This study was to appraise safety and feasibility of laparoscopic approach and investigate the clinical effects of laparoscopic tension-free repair of esophageal hiatal hernia using mesh. From August 2006 to July 2009, 24 patients with esophageal hiatal hernia underwent laparoscopic repair. Twenty-three patients received laparoscopic tension-free repair using mesh, at the same time, Toupet or Dor partial fundoplication was performed. One patient was converted to open surgery. The average operating time was 90 min (70-210 min) and the blood loss was between 10-110 mL. There was no death. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 5 days (3-30 days). During a follow-up period of 12-20 months (mean 15 months), there was no recurrence of the hernia, and no complication with use of mesh. The present study suggested that laparoscopic approach was secure and minimally invasive operation for esophageal hiatal hernia and the use of mesh could reduce recurrence rate.

Objective To evaluate laparoscopic local resection for the treatment of gastric tumors. Methods The clinical data of 78 patients who received laparoscopic local resection at the PLA General Hospital from February 2006 to January 2010 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the tumor site and free range, total laparoscopic gastrectomy was applied to 45 patients, laparoscopic local resection was applied to 22 patients, laparoscopic and endoscopic tumor resection was applied to 11 patients. The efficacies of the surgical approaches were investigated. Results Laparoscopic local resection was successfully performed on the 78 patients without conversion to open surgery. The mean operation time and operative blood loss were 75 minutes (range, 45-120 minutes) and 60 ml (range, 35-90 ml), respectively. The mean diameter of the tumor was (2.5±1.3)cm (range, 0.7-4.8 cm). No mortality or morbidity occurred postoperatively. The bowel function recovery time and the duration of hospital stay were 35 hours (range, 25-42 hours) and 7.5 days (range, 6-9 days), respectively. The results of postoperative pathological examination verified that 63 patients were with gastric stromal tumor, 11 patients were with benign gastric diseases, including 5 with gastric heterotopic pancreas, 2 with inflammatory pseudotumor, 2 with hyperplastic polyp, 1 with schwannomas and one with angioma. Four patients were with carcinoid, 3 carcinoids were located in mucous layer and 1 invaded into muscular layer. The median time of follow-up was 26 months, and no anastomotic stenosis or port-site metastasis was observed. Of the 63 patients with gastric stromal tumor, 2 were treated with imatinib mesylate, 1 had tumor recurrence and received reoperation. Conclusion Laparoscopic local resection is safe and feasible for the treatment of benign gastric neoplasms, stromal tumor and early gastric tumors.

This study was to appraise safety and feasibility of laparoscopic approach and investigate the clinical effects of laparoscopic tension-free repair of esophageal hiatal hernia using mesh.From August 2006 to July 2009,24 patients with esophageal hiatal hernia underwent laparoscopic repair.Twenty-three patients received laparoscopic tension-free repair using mesh,at the same time,Toupet or Dor partial fundoplication was performed.One patient was converted to open surgery.The average operating time was 90 min (70-210 min) and the blood loss was between 10-110 mL.There was no death.The mean postoperative hospital stay was 5 days (3-30 days).During a follow-up period of 12-20 months (mean 15 months),there was no recurrence of the hernia,and no complication with use of mesh.The present study suggested that laparoscopic approach was secure and minimally invasive operation for esophageal hiatal hernia and the use of mesh could reduce recurrence rate.

OBJECTIVETo observe the clinical effect of early degenerative knee osteoarthritis with cold-damp stagnation treated with electroacupuncture (EA) combined with thunder-fire moxibustion and simple EA.

METHODSEighty cases were randomly assigned into a combination group and an EA group,40 cases in each one. Twenty-five min EA was used in the EA group mainly atpoints,Neixiyan(EX-LE 4),Zusanli(ST 36),Dubi(ST 35),Yanglingquan(GB 34),Yinlingquan(SP 9) and Liangqiu(ST 34) after(arrival),once a day. Based on EA at the same acupoints as the EA group,thunder-fire moxibustion was applied atpoints,Dubi(ST 35)and Liangqiu(ST 34) by means of 20-minute suspended moxibustion,once a day. Ten-day treatment was seen as one course,and continuous 2 courses were applied. The indices were observed before and after treatment including visual analogue scale(VAS) score,Lequesne index score,Lysholm score of knee joint,serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Clinical effects were also evaluated and 6-month follow-up was implemented to show the recurrence rate.

RESULTSAfter treatment the total effective rate of the combination group was 95.0%(38/40),which was better than 82.5%(33/40) of the EA group(<0.05).The Lequesne index score,VAS score,serum CRP and ESR apparently decreased compared with those before treatment in the two groups(all<0.05),and the four indices in the combination group were obviously lower than those in the EA group(all<0.05). As for the Lysholm knee joint score,the good rates of the two groups enhanced after treatment(both<0.05),and the result of the combination group was superior to that of the EA group[87.5%(35/40) vs 72.5%(29/40),<0.05]. At 6-month follow-up,the recurrence rate of the combination group was lower than that of the EA group[26.7%(4/15) vs 100.0%(9/9),<0.05].

CONCLUSIONSEA combined with thunder-fire moxibustion achieve good effect for degenerative knee osteoarthritis with cold-damp stagnation. The combination therapy have advantages in effect duration compared with simple EA.

Objective:To investigate the epidemiological and clinicopathological characteristics of thyroid cancer.Methods:Data of 13 673 thyroid cancer patients admitted to the First Medical Center of PLA General Hospital from Jan. 2014 to Dec. 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the admission criteria, 9 662 patients were screened out, including 2 768 males and 6 894 females, with an average age of 43.98±11.28 years. According to the year of diagnosis and treatment, the incidence of thyroid cancer, the changing trend of age of new cases, the average length of hospitalization, the pathological classification of the tumor, the size of the primary tumor, multifocal tumor, and the rate of lymph node metastasis were statistically analyzed. The surgical methods were summarized and discussed.Results:① Characteristics of population economics: the ratio of males to females were 1.00:2.49, the number of cases increased year by year, and the rate of increase of female was higher than that of male. The average age of onset of the patients was (43.98±11.28) years old, and the incidence rate of the young population increased by 6.0%, showing a younger trend. The mean length of hospital stay was (7.21±2.85) d, and the length of hospital stay decreased. ② Clinicopathological features: There were 9 513 cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) (98.46%) , 45 cases of follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) (0.47%) , 58 cases of medullary carcinoma (MTC) (0.60%) and 18 cases of poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (PDTC) (0.19%) . There were 2 cases (0.02%) of undifferentiated thyroid carcinoma (ATC) and 26 cases (0.26%) of a particular type. The tumor size was (1.10±0.85) cm, among which the microcarcinoma (D ≤1 cm) accounted for 64.5% and showed an increasing trend year by year, with the fastest growth rate. There were 3 809 cases of multifocal carcinoma (39.4%) , and the proportion of multifocal carcinoma increased year by year in recent 3 years. The central region and lateral region lymph node metastasis rates were 33.0% and 13.0%, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that the differences were statistically significant except for pathological types ( P<0.05) . ③ Surgical methods: in the first 3 years, 2 224 patients (84.2%) underwent normative primary resection, which increased to 94.9% in the last 3 years. In the first 3 years, 2 033 patients (77.0%) underwent central lymph node dissection, which increased to 91.8% in the last 3 years. In the first 3 years, 188 cases (50.5%) underwent normative lateral cervical dissection, which increased to 71.6% in the last 3 years. Conclusions:The incidence of thyroid cancer is increasing year by year, showing a younger trend; Papillary carcinoma accounts for 98.5% of thyroid cancer. The proportion of microcarcinoma and multifocal carcinoma is increasing. The rate of lymph node metastasis in the central region and lateral region is increasing; surgery is gradually standardized, and it is necessary to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer and postoperative follow-up.

Objective:To investigate the infiltration of immune cells and prognosis in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) with cervical lymph nodes metastases.Methods:The RNA-seq data and clinicopathological data of PTC patients were downloaded from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. There were 85 patients in the PTC with cervical lymph nodes metastases group and 23 patients in the control group, according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. CIBERSORT deconvolution algorithm was used to calculate the infiltration ratio of 22 kinds of immune cells in PTC with cervical lymph nodes metastases. Different immune infiltrating cells were compared between PTC with cervical lymph nodes metastases and normal thyroid. The correlation between clinical characteristics (age, gender, extra-thyroid invasion and TNM stage) and infiltration of immune cells were evaluated, then different immune cells related to the prognosis of PTC with cervical lymph nodes metastases patients were screened by Kaplan-Meier analysis.Results:The B cells naive, B cells memory, T cells CD8, macrophages M1, mast cells activated and eosinophils were down-regulated in tumor tissue compared with normal. Macrophages M0, macrophages M2, dendritic cells resting, dendritic cells activated and mast cells resting were higher in tumor tissue compared with that of normal. Macrophages M0, macrophages M2 and dendritic cells resting were positively correlated with extra-thyroid invasion and TNM stage, and patients with a high proportion of those immune cells had a shorter progression-free survival (PFS) . The B cells naive and T cells CD8 were negatively correlated with extra-thyroid invasion and TNM stage, and patients with a high proportion of those immune cells had a longer progression-free survival (PFS) .Conclusions:The pattern of immune cell infiltration of PTC with cervical lymph nodes metastases has specificity, and it was related to clinical characteristics and prognosis. This study provides theoretical evidences and new insights for the role of immune cell microenvironment in PTC lymph node metastasis.