1/4. Anasarca and small bowel obstruction secondary to endometriosis.Intestinal involvement by endometriotic tissue occurs in up to 37% of patients with endometriosis. The vast majority of patients do not experience symptoms related to the gastrointestinal tract. In particular, the complications of intestinal obstruction and malabsorption secondary to endometriosis are exceedingly uncommon. We present a 42-year-old woman with intestinal obstruction, protein-losing enteropathy, and anasarca secondary to endometriosis. She had a 1-year history of watery diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain with a 30-lb weight-loss over 3 months. She had no previous history of endometriosis, and laboratory investigations showed severe hypoalbuminemia, hypokalemia, and metabolic acidosis. Abdominal x-rays revealed air-fluid levels and dilated loops of small bowel. She underwent surgical resection with primary anastomosis. Pathologic evaluation showed extensive endometriosis of the small bowel and appendix, which resulted in complete obstruction. Segments of ileum also demonstrated moderate-to-marked blunting of the villi. Postoperatively, the patient had a slow recovery with resolution of anasarca and a gradual increase in her weight. This report illuminates the rare, yet significant, complications of intestinal endometriosis, including small bowel obstruction, the development of a protein-losing enteropathy, and anasarca. One should consider the possibility of intestinal endometriosis in the differential diagnosis of bowel obstruction in women of childbearing age.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = gastrointestinal tract, tract (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/4. Enteral and parenteral nutrition in patients with head and neck cancer.head and neck cancer patients present with special problems in nutritional homoeostasis because of local phayngeal discomfort and obstruction and difficulty with deglutition due to either the neoplasm or the surgical alterations in the upper aerodigestive tract. Pretreatment malnutrition and vitamin deficiency are only compounded by the nutritional stress imposed by radiation and surgery. Reduced wound complications occur if the patients are nutritionally replenished before treatment. While nasogastric feedings will suffice in many patients, rapid nutritional restoration by this method is limited, and positive nitrogen balance may be difficult to achieve in the severely malnourished patient. Intravenous hyperalimentation offers a rapid and efficacious alternative in selected cases. The case histories of two patients are presented to illustrate these concepts.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.019768070726671keywords = tract (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/4. Pancreatic involvement in co-infection visceral leishmaniasis and hiv: histological and ultrastructural aspects.The involvement of the gastrointestinal tract in the co-infection of hiv and Leishmania is rarely reported. We report the case of an hiv-infected adult man co-infected with a disseminated form of leishmaniasis involving the liver, lymph nodes, spleen and, as a feature reported for the first time in the English literature, the pancreas. light microscopy showed amastigote forms of Leishmania in pancreatic macrophages and immunohistochemical staining revealed antigens for Leishmania and also for hiv p24. Microscopic and ultrastructural analysis revealed severe acinar atrophy, decreased zymogen granules in the acinar cytoplasm and also nuclear abnormalities such as pyknosis, hyperchromatism and thickened chromatin. These findings might correspond to the histologic pattern of protein-energy malnutrition in the pancreas as shown in our previous study in pancreas with AIDS and no Leishmania. In this particular case, the protein-energy malnutrition may be due to cirrhosis, or, Leishmania or hiv infection or all mixed. We believe that this case represents the morphologic substratum of the protein energy malnutrition in pancreas induced by the hiv infection. Further studies are needed to elucidate these issues.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = gastrointestinal tract, tract (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/4. noma (cancrum oris): case report in a 4-year-old hiv-positive South African child.Cancrum oris (noma) is a gangrenous infection that develops in the mouth and spreads rapidly to other parts of the face. The disease occurs mostly in conditions of poverty, poor hygiene and malnutrition. In sub-Saharan africa the frequency in several countries is estimated to be 1-7 cases per 1,000 population, and as many as 12 cases per 1,000 in the most affected communities. About 90% of these children die without receiving any care, yet the disease can, and should, be prevented. With increasing numbers of children who are malnourished and who have compromised immune systems (compounded by the hiv pandemic) the prevalence of conditions such as noma is likely to increase. Among the earliest features of noma are excessive salivation, marked fetor oris, facial oedema and a greyish-black discolouration of the skin in the affected area. This devastating gangrenous lesion may involve the cheek, the chin, the infra-orbital margin, palate, nose, antrum and virtually any part of the face. This report describes a 4-year-old hiv-positive African girl, who was abandoned, discharged from the plastics Unit and now lives in a child care sanctuary. Little is known about her history prior to her arrival at the home a few weeks previously. The clinical examination revealed a delay in growth and physical development equivalent to that of a 2-year-old child. The left cheek had a perforating ulcer in a healing phase. The perforation, about 1 cm in diameter, was surrounded by oedematous tissues showing a mild to moderate erythema. The peripheral oedema extended to the lower palpebral, the upper labial, left labial commissural, mandibular and pre-parotid regions. Submental, submandibular and cervical lymph nodes were mildly painful upon palpation. The child was not pyretic. The intra-oral examination revealed the features of acute necrotising gingivitis (ANG). ANG was generalised and showed classic interdental crater-like ulcers covered with whitish debris. halitosis was pronounced. Examination of the second quadrant revealed a large ulcer extending from the distal aspect of the deciduous canine to the distal aspect of the second deciduous molar. The adjacent palatal mucosa was severely oedematous. The alveolar bone supporting the first and the second molars was completely exposed to the fundus of the vestibulum. It was not possible to obtain intraoral photographs or radiographs. chlorhexidine gluconate (0.2% solution) and metronidazole tablets, 200 mg twice daily for 15 days were prescribed. The child was seen every alternate day for 10 days and her condition improved rapidly. halitosis had subsided. She was then referred to the Johannesburg Hospital for further treatment under general anaesthesia. The proposed treatment plan was as follows: removal of dental accretions and polishing of all teeth, extraction of the left maxillary teeth supported by non-vital bone, resection of the necrotic bone in the left maxilla and reconstructive surgery in the left cheek.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.019768070726671keywords = tract (Clic here for more details about this article) |