made histologically. The patient recovered uneventfully and discharged on the postoperative day 11th. Therefore, Dieulafoy disease represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Advances in endoscopic technique have greatly assisted in earlier diagnosis and added options to the treatment regimen for this lesion. The relationship of this anomaly to possible exsanguinations makes it essential that both endosopical and surgical approach play an important role in the management of this pathology.

Intrahepatic segmental bile duct B3 cholangiojejunostomy in the palliative management of high unresectable malignant biliary obstruction

Palliating the effects of biliary obstruction is a major goal of therapy in patients with unresectable cancer at the hepatic duct confluence. We reviewed our expirience with intrahepatic holangioenteric bypass to the segmental bile duct B3 as a palliative therapy in patients with unresectable malignant diseases involving the ductal confluence or the common hepatic duct. Since March 2001, we have performed intrahepatic segmental bile duct B3 cholangiojejunostomy by Roux-en-Y fashion utilizing a round ligament approach in 13 patients with malignant obstructive jaundice due to unresectable hilar holangiocarcinoma (8 cases) and gallbladder cancer (5 cases). Mean hospital stay was 123 days and mean blood loss was 25060 mL. Postoperative complications occurred in 3 patients (23%), but there was no surgical complications such as postoperative bleeding, bile leakage or abscess formation. 30-day mortality was 7.7% (1 patient). Late complications (37.5%) were observed in 3 of the 8 patients who survived for more than 5 months after the surgery. Median survival after B3 cholangiojejunostomy was 9 months (range, 10 days-22 months). Median survival time was significantly greater in patients with hilar cholangio-carcinoma (11.8 months; range: 2-22 months) compared with those with gallbladder cancer (4.6 months; range: 10 days-11.5 months) (P-0.032 log rank test; P-0.049 Tarone-Ware test). Intrahepatic B3 cholangiojejunostomy when combined with careful patient selection, can provide useful palliation from jaundice, pruritus and cholangitis with acceptable mortality and morbidity rates.

Influence of Syrgical Trauma on Nitric Oxide and Nitrotyrosine Serum Levels in Patients Undergoing Laparoscopic or Conventional Cholecystectomy

Summary Background: Oxidative stress represents tissue damage caused by reactive forms of oxygen and nitrogen due to the inability of antioxidant mechanisms to reduce reactive forms into more stable ones. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of surgical trauma on nitric oxide (NO) and nitrotyrosine (NT) values in patients undergoing conventional and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Methods: A prospective study included sixty patients from the Department of Emergency Surgery, Clinical Centre of Serbia who were operated for gallstone related chronic cholecystitis. All the patients enrolled in the study underwent cholecystectomy; the first group was operated conventionally (30 patients - control group), while the second group was operated laparoscopically (30 patients - treatment group). Results: There were no statistically significant differences in the values of NO and its postoperative changes in both groups, the conventionally operated group (p=0.943) and the laparoscopically operated group (p=0.393). We found an increase in NT values 24 hours postoperatively (p=0.000) in the conventionally operated patients, while in the group operated laparoscopically we didn’t find statistically significant changes in the values of NT (conventionally operated group (p=0.943) and laparoscopically operated group (p=0.393)). Conclusions: In our study, we found a significant increase in NT values 24 hours postoperatively in conventionally operated patients i.e. the control group, vs. the treatment group. Further randomized studies are needed for a better understanding of the impact of surgical trauma on oxidative stress response.

Eritropoetin u procjeni ishoda liječenja kod bolesnika s politraumom

Polytrauma is a term describing patients with injuries involving multiple body regions that compromises function of the body and/or organ involved. The aim of the study was to evaluate the potential role of erythropoietin in predicting poorer outcome in trauma patients. This prospective study included 86 patients admitted to the Emergency Center of Serbia due to polytrauma assigned according to Injury Severity Score (ISS). The patients were further evaluated using the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II and Sequential Organ Failure Assessment scores and erythropoietin levels. There was a significant difference among erythropoietin levels at admission, after 48 and 72 hours, and on day 7 of hospital stay, with significantly higher levels in patients with ISS values 49-75. Based on the results, ROC curves were used to identify cut-off levels to predict ISS score with critical clinical course. It was concluded that erythropoietin could be a good marker of injury severity. Further research has to be performed to determine the cut-off values of erythropoietin that are significant for injury severity.

Previdi u zbrinjavanju teško povređenih

Question of missed injuries is more offen a question of human errors: task execution errors, procedural errors, communication errors, decision errors and noncompliance. Missed injuries are those which are not identified in the first three days of hospitalization. This theme is not popular among physicians. Literature data mention percent from 3 - 29% missed injuries overall. The underlying causes errors are: false attributin, false negative prediction and false lebeling. False attribution involves a tendency to incorrectly link a clinical observation with an arroneous cause. This tendency also ignores one of the fundamental principles of the management of traumatic injury: that the index of suspicion should proceed on the basis of assumed wors resonable case scenario. Weaknesses of traumasistems: high patients volume, high-risk patients, long hours, changing set of resources, and problems sush bad admission planing, defficite anamnesis, defficite diagnostic procedures, bad communication, improvisation etc.

Relation of pathoanatomic substrate and incidence of bacterial infection in the acute biliary pathology

Acute biliary diseases have become the most common indication for major abdominal surgery. We investigated 60 patients who underwent surgery for the acute biliary diseases, within 48 hours from the onset of the illness (group I), and over longer preoperative interval (48 h up to 5 days) (group II). Surgical specimen (gallbladder) was histologically examined. Samples for microbiological exams were obtained from gallbladder, common bile duct, Lunds node, gallbladder bed and peritoneal cavity. Positive bile cultures were found in 43% of group I, and in 70% of group II (p<0.05). Microbiological analysis revealed 13 different species, mostly Gram negative aerobic rods (69%). The incidence of bacteriobilia was in correlation with HP of lesions (79% in the acute and 18% in chronic lesions; p<0.01), what testified the importance of time interval and role of bacterial factor in the acute biliary pathology. Septic complications strictly occurred in patients with positive biliary findings. Early surgical treatment eliminates focus, and stops further development of intraabdominal and systemic septic complications. Correlation between bacteriobilia and septic sequelae calls for prophylactic use of antibiotics.