Backgrounds: cholecystitis is a common disease in surgery. The rate of acute cholecystitis alone without gall stones in the literature is approximately 50-10% of all acute cholecystitis. In Vietnam, this prevalence is very high, up to 47% of acute cholecystitis alone and the disease is common in people over age 50, with a history of hypertension. Objectives: to descript clinical, paraclinical features, and results of acute cholecystitis surgical treatment (open surgery and laparoscopic surgery) in the elderly at Viet Duc Hospital. Subjectives and Method: a cross-sectional study was carried out on 119 patients aged 60 or older diagnosed with acute cholecystitis, was operated at the Viet Duc hospital from January 2006 to July 2006. Status of body organs was assessed by classification of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). Results: cholecystitis in the elderly was mainly caused by chronic inflammation due to stone (88.2%). The rate of acute inflammation accounts for 11.8%. Female (63.9%). The most commonly age group was from 60-69 years old. Scheduled surgery accounts for 75.6%, emergency surgery 24.4%. Open surgery accounted for 11.8%, laparoscopic surgery accounted for 84%. Earlier results: good 87.4%, average 8.4%, poor 4.2%. Results after 3 months: good result accounted for 88.7%. Conclussion: cholecystitis in the elderly was mainly caused by chronic inflammation due to stone. Surgical treatment was generally good results (including early and late results).
Cholecystitis/ pathology ; surgery ;

Background: Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the first laparoscopic surgery that was performed at Cho Ray hospital in September 1992. In 2005, Quang Tri general hospital has performed successfully the first case of laparoscopic appendectomy. Objectives: To access the preliminary results of application on endoscopic surgery in Quang Tri general hospital. Subjects and method: A prospective study was conducted on 140 patients with laparoscopic surgery or retroperitoneal surgery, was performed in Quang Tri general hospital from September, 2005 to April, 2006. Results:Among 140 patients was operated, there was only one case of postoperative intestinal obstructive complication (accounted for 0.7%), no case of death. Operative aged was between 11 and 70 years old. The average surgical time was 65 minutes for cholecystectomy, 35 minutes for appendectomy, 85 minutes for ureterolithotomy, 80 minutes for gynecological diseases. 2 cases of cholecystectomy and appendectomy changed open surgery. Conclusion: Laparoscopic surgery is a safe and effective method. It can be developed in provincial hospitals. Quang Tri general hospital has successful preliminary developed the new technique.
Laparoscopy ;

Freshwater snails of the family Lymnaeidae play an important role in the transmission of fascioliasis worldwide. In Vietnam, 2 common lymnaeid species, Lymnaea swinhoei and Lymnaea viridis, can be recognized on the basis of morphology, and a third species, Lymnaea sp., is known to exist. Recent studies have raised controversy about their role in transmission of Fasciola spp. because of confusion in identification of the snail hosts. The aim of this study is, therefore, to clarify the identities of lymnaeid snails in Vietnam by a combination of morphological and molecular approaches. The molecular analyses using the second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA clearly showed that lymnaeids in Vietnam include 3 species, Austropeplea viridis (morphologically identified as L. viridis), Radix auricularia (morphologically identified as L. swinhoei) and Radix rubiginosa (morphologically identified as Lymnaea sp.). R. rubiginosa is a new record for Vietnam. Among them, only A. viridis was found to be infected with Fasciola spp. These results provide a new insight into lymnaeid snails in Vietnam. Identification of lymnaeid snails in Vietnam and their role in the liver fluke transmission should be further investigated.
Animals ; Cluster Analysis ; DNA, Ribosomal Spacer/chemistry/genetics ; Fasciola/*isolation & purification ; Lymnaea/*anatomy & histology/genetics/*parasitology ; Molecular Sequence Data ; Phylogeny ; Sequence Analysis, DNA ; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid ; Vietnam