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Whether a midline or transverse incision is used in abdominal surgery depends mainly on the disease, anatomy and potential effects on wound healing, pain and postoperative complications. Decisions can, however, be based on a surgeon's experience and preference, as the procedures' respective benefits remain to be clearly delineated.
A new study has found undetectable serum levels of HBV DNA at week 24 of treatment to be the strongest predictor of optimal outcomes for patients with chronic HBV infection. Although this finding is not surprising, it has important implications for those patients on antiviral therapy who do not achieve a favorable response.
The current re-treatment options available to patients with chronic hepatitis C who fail to respond to treatment with pegylated interferon plus ribavirin are limited. Findings from a large, multicenter study suggest that re-treatment with consensus interferon plus ribavirin should now be considered for compliant, motivated nonresponders.
A recent survey of patients, primary physicians and gastroenterologists found that an overwhelming majority prefer endoscopic polypectomy for small polyps detected by screening CT colonography. These hypothetical results, however, strongly contradict results in actual clinical practice.
Among the challenges of studying the contribution of individual dietary factors to cancer risk is the interwoven nature of diet—dietary factors are often correlated and eating patterns are complex. A large, prospective epidemiological study of diet patterns used cluster analyses to demonstrate the benefit of a fruit and vegetable diet to colorectal cancer risk.
This article considers the case of a 49-year-old woman with a history of hepatitis C and peptic ulcer disease who presented with massive hematemesis. She was diagnosed with gastric variceal hemorrhage and splenic vein thrombosis. The patient underwent splenic artery embolization and balloon-occluded retrograde transvenous obliteration of gastric varices. By 30 months post-treatment no evidence of gastric varices or splenic vein thrombosis remained.
Identification and classification of dysplasia in patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease in the large intestine is a challenge. Surveillance programs in these patients aim to detect colitis-associated dysplasia at an early stage, as the risk of these patients developing colorectal cancer is considerable. Good communication and discussion between pathologists and endoscopists is essential to help reach unequivocal diagnoses and to improve the management of colitis-associated dysplasia.